I'll be driving from Winnipeg to Montreal sometime late September, early October. According to Google Maps, the best route is through the US which seems kind of indirect. What's the shortest way of going from Winnipeg to Montreal?
Thanks
It is very, very slow driving through Northern Ontario, for a few reasons. The first is is that it is really slow driving around Lake Superior between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie (that part of the drive alone takes more than 8 hours). The second reason is that there are a lot of moose on the highways, especially between Kenora and Thunder Bay. The third is, the highway is crap between about Thunder Bay and Sudbury. All of the highways, until you hit around North Bay, are single lane on shared roads, all in poor condition; it's really awful between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.
If you are going to attempt the drive, the best way would be to drive to Thunder Bay by taking highway 11 from winnipeg through Kenora (get behind a transport if you want to feel safe from moose). There is an alternate route to get into Thunder Bay which will actually shave about 35 kilometers off the drive to Thunder Bay, and put you in direct line to the TransCanada, instead of driving through the city, taking the longer way; it's labelled quite clearly as the alternate route (and almost everyone takes that way). Then drive east about another hour until you get to a little town called Nipigon. Turn left on the highway (the road will be well marked as the Highway 11 turnoff to Hearst/North Bay) and follow highway 11 until you (eventually) get to North Bay.
It's weird, on the map, this way looks longer, but it's faster for two reasons: 1. it's actually shorter when measured and 2. the roads are brand new, completely straight, without hills, have few towns in between and really cleared out on the sides, so you can see anything that might be on the roads (though in a dozen trips, I haven't seen anything yet). I probably shave a good few hours off driving to Ottawa going this way, but be prepared to switch drivers, or to stop for the night in a place like Hearst. If you leave Thunder Bay at 7a.m. you can arrive in Ottawa by 11:30 or midnight, provided you don't stop for long.
After arriving in North Bay, follow highway 17 to Ottawa, then proceed on highway 417 to Montreal, which usually takes about 2 hours. I've done this trip a bunch of times from Thunder Bay, and it is definitely the fastest, easiest, and safest way to go; highway 17 between Thunder Bay and Sudbury is just too much of a headache.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more help, and I can make you a direction map using some software I have here which I found quite helpful. How many days are you planning to travel? My recommendation would be to drive to Thunder Bay in one day, then either right to Montreal the next; or to stop in Ottawa, get some sleep, and finish off the trip the next morning.