Crossing the Border into Canada from the USA:

Crossing into Canada from southern USA or from Alaska is very easy and the officers very pleasant.

There is no ‘check-out’ from the USA, you just drive up to the Canada control point. The process takes about 5 minutes. There is no vehicle check or registration check. 3rd Party Insurance is not offered or checked.

The following is the official information from the Canada Border Services Agency

See: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5082-eng.html

1. Temporary importation of vehicles and private boats
   

2. During your stay in Canada, as a visitor or a temporary resident (not seasonal resident), you can temporarily import passenger and recreational vehicles, such as snowmobiles, boats and trailers, as well as outboard motors, for your personal use.
   

3. You cannot leave temporarily imported goods in Canada between visits unless they have been properly reported to the CBSA and you were issued a Form E99, CBSA Report. You must display this form on your vehicle, boat or trailer or have it easily available to prove that you imported the goods legally. Remember to watch the expiry date. If you leave goods in Canada beyond the expiry date, and they are not in accordance with CBSA regulations, they may become subject to seizure and forfeiture.
   

4. The form looks like this:E99 Form Canada.pdf
   

Should you not be planning to leave your vehicle in Canada between visits then there is no problem.

We have left our vehicle 3 times during our Canada travels, and on our first entry we insisted on the issue of a Form E99.   Issuing the E99 form seemed a real inconvenience for the very pleasant officer.  

On our more recent travels we were never asked nor mentioned about leaving the vehicle and never had any problems.

3rd Party Liability Vehicle Insurance:

From the Canadian Car Insurance Information site:

http://www.kanetix.ca/introduction-to-auto-insurance-in-canada 

Automobile insurance and the law

Regardless of where you may be driving in Canada, if you plan to drive a vehicle on public roads the vehicle must be covered under an insurance policy with certain minimum compulsory coverages. It is the law in all provinces and territories.

I therefor find it unusual that the border patrol points do not check, particularly on foreign registered vehicles.  We purchased our 3rd Party Insurance in the USA and had a free extension added for Canada. See Overland USA

Travelling Canada:

Summer travel all very easy. The roads well made and signposted. In most cases the gravel roads present a better surface than older black top (Tar or Bitumen) roads because of the frost heaves which undulate the surface as the ice freezes below. Travelling in the far north in Winter presents a whole new set of problems and the vehicle would have to be well prepared for the extremes.

Canada is big, and it is easy to look at a map and under-estimate the vast distances.

In May June and July the roads can be clogged with southerners and their huge RV’s, so try to do the most popular areas before or after the peak tourist season. By the end of the season most of the country roads have been graded before the onset of Winter and the choice campgrounds are more available.

The Dempster Highway, Robert Campbell Highway, and the Canol Road are all good gravel roads. Perhaps some 40 years ago they were an adventure now it is easy travel at speeds up to and beyond 80Kph (45Mph).  My comment “These are some of the best 500km long gravel roads on 5 continents”.

The scenery spectacular and well worth the effort, particularly if you time it with the change of season in Fall.

BEARS:

Be aware they are out there, we saw many. There are numerous warning signs about bush walking many telling you how to behave and if necessary how to fight back!

My suggestion take a whistle, talk loudly, make noises, and if you see bear scats on the track retreat!

This female was on out track so we retreated!

Telephone Connection:

I could not find a nation wide prepaid system available to foreigners.

When we had internet connection, Skype was the best, free for Skype to Skype, and a very low cost when used as a telephone.

Internet Connection:

There seems to be no pre-paid system available on a month to month basis. We relied on free WiFi at Coffee Shops, McDonalds, Fred Myer and Safeway Supermarkets. Most information centres also offer free WiFi.

National Park Pass:

The Parks Canada Discovery Pass is a great idea. For a Family/Group pass of $136.40 up to seven people arriving at the same time can enter the Canada Park system for one year. This is only $10 more than buying two passes and well worth it if you are travelling with friends.

See for more information:  http://www.pc.gc.ca/voyage-travel/carte-pass/faq.aspx

Camping:

Once in the more remote areas the choices are unlimited and free.

Take the small tracks to Fire Towers and telephone repeater stations to find some remote and spectacular camp sites on top of mountains.

These positions make it great viewing for the Aurora.

It is also possible to free camp in most WalMarts across Canada. 

Food:

Amongst the vast number of food outlets it is only Safeways that offer a Club Discount Card that is NOT sent to a home address. The card can be applied for in store and received at the same time. Almost every large town has a Safeways and most with free internet, accessible in the car park.

Not only can you save 8 to 15% off food items but the card can save up to 15cents in fuel purchases.

Unfortunately Safeway is not well represented in Canada.

Fuel:

Fuel prices vary considerably state by state and across towns.  Walmart, SafeWays, Fred Myers offered the best prices. See above for further savings at Safeways on food and fuel.

For diesel in September/October 2011 we paid C$1.17 to C$1.40/Lt.

Inuvik was the highest at C$1.65/Lt

To date we have travelled 165 days and 44,532Kms through the US, Canada and Alaska.

Fuel calculated at an average of US$4.14/US Gal (US$1.095/Lt) and totaled US$9,207.00

We averaged 17.51 MPG or 16.13 L/100Kms and calculates to 0.177C/km

Water:

Easy to get if staying in a RV park, but otherwise some forward planning is necessary. Most small service stations do not provide external taps. The larger chain store fuel stations do have external taps and do not mind you using them after asking. Note the tap thread is slightly different from Australian tap thread. I use a plastic tap connection that I can force a cross thread, and that seems to work.

Some information centres do have water taps, and most National Parks etc have water supply.

Some northern towns have refill points and sell drinking water in quantity to the mining camps but we found it impractical to refill from them.

In mountainous areas we filled from high mountain streams.

However be aware that Giardia and Cryptosporidium are in lakes and river waters and a good quality filter is highly recommended.

We use as system from Purifiers Australia and have not ever had water problems even throughout Asia.

See:

http://www.purifiersaustralia.com.au/menu.php

For our actual Travel Diary through USA /Canada see:

2010 USA Part 1-5

(Part 6-13 is Baja Mexico)

2011 USA Part 14-19

2011 Canada Alaska Part 20-35

2012 Canada USA Nova Scotia Part 36-42

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