Alasks trip
Planning on going to Alaska but i was wondering were i should enter into Canada.
Forum Discussion
While, like everyone else I try to get the best prices I can find on any trip. But that doesn't mean I RV to see how cheap I can make the trip. I try to maximize the pleasure we get from the trips, instead. If a person has never been through the upper tier of states in the US, that makes for a nice ride. If a person has been through there but not the southern provinces of Canada, I would go that way just to see new country. Even though fuel is more in Canada, I find that camping generally is less and mostly offsets the difference in fuel. Many small Canadian towns will have a very low cost campground available, it may be dry or may have some services. Some are run by the towns and others are run by some service organization, such as Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Possum Lodge, etc. There is a service organization CG just south of Dease Lake on the Cassiar, a dry camp one, but it is $10 a night, beautiful , safe, along side a small creek. It is a bargain to my thinking. I have stayed in others with full hookups for very little more.
Booze is also a bit more in Canada, depending on what you like to drink. Any of the imports that come from the other Commonwealth countries that Canada is affiliated with, can import into Canada for a very low duty. I know that some people drink a lot more than I do, but most of us are only in Canada for a couple of two or three weeks each direction. $20 worth of beer will do me each direction of travel and we are talking real beer, especially some of the micro brews available. Canadian beer is not your wimpy 3.2 beer I run across here in the Lower 48, but they have beer with taste and alcohol. LOL The Whitehorse Brewery is worth the trip, just to sample some of their wares.
Over the years not too many crossings we haven't used, the busiest being the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls and Blaine Washington. The most laid back, probably Roosville, north of Whitefish Montana. Sometimes the less traveled, are not the fastest to clear customs, as the officers have all the time in the world to spend with you and me. Over the 51 years, I have been driving the Alaska Hwy, I have crossed more at Coutts-Sweetgrass than anywhere else, with RVs, cars, airplanes, etc. It is a nice crossing, well run and staffed.
With any of the crossings, just know what you have on board, in the way of booze, fresh foods, tobacco products, etc. Pull up to the window when it is your turn, take off your sunglasses and have passengers remove theirs, shut off the engine and wait till the window opens. Answer all questions honestly, but don't volunteer info. If they want to know something, they will ask. Try to only have the driver do the talking, unless a passenger is asked a question. Don't try to be humorous or to make small talk, unless they start it. Having a sense of humor, is not one of the requirements to be a border officer on either side of the line. Just remember, you are talking to a federal cop, one that has vast amounts of information about you and me, and has wide discretion about what they allow or not. I have always found them to be very professional, highly trained and dedicated to protecting the borders of their respective countries.
I plan my trips based upon what I want to see and do, if I was worried about costs, I probably wouldn't have taken the ferry trip twice, but what a great experience, for my wife and me. One trip we crossed into Canada at Niagara, ran on north in Ontario, to the town of Tobermory, caught the ferry crossing Lake Huron, my first time to see the great lakes (I never realized there was that much fresh water in the world) then we headed west to Calgary and on to Alaska. The Prairie Provinces, one of the leading food baskets of the world, has a beauty all of it's own. Not a route I would take every time, but so worth doing it at least once.
Don't believe that there is a "bad" route to choose between south Florida and Fairbanks. LOL
Booze is also a bit more in Canada, depending on what you like to drink. Any of the imports that come from the other Commonwealth countries that Canada is affiliated with, can import into Canada for a very low duty. I know that some people drink a lot more than I do, but most of us are only in Canada for a couple of two or three weeks each direction. $20 worth of beer will do me each direction of travel and we are talking real beer, especially some of the micro brews available. Canadian beer is not your wimpy 3.2 beer I run across here in the Lower 48, but they have beer with taste and alcohol. LOL The Whitehorse Brewery is worth the trip, just to sample some of their wares.
Over the years not too many crossings we haven't used, the busiest being the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls and Blaine Washington. The most laid back, probably Roosville, north of Whitefish Montana. Sometimes the less traveled, are not the fastest to clear customs, as the officers have all the time in the world to spend with you and me. Over the 51 years, I have been driving the Alaska Hwy, I have crossed more at Coutts-Sweetgrass than anywhere else, with RVs, cars, airplanes, etc. It is a nice crossing, well run and staffed.
With any of the crossings, just know what you have on board, in the way of booze, fresh foods, tobacco products, etc. Pull up to the window when it is your turn, take off your sunglasses and have passengers remove theirs, shut off the engine and wait till the window opens. Answer all questions honestly, but don't volunteer info. If they want to know something, they will ask. Try to only have the driver do the talking, unless a passenger is asked a question. Don't try to be humorous or to make small talk, unless they start it. Having a sense of humor, is not one of the requirements to be a border officer on either side of the line. Just remember, you are talking to a federal cop, one that has vast amounts of information about you and me, and has wide discretion about what they allow or not. I have always found them to be very professional, highly trained and dedicated to protecting the borders of their respective countries.
I plan my trips based upon what I want to see and do, if I was worried about costs, I probably wouldn't have taken the ferry trip twice, but what a great experience, for my wife and me. One trip we crossed into Canada at Niagara, ran on north in Ontario, to the town of Tobermory, caught the ferry crossing Lake Huron, my first time to see the great lakes (I never realized there was that much fresh water in the world) then we headed west to Calgary and on to Alaska. The Prairie Provinces, one of the leading food baskets of the world, has a beauty all of it's own. Not a route I would take every time, but so worth doing it at least once.
Don't believe that there is a "bad" route to choose between south Florida and Fairbanks. LOL
