I hate the title of this post. Why? Because, I hate to think of Johnny Utah as an “RV” he’s an adventure van damn it. But that’s a rant for another post. Let’s talk border crossings…
In case you can’t handle the suspense to know how it went or just don’t feel like reading. Here’s the visual version (video) of how our crossing from New York into Ontario went…
Entering another country whether by land, sea or air can be a stressful process. There’s no denying that. While living in Europe, we did it hundreds of times, and every time it was equally stressful. There’s a lot of questions and paperwork, neither one you want to get wrong or misplace.
Obviously, if you’re going by plane it’s pretty straightforward, don’t smuggle stuff in your bags and keep a tight grip on your passport. Driving into another country is another thing, driving an RV into another country is a whole other thing. The most important thing you can do before attempting to enter another country is research, and we did a lot. There’s a lot of info out there about this and all of it is worth a read, but we decided just to go straight to the source to be sure we didn’t miss anything.
The information provided by the Canadian Government seemed pretty simple, but we weren’t taking any chances, so we heeded the advice of friends, and other travelers and prepped based on their recommendations.
What You Need To Bring:
- Passports
- Driver Licenses
- Vehicle Registration
- License Plate Number
- Canadian Insurance Card For The Van ( in most cases your insurance provider will send you a copy of this free of charge, Progressive was even kind enough to overnight it!)
- A copy of our travel plans with confirmation of our reservations for campsites, etc.
What You Need To Leave:
- Eggs and dairy products
- Potted plants, and or anything that could possibly contain soil (this is to prevent invasive species from spreading into new areas, makes sense)
- Firearms, and ammunition
- Explosives ( this includes fireworks and sparklers)
- Excessive Alcohol
Here’s the full list of don’ts down to agonizing detail, if you’re so inclined.
So How’d Our Crossing Go….
All in all in wasn’t too bad. It certainly didn’t live up to any of the horror stories we had heard about from other folks, and that was big relief! Our Canadian Customs agent was kind, welcoming, asked us the cursory required questions, requested our passports and pushed us on through. The biggest challenge we faced through the whole experience was sitting and waiting ( about an hour) for our turn at the window.
In case you’ve never done it before, just an FYI the RV lane is the same as the bus lane. That means that if you’ve got tour busses in front of you, they need to get everyone’s information off of that bus and clear the vehicle before they send them through. So be prepared to wait. Other than that, our border crossing in Niagara was a breeze!
Border crossings. Been there? Done that? Share your experiences! We love our crew, and we’d love to hear from you! Thanks for being a part of this journey with us!
Haven’t crossed in our RV yet, but we will one of these days! Thanks for the tips!
Hey Heather! If you ever do decide to make the big crossing, let us know how it goes! We’re always interested in how different everyone’s experiences can be in different locations!