matt_toronto

Hamilton to Detroit is a good 6 hour round trip ! Maybe they mean Buffalo which is only around 45 mins away. It's generally not worth the border hassle though, you can get stuck at the border for an hour sometimes on busy days. Also items you bring back across the border into Canada are subject to additional taxes, so the benefit generally isn't there.

dbd33

I don't think it pays for groceries but, if we're going to Buffalo, we'll bring back clothes, wine and dog food. When we were renovating the house we bought everything in Buffalo or Detroit, even allowing for renting a van and staying two nights on each trip (to get the duty free allowance) that was well worthwhile. Anything for horses is absurdly cheaper in the US so, if you need de-wormer or a blanket or something, off you go.

matt_toronto

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I used to do the clothes run to Buffalo when the FX rate was more favorable, less interested right now though. The overnight stay thing is the perfect approach to avoid the taxes.

For the OP's benefit though it's not an open border like Europe, they'll want to tax you on goods you bring between the two countries unless you take specific steps to avoid like dbd33 mentioned.

stuartgreig1978

Yeah, apologies i did mean Buffalo.

Bevm

To expand on what I said before, don't ignore the fact that you're moving to a completely different country.
Perhaps it's just our friends and where we've lived, but I don't think most Canadians drive as much as most Brits on a regular basis -- leaving aside any commute. (We lived in Canada for 30+ years, have been back in England for 8, and are going back.)

We've lived in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, and Victoria, and always lived in our neighbourhoods. We did used to drive from Ottawa to Montreal to visit friends (about 2 hours), but in other locations, it was a long way to get to anywhere we wanted to go! Even getting from Victoria to Vancouver was a haul, with the ferry involved.

Here, we and friends don't think much of driving to visit, even if it's hours, because, well, why not? We caught it from friends, who didn't seem to think much of driving hours to visit. (We've gone off it, mind you, because the motorways are so congested.) We've driven the trans-Can a number of times and in most places it's two lanes and empty, but empty all around as well.

I've never been to Windsor, but I suspect it's pretty self-contained.

Collie

If you DO end up near the US border, get a NEXUS card after you have been here 3 years - avoids the queues at border crossings and airports.