“A vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work.” – Morris Fishbein

Jeanine and I just returned from vacation to Montreal and Quebec. We picked this area of Canada for a couple of reasons:

1. It felt like we were in France without actually having to fly 11 hours from the west coast. My ex-girlfriend in Connecticut calls it, “Paris without the attitude.” I call it France without the long plane ride.

2. We could fly business class to Canada using fewer frequent flyer miles than it would take to fly coach to Europe.

3. Do the math: 1.00 USD = 0.794446 EUR vs. 1.00 USD = 1.10268 CAD. Even though the U.S. dollar has done a nosedive compared to the Canadian dollar, it’s still a bargain compared to the Euro.

According to Gene Sloan of the USA Today, “One of the great vacation values for Americans the past decade, a cheap trip north of the border, has all but disappeared, thanks to the relentless, multi-year slide in the U.S. dollar.”

“After stabilizing a bit over the winter, the greenback has dropped another 6% against the Canadian dollar in the past two months ” making everything from croissants in French-speaking Quebec to theater tickets in Toronto that much more expensive for Americans.”

“The decline, which comes just as the busy summer travel season kicks into gear, has pushed the cost of a Canadian dollar to 90 cents, a dizzying 38% higher than four years ago. It’s the first time the currencies have approached ‘parity’ — the point at which one U.S. dollar equals one Canadian dollar — in almost three decades.”

“The dollar’s slide against the ‘loonie,’ as the Canadian dollar is known, is a major blow for American globe-trotters. About 15 million Americans visit Canada every year — more than visit all the countries of Europe combined. Only Mexico draws more U.S. travelers.”

“Still, the good news for vacationers is that although Canada is no longer the deal it once was, it’s still less pricey than Europe, where the U.S. dollar has lost more than 50% of its value in recent years.”

In addition to the delicious French food, the province is gay-friendly. Even going through Canadian Customs, they let us approach the Customs official together. One time when Jeanine and I returned from another trip abroad, the U.S. Customs official chastised us for approaching him together. “Are you related?” he asked, “Then why did you come through here together?”

The Canadian Customs official assumed that we were gay. She said that we would love Quebec and be back… perhaps, she figured that we would want to get married sometime in our lifetime.

No weddings this trip, but we did have a fun and affordable vacation.