I have looked at a number of car hire websites and all only refer to Canadian citizens having the problem.

As long as you have permission to cross the border by the rental company it is not a problem. You will have to show rental paperwork and have proof of adequate insurance cover, but other than that it should not be a problem.

wow that's a relief!

i cannot confirm anything unfortunately. all i know is what is being said here. soo it all points to a yes........maybe ask the rental company aswell that you are renting the car from.

have a wonderful trip...!

Yeah looks like we'll have to check this out before we hire, but thanks to everyone for the heads up on this. Could have put a slight dampener on our trip if we got to the border and they wouldn't let us in!!

We haven't driven in Canada, so can't help you much there - but have driven coast to coast in the USA, with many hire cars.

The last few times I have booked a car, I booked and pre-paid in the U.K. on U.K. web sites. It worked out cheaper because all of the insurances and extra cover were included. The previous times looked cheaper on the USA web sites, but when we arrived to pick up the car we were charged extra for insurances that were not included in the price (I think most people in the que had to pay extra for something, and this has been at different locations also)

At some companies there were restrictions about travelling out of state (which I found quite odd), but said as long as we had made them aware of where we were traveling to, it would be o.k.

By the way, we have had all sorts of SUV's (Expeditions, Durango's ect...) but found for us the Mini Vans worked well and used less fuel (Dodge and Chrysler Caravan ect..) And I wouldn't worry about parking spaces - think of all the big pick up's and stuff...... (we normaly need a big boot, for the return trip as we buy so many clothes and trainers ect...)

Hope you all have a great trip - my 3 kids have grown up covering loads of miles, but with the Interstates you can cover so many miles in not much time at all - although they are very boring, and if we're not pushed for time we try and stay off of them.

Usually do this route once every week or so, lucky to do Vancouver -Tacoma (Seatac) in under 3 hours. Last week going south (around 9am) took 2:55 coming back (north) it took 4.15 (around 11pm).
My wife went down on Thursday around 10pm, the construction added another 2 hours to the journey.

She rented a Dodge Grand Caravan from Avis (in BC) for $600 CDN unlimited mileage. Which is just as well as she is doing about 6000 miles this week, with 3 kids! Apparently the van she has does 0-60 in around 5 minutes.

Border crossings can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 or more hours. Time of day seems to make no difference right now, although getting into Canada is usually shorter waits than going into the US.

Good family restaurant if you want a break is Sharis. Several dotted along I5.

Good resource for route planning is http://maps.google.com/ Google Maps

I see she got the performance model.

Or seeing as most of the driving will be in Canada http://maps.google.ca/ Google Maps Canada.

I'll get me coat.

Just heard it has got worse, 0-60 in 15 minutes up the mountain passes! Should have gone on the Harley.