Car Hire Canada

Heading to Vancouver in a few weeks and then want to speand 2/3 weeks travelling in British Columbia.

Will be getting a car for this time and was wondering if anyone has any experience in doing this and could let me know who they used, etc.

I would be getting the Sat Navigation and insurance as well I presume is a must.

Again any tips/advice would be appreciated

Infoseeker, make sure you get unlimited miles for Canada.
I used Alamo and found them fine. I had to get the brakes done and they recommended a garage and then they refunded the amount when took car back, although the guy did look a little surpirsed when he reliased I had put 11,500 km odd on the car.

I am hiring a car from Avis in Banff,British Columbia for 10 days in July ,making my way via Rockies to Vancouver Island finishing in Victoria.I avoided hiring in Calgary [large city] and I am returning car in Victoria and getting public transport to Vancouver.Never checked about Sat navigation,but I have checked route planners on the TripAdvisor website

Haille Banff is in Alberta but there shouldn't be any problem taking car to different province.
Are you flying into Calgary and how are you getting Calgary to Banff?
Sometimes you are as well off to hire at airport since less trouble with transfers etc.
Banff is major tourist destination so maybe you could save by hiring in Canmore (not in National Park) but again you still have to get from Calgary to Canmore.
Are you just getting ferry from Victoria to Vancouver?
It is a nice trip, you will enjoy.

jmayo -> Thanks for the advice re unlimited miles, this will be vital as we will be doing a fair bit of driving.

Haille -> With the sat nav there is not too much stress driving through cities but again you are on holiday so if this is something you want to avoid then it is wise to do it.

Have anyone hired car in Canada and dropped it off in the US.
We plan to hire in Vancouver and fly out of Seattle so we would ideally want to drop it off in Seattle airport

Hi,

I have always recommended www.novacarhire.com (who use Alamo in the U.S.) on this site as I have always used them for the U.S. and Canada - mind you I have always hired in the U.S. and driven into Canada and headed back to the U.S. again.

They do one way hire though. We sort of did the opposite on one trip - rented in Seattle and went to Vancouver up to the rockies as far east as Banff and back down through Washington state - what a trip !

Enjoy !

Tks Havealaugh

If you have any tips on where to stop, stay, etc then that would be much appreciated.

I will be getting the Sat Navigation but presume one has to go with the insurance? It is $25 a day for 14 days.

I must read up on what the insurance covers and before people reply telling me that it is very risky, etc not to have insurance.......what I am asking is there an alternative to getting insurance from the car rental company that might be cheaper

Unlimited miels are very important. You can get screwed on the extras.
Also note drive from Banff to Vanvouver is about 9 hours I think so gives you some idea of size of country.
Also to get your head around size, BC is about as big as France, Germany and Holand.

I found I was losing GPS signal in between the tall buildings in San Francisco so it was forever telling us that is was recalculating in that terrible accent.
You should only have probs in Vancouver regarding driving directions, the other cities/towns are pretty straight forward to navigate through.

Regarding hiring in one country and dropping off in another, there are problems with one way rentals since they are two different countries.
Can you hire car in UK and drop back in Ireland?
Car configs are different, Canadian cars are in KMs and US cars would be in miles.


Have anyone hired car in Canada and dropped it off in the US.
We plan to hire in Vancouver and fly out of Seattle so we would ideally want to drop it off in Seattle airport

Infoseeker,

We did the following trip over aprx 14 days - Planned and booked ourselves directly.

Flew into Seattle, stayed for 2 days, Rented car from downtown Seattle (right by the Marriott Hotel which is nice) and drove to Vancouver for 2 days (could have done with 3/4 days here it's great!) then we drove on to Kelowna in the Okenagon Valley (they grow peaches there and have their own wine !!)1 night there, then on to Revelstoke (nice town to stroll around) 1 night here, drove on to Banff for 2 nights, might be worth a third night as you can drive back to Lake louise via the Bowvalley parkway which is a really nice drive. Banff is a great spot to drive to Lake Louise, Emerald Lake, Moraine Lake(much more enticing than Lake Louise as there isn't 10 million Japanese tourists clicking cameras ! - go on the canoes here rather than Lake Louise - much more peaceful). We then followed the columbia river south almost all the way to Cranbrook (not much happening here except that it's a place to stopover 1 night to break the journey. From cranbrook we headed west across the kootenay lake and stayed in Nelson for 2 nights (bohemian hippy town and very pleasant relaxed place), drove on to Osoyoos then at the south end of the Okanagon valley and stayed 1 night, then went across the Border at Osoyoos back into Washington state where we stayed in a tiny little town called Twisp near Winthrop(like something out of a cowboy and western film - class!) 1 night here then drove one of the most amazing and dramatic roads I've driven in North America - over the North Cascade mountains - bring a picnic from Winthrop and stop along the way the views are spectacular. We drove the 252 miles from Twisp to a place called Langley on Whitbey Island near Seattle and stayed a night there. Drove back to Seattle then for another 2 nights and flew home then.

We got to see some amazing amazing scenery plus had the city thing in there as well. It was a great trip - If I do say so myself !!

Another trip on my to do list is to head to Van, then drive on to Kamloops and from there head to Banff and then go north up the Icefields parkway to Jasper, from there head to Prince George and back to Vancouver (this trip is also meant to be spectacular.

Any specific questions let me know - What time of year are you travelling ?

For what it's worth - IMO I wouldn't bother with SAT NAV - maps are your only man and I have always used www.mapquest.com for printing off routes etc and, thankfully, haven't got lost in North America yet !

Havealaugh for a real spectacular trip in BC head up the Alaska highway to Whitehorse in the Yukon.
Don't worry no Asians make it that far north.
A park worth a visit is Wells Gray Provincial Park near Clearwater, north east of Kamloops. You can work your way across to Jasper from Clearwater.
Lots of bears in the area and some great rivers.
I travelled Vancouver, Whistler, Pemberton, Lillooet, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Prince George and on up to Fort St John, Fort Nelson and Whitehorse.
Sections of it are not that spectacular since through lots of forest.

Morraine lake is quieter and much nicer than Lake Louise and better chance of spotting bears.

Anyway it tis a wonderful country.

Havealaugh that was an excellent summary of your trip and very helpful.

I am getting married on May11th and flying to Seattle on May14th, have a hotel booked there for 3 nights and then onto Vancouver and again a hotel booked for 3 more nights.

Morning of May20th we leave Vancouver and have nothing planned till we fly out of Seattle on June3rd.

I think, based on your experience it would make more sense to hire the car from downtown Seattle on May 17th, drive to Vancouver, stay there for 3 nights, and then work out an itinerary...possible based on what you did above as we have much the same time available.

Is there anything you would change based on hindsight re your trip?

Congratulations. Dublin London Seattle with BA ???

The one thing I would change is that we should have spent a couple more days in Vancouver.

Seattle has loads of homeless but they don't hassle you at all - they'll put their hand out but if you keep walking, don't engage you'll be grand. Really though, the Police don't take them harrasing people lightly. Apparentely in the 70's the kind mayor of Seattle decided to pay welfare to the homeless and they came from all over the U.S. !! Plus the climate is similar to Ireland in that we don't get extremes of weather so sleeping out ain't too bad in winter time. A friend of mine was in Vancouver last Christmas and said they were horrified about the amount of homeless there - We saw nothing of this.

Seattle - deffo do this tour - http://www.undergroundtour.com/ and also remember that Seattle is a mini San Francisco for hills !! Also, if yis wanna see Seattle from a height don't bother with the space needle rather do this one - it's cheaper and has far better views imo.

Have a look here for excellent maps and easy directions out of Seattle on to the I-5 Nth to Vancouver - http://maps.google.com/

When looking for Hotel in vancouver try get one with free parking as parking is V expensive in Vancouver. A lot of downtown hotels charge to park. Check for recommended hotels etc


Well I would have filled up with petrol from Winthrop on the 252 mile trip across the north Cascades to Whidbey Island ! Long story !

What's wrong with Asians going north? !! I have no problem about seeing Asians anywhere - I wouldn't have went to Vancouver if I did !

Sounds like a good trip you did also. It is a great provence alright.

Tks again, really looking foward 2 it

Flying Shannon to Seattle with stopover in Chicago.....live in Cork

Havealaugh I don't have problem with Asians either but have to say Korean and Japanesse tourists are very annoying and can ruin a nice quiet atmosphere. The reason I mention Korean is a lot of the tourists in Banff etc are actually from Korea and not Japan. So being fair I said Asian. I guess they have a different method of holidaying, they take loads of pictures/videos, fly through the sights and then look at the pictures videos when they go home.
Also they have a different take on personal space due to the cramped nature of their own countries which is why they visit the likes of Canada, Australia etc in the first place.
Anyway when you go north you don't get many tourists of any kind which means you can sit by a lake (along the main road) and watch the caribou/mountain sheep go by.

Infoseeker, may I ask who you are flying with ? Who flies from Shannon to Chicago ? enjoy

Jmayo -

Anyway when you go north you don't get many tourists of any kind which means you can sit by a lake (along the main road) and watch the caribou/mountain sheep go by

Click to expand...

Probably better to have said that in the first place than singling out Asians as a cause of noise pollution !!

Jmayo -

I can research it more but can you tell me how the standard of accommodation was in the towns along this route ? Hotels available ? or mostly motels or.... ?

Thanks in advance

Jmayo - just took a look at that route - looks the biz, how did you go back to Vancouver from Whitehorse ? and what time of the year did you travel ? any mosquitos around ?

thanks

Aer Lingus Fly from Shannon to Seattle

Havealuagh, from Whitehorse I came back down highway 97 (Alaska highway) to Dawson Creek into Grande Praire Alberta and down to Jasper.
The other option is route down highway 37 taking in Stweart, Smithers and back to Prince George.
Now some of this is actually unsealed which car hire companies do not like and the other problem was that a number of forest fires were raging.
It was in August so high of fire season. I had been lucky and missed the big fire at Lillooet that burned for weeks. In Yukon they just let them burn out since no people around.

From Jasper I went across by Mt Robson, Clearwater, down to Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon and into Washington.
Then came back up through Castlegar, Nelson, Cranbrook, Invermere and over to Banff, Calgary. Then back to Vancouver via Lake Louise, Jasper, Yoho National Park, Salmon Arm and Hope.
Only took 11,500 odd kms and visited 3 provinces and 2 states.

On the Alaska highway up by Fort Nelson, Liard River, Watson Lake etc, there is motel accomodation. Some are good some are not so good.
Most of the traffic is people, pulling u-hauls, moving up north or coming down south to live.
The tourist traffic is primarily the long haul RV drivers (usally retirees) and they usually stay along road at RV pulloffs or at camp sites. Also have the firefighters, the forestry workers, the road workers , miners and gas/oil workers competing for accomodation. Note distances are mesaured in terms of 3/4 hours. It is a very long drive up and down.
When going back I intend to fly up to Fort Nelson and then hire from there.
Otherwise just go straight for Whitehorse and work way back down to Watson Lake.