Epic Trip to Canada

[rcase13]

We are taking our C to Canada next week. The trip is 2200 miles round trip. We are taking our cat and towing a Honda Fit. Is there anything special I need to worry about? We have passports and health certificate for the cat. We bought a brake (RViBrake2) for the Honda Fit as I understand its required in Canada.

What have I forgotten?

[DesertHawk]

Find a credit card without a charge for out of country use. Most have a fee. Other wise credit cards are best way to go. No Discover Cards in Canada at least when we were there some years ago.

We have only been to the western provinces. If staying a while & using National Parks a Parks Pass may be the way to go. We used one on one trip. Very friendly. Neat places to see.

[Dakzuki]

Don't transport fruit north. No pepper spray but bear spray is OK. Make sure your cell plan is set up for Canada if you plan to use it or it will get very expensive fast (especially data).

[dcason]

Milk...really expensive. Actually everything is pretty pricey so fill your larders at home and enjoy your travels.

[shawdowboss]

Call your vehicle insurance company and get a copy for Canada (it's yellow) just as a precaution.

On your mobile phone, see if they allow free texting. Sprint has a reduced Canada option for phone calls (it's like $3.99 +20 cents a minute), but free texting. Did a lot of texting on our last trip.

The food in Canada is reasonably priced, so I wouldn't try to take much across the border, but definetly not fruits/vegis. They can get picky on those. You can take quite a bit of fresh/frozen meat, but it's just as good in CA as the USA and bringing it back to the states can be difficult (not impossible).

It's worse coming back to the US, just plan on NO MEAT, VEGIS or FRUIT of the fresh or frozen variety when coming back to the states. Dried fruit seemed to be ok but the border guard had to think real hard about it.

As far as getting cash, find a bank in Canada or an ATM. The places near the border charge an extra fee that most banks don't. Banks/ATMS give the best rates from what we found lately.

[Harvey51]

Forget to bring the guns; you won't need them in Canada and they can cause trouble at the border.

If you bring cell phones, talk to your phoneco now and find out what it will charge. Likely you can get a deal for low cost Canadian use. We went to Hawaii in January and we simply left our cell phones at home and used wifi email and Apple texting (which goes via internet) on ipad.

Does your GPS have Canada maps? Most cities have good bypass routes but we found Montreal was impossible to understand and we had to stop and buy a GPS. There are no toll highways in Canada except hwy 407 across the north end of Toronto.

We found folks in Hawaii were very friendly and helpful; I'm sure you will see the same in Canada!

[You_can_t_take_]

Bring lotsa Can $$$$... we need the return on our winter investments in the USA!! :B You'll love it here.... and want to stay!!