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Re: [OM] OT Travelling from Canada to USA

Subject: Re: [OM] OT Travelling from Canada to USA
From: john hudson <om4t@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2019 12:06:01 -0400
Mike ....... your biggest potential downside of renting wheels in Toronto and 
then driving down the western end of Lake Ontario, rounding the end at 
Hamilton, crossing the border near Niagara Falls and then onwards to Rochester 
is the weather. That part of south western Ontario can have some wicked snow 
storms at short notice from what the weatherman terms the "Lake Effect". I 
would not want to be on the highways. We have driven from Toronto to the border 
in summer and without doubt the highways are excellent.. Back in the early 
1980s I found myself in Toronto in February / March time and was treated to a 
visit to the Niagara Falls area by my wife's cousin. The snow was deep and it 
was cold. He was driving and we went into the ditch. Never again would I go 
there in February / March. I have no doubt that road crews would be out 
ploughing the highways 24 / 7 but traffic jams and traffic crawl would be 
miserable. 


My only experience with taking a Canadian rental car to the US was back in 1986 
when we went from Calgary to Yellowstone NP. That was when we did not need 
passports to cross the border, just Canadian plates, a smile and possibly a 
driving licence. I have not heard of any systemic problems of taking Canadian 
rental cars across the border nowadays; crossings must happen all the time. The 
rental companies ........ Hertz, National, etc ...... will all have their own 
insurance requirements about which my wife and I have much experience after 
renting in Portugal and the US. You should pay very specific attention to these 
requirements. In our case our US rental experiences have been such that we will 
never rent in the US again, not on account of accidents but the potential 
catastrophic downsides of some small print conditions and assumptions we 
subsequently learned were not the case. If you would like the specifics contact 
me off-line.


Renting in the US and driving to Canada has generated problems in Canada which 
might be reflected in a reverse fashion in the US. Some years ago a US rental 
car was driven to southern British Columbia. The US renter loaned the car to 
his Canadian host to go grocery shopping. The car was pulled over for a routine 
traffic stop. The only offence was that driver's BC licence did not permit him 
to drive an untaxed-in-Canada foreign licenced vehicle in BC. The car was 
impounded, sold through judicial process, taxed, licenced and plated in BC and 
then turned over to the US renter's Canadian host. I never did learn the end of 
the story but no doubt the US renter and the US rental company were not happy 
campers!! 


If I was in your shoes I'd put up with pre-US-immigration aggravation in Dublin 
as the price of avoiding the potential of horrible winter weather in the 
Toronto area and around the western end of Lake Ontario. 


 jh 

On 02/04/19 10:32 AM, Mike Bloor  <admin@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> I am planning to visit Northern New York State, near Rochester. My travel 
> options are (1) fly Dublin to New York, 3 1/2 hour wait, fly on to Rochester, 
> taxi to destination and (2) fly Dublin to Toronto, hire a car, drive to 
> Rochester. Option 1 involves around three hours of passing through 
> pre-immigration at Dublin Airport, which is a nightmare, so option 2 looks 
> attractive. Does anyone have any idea how easy it is to cross the border in a 
> Canadian hire car? How long does it take? What are driving conditions like in 
> March? I was last in Toronto during a very snowy February and although all 
> the city roads were cleared I'm not sure about further out.
> 
> Mike
> -- 
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