Hi everyone,
Has anyone traveled to Canada recently since the hotel quarantine rule came into effect? If so, please share your experience so that it will be helpful to those planning to travel.
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I hope someone can share their real experience soon but from what I’ve been reading in the local press here, its a real mess for now.
There are some reports in FB groups regarding this. based on what I saw, Charges are anywhere from $800 to $1500 per room, Couples can share room bringing cost to half.
I think these rules are only if you are flying…
For driving by car through land the rules have not changed… Correct?
we crossed the border just last week via peace bridge. You need to show negative covid result from last 72 hours from US. Additionally, you will be given 2 home testing kits (per person). One for day1 and another for day10. Both tests are self-conducted through a video call with nurse. Website is kind of buggy so it please be patient.
Enterprise did not pick the car rental fir us (despite some other reports in this forum that they are picking the car), so we had to keep the car for additional days. So, please plan accordingly.
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Where did you get negative covid test in US and is it free or how much you paid?
After reaching CAN, There is no hotel quarantine for you as you drove and you are doing 14 days home quarantine. Correct?
That 2 home testing kits is a new thing I heard… Do you get result your self from the kits or someone comes to pickup the kits to test for results…
Covid test in US is free. You can search local covid testing. Either it is covered via insurance or you just need to show your DL. We got it from Emergent testing.
Yes, no 3 day hotel quarantine for land border.
Once u have completed test for home kits, you can schedule the time for them to pick it up. then once they process, results will be available on website.
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@rndmdude thanks for sharing your experience! Can you elaborate on your experience with enterprise? I assume you booked a one-way rental from US to CAN? I plan to do the same thing from Vermont to Quebec once we receive our COPR.
Also, does anyone know if two people (a couple) flying in from separate locations could do the mandatory hotel quarantine together and split costs if arriving the same day into the same airport, but from different countries?
It wasnt a good experience because US side said than do the car pickup. However, the car has to be picked up by canadian local branches, who will either ask you to pay for few additional days before somebody can pick up or they can tow and bill it to you. So, please try to drop the car while you go to your place of Quarantine. You can take a Uber from there.
Where are you moving to in Quebec?
Ah I see. That sounds so frustrating! I’m sorry that happened to you. I would be able to drop it off at once across the border, so I’ll make sure to do that. I heard that some rental companies aren’t allowed to issue one-way rentals across the border right now, so I got nervous that you were talking about that and you had to tow the car back to the US or something.
I’m actually moving to Vancouver from Vermont USA. I have a car here in the US and trying to figure out if it makes sense to import it ($$ + lots of paperwork) or if I should just sell it and buy another car in Canada if I feel I need one. If I sold it, I’d try to rent a car to drive across the border and then ultimately all the way across the Vancouver. I’d probably rent an Enterprise rental VT-QC just to get across the border, then figure out quarantine and rent another car after to get to Vancouver. That way I could avoid the whole $2000 mandatory hotel situation… Lots to figure out!
@mem1476 Vermont to Vancouver would be a fun 2 days ride 
I will be moving from the midwest to Edmonton (around 30 hours) - Did you figure out how you will time the COVID test which has a requirement that it needs to be within 72 hours time window and turnover time for test could vary from lab to lab. Thanks
I’ve spent most of this year going back and forth between France (where my partner is) and the US, and each time I have to do the same - PCR test within 72hr of the flight. In VT, I’ve never had an issue with them coming back on time, but it has been sort of close. I get a free test which is easy to do here, and then I typically get the result by email on the 2nd or early 3rd day after taking. In France it’s been a little trickier as I don’t have a gov’t med card there, but I’ve managed to find cheaper tests that have a decently quick turn around.
I think it just depends what state you’re in and what their testing system is like as they’re all managed by state health depts it seems. I would just make sure you take the test as close to 72 hours before crossing, but no more obviously, to make sure you have your results by the time you cross the border.
Good luck!
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@mem1476 Thank you for the reply. So at border crossing do they accept the email result? If yes then its great!
Not sure which border you are crossing but looks like after crossing border, we need to go straight to our residence and do 14 days quarantine for me it would be at least ~12 hours drive after crossing border to our residence and no hotel break in between! Thanks
Regarding if the email result is acceptable for Canada, I haven’t specifically looked at Canada’s requirements for that yet (currently focused on getting back into France…) as Canada is still a couple months away for us. But I would assume the official test result letter is enough. That’s what all other official organizations are using that I’m aware of. Did you see something specifying something different?
Yeah, the quarantine thing is tricky! Have you found anywhere to verify that it is OK to drive ~12hr beyond the border crossing to your quarantine place? I assume that’s fine since it’s less than a day, but I haven’t seen anything specifying how long you have to get from the border to your “home” or quarantine location.
Our ideal situation would be to cross by car in QC, and then camp (in tents and on public lands, so no human contact) our way across to Vancouver over maybe 3 days or so, but we could be flexible. We would be fully self sufficient other than gas stops, so in theory it wouldn’t be any more exposure than driving up north which seems to be allowed, but I just don’t know if they would accept it. I’d be nervous that they would go to check on us in Vancouver and we wouldn’t have made it there yet… They might just be confused why we didn’t simply cross at the BC border instead. Ugh. I don’t know! If you hear anything about the legality of traveling far by car after crossing the border, I would love to hear it!!
Good luck!
if you are going to sell your car, you can also take a flight to Seattle n cross from there to Canada. Since, only people travelling together can quarantine together, that might work as well.
Yeah, I’ve thought of that. Though I have a full car load of belongings in VT, so that would likely mean shipping some stuff. But it could be an option. Did you ship things or travel with everything?
I have a meeting with the company lawyer next week, will check with him if email test results are acceptable or not and how far we can travel after crossing the border.
You could drive the car all the way in the US till Seattle and then cross the BC border, this way you can avoid the quarantine complexity.
My plans are to move in June. Hopefully, by then we will see a lift in the land travel restriction as Biden claims America will have enough vaccine by May end 
ohk, ya, that makes the things complicated. Hopefully, they dont extend it beyond March. It is chaotic as it is .
We shipped our stuff.
It sure is complicated…
What company did you use to ship stuff? And what were prices like? Any insight on that experience?
I’d love to hear what you hear about email test results and any other insight you might have about traveling far by car after crossing the border!
Good luck. I hope things are easier by June. That’s probably around when we’ll move too, maybe May if things go smoothly.