We have made several trips to visit our neighbors to the North and found that we prefer to use our Visa card for those trips as it is universally acceptable for the most part. Make sure you notify your credit card companies of your travel plans before leaving to prevent them from putting a stop on your use. Also check with your cards and see which ones charge the least for using them in Canada. Our Visa issued by a credit union doesn't charge a fee for using it in Canada but many bank cards do charge an exchange fee.
We also stop at the first bank we encounter and exchange our US cash for CDN - usually about $100 US for each week we plan to stay in Canada. Canada tends to be more expensive than the US but the current exchange rates work to our advantage now. The banks have always given us a competitive exchange rate. Right now the exchange rate is about 1.30 CDN for 1.00 US. We then use our Visa for everything we can and if we appear to have excess CDN cash left near the end of our stay, start paying cash and use the Visa less.
