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I'm to looking to drive from Toronto, ON to Yellowknife NT in the winter, and was wondering if anyone had a good solution for renting a car.

I can't seem to find anything under 1500-2000 for the car rental for about a week due to the mileage (about 10,000km for the roundtrip).

Does anyone know of a car rental service with unlimited mileage, or perhaps a cheaper car rental service?

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  • 5
    A week? Across Canada and back? In the winter? That seems wildly optimistic.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Sep 18, 2014 at 1:53
  • @GregHewgill 10 is more likely for us, but gave a week for ease of calculation
    – Nyx
    Sep 18, 2014 at 2:23

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a good solution for renting a car.

Forget the car. You want a rather serious 4WD truck - not an Urban Explorer POS that can barely mount a curb. Although a car would probably be ok until Edmonton or Grande Prairie assuming it has all-season tires. Toronto does not normally mount all-season tires.

Since you have clearly not done this before, you will need to pack the following:

  • Arctic-grade clothing, deep-snow boots, snowshoes
  • 2 spare tires. Real ones, not the temporary spare most vehicles carry.
  • Tire patch kit and air compressor.
  • tire chains, shovel
  • enough extra fuel to make the whole trip
  • Candles, camp stove + fuel, week's worth of food (water is readily available)
  • an itinerary, with checkpoints and call-in times left with someone you know. This person will need to report you missing if you miss a checkpoint.

This is a great trip in the summer.

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  • Thank you very much for this list! Hmmm I take it tire chains on car just won't cut it eh
    – Nyx
    Sep 18, 2014 at 4:07
  • Is it orders of magnitude more difficult in the winter? We were planning on starting out around December 21st
    – Nyx
    Sep 18, 2014 at 4:08
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    Northern Alberta and the NWT are vast, empty stretches of land. The weather can turn very nasty, very quickly in the winter months, and it's dark at 3:30 in the afternoon (5 hours of daylight in december). 30cm of snow on the road and you can't see to drive on it, another 50cm will bury your vehicle after you go into the ditch. There is no mobile phone service so you either deal with it yourself or wait. It's not so much that it's always difficult (you could have great weather and a bright aurora), but it can be difficult, and Nature doesn't care if you survive.
    – Paul
    Sep 18, 2014 at 5:45
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    Paul is describing what you need for the leg from Edmonton to Yellowknife. Toronto to Edmonton, or Vancouver, is much more manageable.
    – DJClayworth
    Sep 18, 2014 at 16:12
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    Depends on the emergency. Vehicle problems: fix or wait. Weather problems: find a high spot, wait. Good news: bears are hibernating in December.
    – Paul
    Sep 20, 2014 at 0:33

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