Canada/United States Border Ccrossing - Car Hire Problems

[blueberry2]

Planning to hire a car at Calgary to travel south into Montana USA. It appears that we cannot cross the border in a hire car. Has anyone experienced a similar problem? A few years ago we managed to cross the Canadian/US border at Niagara both ways in a hire car with no problems.

Should be grateful for any guidance. The net so far has proved very unhelpful.

[dzug]

Just try a different hire car company - nearly all will allow what you are proposing as long as it's arranged in advance. I had no problem last October with multiple border crossings starting and ending in Montreal.

Try Holiday Autos or Auto Europe or the like rather than trying to book with a Canadian company - you should get unlimited mileage rates which can be difficult to come by in Canada.

The only problem I can think of is that if you are US citizens the US authorities might be iffy about you entering in a non-US car. But UK citizens should have no problem.

[blueberry2]

Thanks very much for your advice Dzug. We are UK citizens.

I should have made it clear though that we are hoping to drive from Calgary to Montana, one-way only, and I think that is where the problem lies.

We are going to call the Canadian Tourist Board tomorrow for clarification on this point.

[dzug]

You are right where the problem lies.

You are will find it very difficult to get a cross border one way hire. If you do you will have to pay the cost of sending someone from the hire depot to retrieve it and drive it back. (Probably two people and another car will be needed to do this - wages, petrol, car costs, maybe an overnight stay for them...) The company will be unable to rent it out in the US.

The majors - hertz, avis, etc - are the place to try. If they don't no-one will.

[blueberry2]

Thanks Dzug. Yes, I see your point about the expense of retrieval for the hire firm.

It's a bit complicated as we are mixing in train journeys, hire car and flights. If we manage to achieve our aim, I'll let you know!!

[JoolsTwo]

Maybe you could cross the border by train and hire in the USA. That way you should be able to do a oneway hire. Good Luck