Taking a Canadian Hire Car into the US
Discussion
Does anybody know if there are any limitations on taking a Canadian hire car in to the US?
Been looking at doing a roadtrip around New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Niagra Falls, Boston and Cape Cod but the prices I've been quoted for flying into New York are a bit too expensive for my liking and I'd pretty much written the idea off for this year until I got an offers email from Thomson today advertising flights with their sister Sunwing who seem to be starting flights from Gatwick in to Toronto next month which is not an option I'd previously thought of, not sure why it's not far from Niagra after all.
Anyway, all the US car hire companies have info on their websites about travel to Canada and Mexico (something I'd previously looked into as there seems to be far more accomodation available on the Canadian side of the border at Niagra Falls, cheaper too), but none of the Canadian ones seem to have anything, or if they do it's pretty well hidden as I can't find it.
So has anybody taken a Canadian hire car in to the US and if so do you have to give prior notice and/or pay extra?
Been looking at doing a roadtrip around New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Niagra Falls, Boston and Cape Cod but the prices I've been quoted for flying into New York are a bit too expensive for my liking and I'd pretty much written the idea off for this year until I got an offers email from Thomson today advertising flights with their sister Sunwing who seem to be starting flights from Gatwick in to Toronto next month which is not an option I'd previously thought of, not sure why it's not far from Niagra after all.
Anyway, all the US car hire companies have info on their websites about travel to Canada and Mexico (something I'd previously looked into as there seems to be far more accomodation available on the Canadian side of the border at Niagra Falls, cheaper too), but none of the Canadian ones seem to have anything, or if they do it's pretty well hidden as I can't find it.
So has anybody taken a Canadian hire car in to the US and if so do you have to give prior notice and/or pay extra?
yep done it a couple of times, shouldn't be a problem but make sure you tell the rental co, some may need extra paper work, national in toronto issued us a ins cert for both cad and us, avis in vancouver just told us the insurance was in the glove box and it covered both, we just checked it was there and headed south. I guess it depends on the province and car co and if you have their cdw etc.
Biggest problem will be the kph speedo as last time we were there they were being pretty hot on speeding and not having an accurate indicator of mph speed was a bit of an issue.
dont forget the $6 per person entry fee to the US, 200 questions and long queue as you will be sent to secondary screening, meaning you have to park up and go inside. The Canadians will just welcome you back in with a smile.
Biggest problem will be the kph speedo as last time we were there they were being pretty hot on speeding and not having an accurate indicator of mph speed was a bit of an issue.
dont forget the $6 per person entry fee to the US, 200 questions and long queue as you will be sent to secondary screening, meaning you have to park up and go inside. The Canadians will just welcome you back in with a smile.
Edited by ViperDave on Wednesday 18th May 20:11
Great stuff, thanks.
I'd forgotton about the Canadians being metric, I took my laptop with me to California last year and ran Microsoft Streets and Trips on it with a USB GPS receiver as a SatNav and the speed readout on that seemed to be quite accurate and constantly updated so I could always use that as a guide or even my phone at a push I suppose.
Sounds like the Yanks give you the same reception at the land border as you do at their airports then, at least my visa waiver is still valid from last year so I don't have to pay for one of them as well!
I'd forgotton about the Canadians being metric, I took my laptop with me to California last year and ran Microsoft Streets and Trips on it with a USB GPS receiver as a SatNav and the speed readout on that seemed to be quite accurate and constantly updated so I could always use that as a guide or even my phone at a push I suppose.
Sounds like the Yanks give you the same reception at the land border as you do at their airports then, at least my visa waiver is still valid from last year so I don't have to pay for one of them as well!
h0b0 said:
That is a lot of driving at $4+ a gallon. It may sound cheap but your rental V6 will probably do 18mpg.
I did 2000+ miles last year in a V8 Suburban around California, Nevada and Arizona and that gave about 20mpg (US) or 24mpg (Imperial) so I've got an idea of how much I'm likely to spend on fuel.PoleDriver said:
Took an American hire car (Mustang 
) into Canada and back no problems that way at all!
I think that way round must be far more common as all the US websites mention it (either that or there's a law forcing them to state absolutely everything up front in the US) and from what I can see it seems to be that there's no problem taking it into Canada, but you have to pay for extra insurance to take it into Mexico.) into Canada and back no problems that way at all!Should be fine. We've done (on the West Coast) one way rentals each way. Never an issue.
If in doubt, ring the rental office that you will be renting from and speak direct. You won't be the first to have asked, and you'll probably get a clearer and quicker answer than ringing a central call centre.
If in doubt, ring the rental office that you will be renting from and speak direct. You won't be the first to have asked, and you'll probably get a clearer and quicker answer than ringing a central call centre.
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