North America West Coast trip
North America West Coast trip
Author
Discussion

The Lukas

Original Poster:

2,773 posts

224 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
Just a bit of advice needed, but quite general stuff really so hopefully it may well helpful to a few.

I've been to the States/Canada, but only to the East side: Ontario, Quebeck, New York (state), Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Florida.

Now I really want to experience the other side. A little research involving Google Maps has me thinking of a trip of this sort: Start in Vancouver, BC. Cross the border into Seattle. Then drop into Oregon and it's apparent beauty, finally to top it off, a small tour of California. I'm thinking 3 weeks. I know I won't see an awful lot of each state but I can always go back right?

Anybody done this or similar?

K50 DEL

9,761 posts

258 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
Haven't done the Vancouver / Seattle bit, but have done the West Coast fairly extensively on a 6,000 mile road trip last year.

To save me going through it all again, I'll just point you in the direction of the travel blog that I wrote here:

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/showthread.ph...

K50 DEL

9,761 posts

258 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
euroboy said:
Have you thought about the logistics of taking a hire car across the Canada/USA border? I dont even know if its possible.
I had no problems doing this with an SUV I hired from Budget Manhattan.... told them I wanted to take it into Canada, they gave me an additional piece of paperwork at no charge and there were no issues at either border crossing.

The Lukas

Original Poster:

2,773 posts

224 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
euroboy said:
K50 DEL said:
euroboy said:
Have you thought about the logistics of taking a hire car across the Canada/USA border? I dont even know if its possible.
I had no problems doing this with an SUV I hired from Budget Manhattan....
Jolly good!
How about if you're doing a one way trip?

K50 DEL

9,761 posts

258 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
The Lukas said:
euroboy said:
K50 DEL said:
euroboy said:
Have you thought about the logistics of taking a hire car across the Canada/USA border? I dont even know if its possible.
I had no problems doing this with an SUV I hired from Budget Manhattan....
Jolly good!
How about if you're doing a one way trip?
A quick Google seems to indicate that one-way Canada - USA car rentals are not offered (an RV is no problem though!) given that Budget's one-way rental fee within Canada is $400 I think it would also be really expensive.

The one thing I have learnt with Budget though is that the website is often wrong and a quick call to the Vancouver office might net you better luck.

The Lukas

Original Poster:

2,773 posts

224 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
Maybe I could hire a car in Washington? May not need a car in Vancouver at all?

K50 DEL

9,761 posts

258 months

Tuesday 14th September 2010
quotequote all
The Lukas said:
Maybe I could hire a car in Washington? May not need a car in Vancouver at all?
You can do that with no problems, pickup from Seattle, drop off at LAX would rush you $750 for an Intermediate SUV (the cheapest option)
Running the same dates through with a pickup and return at Seattle gives a rate of $670, so the one way charge is tiny!

These figures are before using any of the myriad of BCD discount codes that are out there.