Canada - There and Back

[travel-buddy]

Hi, just registered as I'm keen to get any advice on taking a hire car from the USA into Canada and then back again all within 7 days. Our plan, which is part of a 4 week roadtrip around New England is to cross the border at Niagara on October 1st at approx 17:00 and return at this same point on the 8th at 09:00.

Thanks in advance for any tips, do's and don'ts etc.

PS forgot to add that we are based in the UK so will have come prepared with passports/visa waiver/return flight tickets.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

The biggest thing you'll need to do is make sure that you can take your rental car into Canada, and you'll want that written into your rental contract. If you are renting in a border state, this probably won't be too big of a problem, although you might be charged extra for it. You'll just have to do some shopping around.

Do not just assume that you can take the car over the border and don't try unless you have explict premission. If you take the car into Canada without permission they will know (all rental cars have a GPS tracking device) and you will be hit with massive fines and fee. Not to mention, if you travel across the border without permission, you will be on your own if you have a mechanical problem or a crash (your insurance would be invalid for breaking the rental agreement).

As long as you've got permission and all of your paperwork in order, everything should be pretty easy, and you should be able to enjoy seeing the differences between the US, Canada, and French Canada.