abc
Well-known member
For those who may want to go skiing in Canada this winter. I thought some may find the actual experience of visiting Canada helpful?
After the US-Canada land border opening, I wanted to go to New Brunswick and Nova Scottia for there're some wicked good sea kayaking along the Atlantic coast.
Moreover, those provinces had virtually no cases (single digit) and zero death for ages. I ache for "normalcy" while I'm just relaxing on my vacation. Not needing to think about how close people are or how crowded the restaurants are etc.
But getting through the border was a big hassle and stress point. There's the Covid testing that needs to be done WITHIN 72 HOURS, which is tricky as many test has a turn around time of 24-48 hrs. With the uptick of cases recently, testing capacity was a bit stretched. I lived in the sticks so the nearest testing facilities are all 20-30 minutes away. But as they're already booked up, I had to travel further to find suitable appointments. Further complicating things, many testing facilities only allow booking up to 3 days in advance. So timing the test appointment so it'll get done within that 72 hr of my travel schedule was pretty tight. Also need to be careful the type of test. Canadians only accept molecular test, not antigen test.
So after a frantic few days packing, getting testing appointments, drove an hour to get tested, then sit tight to wait for results, I was finally off to the Maine-New Brunswick border.
Entry into Canada is always "at the discretion of the border agent". In the past, there's never any doubt that discretion would be anything but "enjoy your visit to Canada". But with the Covid business, I can't be 100% positive of them accepting my test. So I decided not to book hotels until I'm IN Canada.
Test result in hand, I started working on the required online form called ArriveCan while awaiting for my dinner at an outdoor eatery. But half way through, I got bogged down. It asked what my quarantine plans are if I was picked for on-the-spot testing and it turn positive. Well, I had plans for that, I'll simple come home and self-isolate. Thankfully, that's one of the options too. Easy, right? Not so easy. Then it asked for the address of my quarantine site. That's stupid, my home address was already filled out earlier. OK, I typed it again, street, house number, town, state... But wait, there's no option to put in US states! The drop down list only includes Canadian provinces!
Well, my food arrived. So I ate while my brain rest. OK, let me put in the province I'm visiting. But it doesn't recognize "Somers, NB" as there's no such town in New Brunswick. OK, give it a real town. Now it complains the address isn't valid. Of course it isn't valid, I don't know of a real address in New Brunswick! Well, I'm just going to show up at the border and let the Canadian border agent sort it out, and hope for the best.
But wait, I do have a hotel in mind, even though that's NOT where I would have been quarantining had I be tested positive at the border! So I stick that address into the form. Lo and behold, it let me continue the form. Next page ,next, next... and eventually, a big "SUBMIT" button was followed by a page with a number verifying I've completed the form correctly and in its entirety!
The quickest way from Maine to Nova Scotia is through Houlton (Maine) then Fredricton, Moncton, Truro. But the Canadian government sites had warned of long waits on border crossing points. They even have a web page published wait time at each border crossing. Houlton has 30 min wait. (later I was told by other American traveler they saw 1 out of 5 cars being turned around). So I opted to cross at a "minor" crossing of St Stephen. As I drove up, there's no line. I cruised right up to the little booth in the middle of the town's Main Street, a little draw bridge separating US from Canada.
The border formality was actually quite smooth. The border agent did need to look up the type of test I did to verify it's one that's accepted by Canada. But other than that, it's just like before.
Once in New Brunswick, I relaxed. First order of business, lunch! The Maritime provinces are known for their fresh seafood. Sit back and have my first lobster roll. So good... (by the way, I could have sat indoors. But the weather was so good, sitting outside was actually more pleasant. The rest of my trips, I've mostly opted for outdoor sitting, nothing to do with Covid, just enjoying the nice weather)
I've been to NB many times. So this week I wanted to go further, to Nova Scotia. But in the hotel, I saw this brochure of Prince Edward Island. Oh yeah, how did I forget? The land where dead cyclists go to instead of heaven! So I instantly changed my mind, to add PEI to my itinerary.
Since I breezed through the border so quickly, I had time to kill in the afternoon. So I went out for a quick drive to soak in the scenery. Saw a tiny bike shop and decided to stop to check it out. The lone employee was thrill to tell me about places to ride. Then the owner showed up and offer to show me some of the trails! Wow!!! During the ride, we chatted about where else to go ride. Upon hearing I'm heading over to Prince Edward Island, he casually mentioned I need to fill out a Covid form. Really? OK, no biggie, right? Wrong! The form needs to be "approved" before I would be let in! Ooops! So much for my impromptus decision to detour to PEI, OK, maybe I'll go there on my way back. So I filled out the form dutifully. And continued on to Nova Scotia. (The next day, I was "approved". So I change course again and went to PEI for a few days)
People are still wearing masks in many indoor settings (shops, restaurants, visitor center). Although I personally don't see the point (due to low case count), but I put it on just so I don't stand out like a sore thumb being the only maskless patron. But outside, people are not wearing mask. It's so nice to see people's face, and their smiles!
PEI is not just heaven for cyclists. Its seafood are to die for too!
I almost wanted to stay at PEI for my entire vacation. But I've hauled my kayak hundreds of miles, I want to kayak the coast of Nova Scotia too. So leaving PEI, I drove all the way to Cape Breton, which in my opinion is where kayakers would want to go instead of heaven!
In summary, though it's a hassle to get through the border formality, once in, it's a relaxing environment. Knowing it's a land of no covid really makes for an enjoyable time. Delta variant or what not, the probability of catching Covid is practically zero because there's no local cases and all visitors were double vaccinated. Some of the social distancing practice are actually kind of nice. Nobody breath down your neck when you're in line for bathroom or at gift shop checkout. Hotels too, are much cleaner than usual thanks for all the extra cleaning. (the only drawback is no late checkout, they need time to clean).
Canadians are generally friendly. After the past year and half of stressful time, it's nice to move amongst smiling people again (and you get to see the smile without the mask too)
Given how much I enjoy touring Canada (and feeling safe), I might go again before the weather turn cold. However, I've been told by another American who cross back and forth that there maybe a potential snag. When we leave Canada, there's no exit control. So that American had trouble doing the online form, because the "system" think they were still in Canada! So I will probably try to test fill the form ahead of time (you only submit it when you hit that "submit" button at the very end of the form)
After the US-Canada land border opening, I wanted to go to New Brunswick and Nova Scottia for there're some wicked good sea kayaking along the Atlantic coast.
Moreover, those provinces had virtually no cases (single digit) and zero death for ages. I ache for "normalcy" while I'm just relaxing on my vacation. Not needing to think about how close people are or how crowded the restaurants are etc.
But getting through the border was a big hassle and stress point. There's the Covid testing that needs to be done WITHIN 72 HOURS, which is tricky as many test has a turn around time of 24-48 hrs. With the uptick of cases recently, testing capacity was a bit stretched. I lived in the sticks so the nearest testing facilities are all 20-30 minutes away. But as they're already booked up, I had to travel further to find suitable appointments. Further complicating things, many testing facilities only allow booking up to 3 days in advance. So timing the test appointment so it'll get done within that 72 hr of my travel schedule was pretty tight. Also need to be careful the type of test. Canadians only accept molecular test, not antigen test.
So after a frantic few days packing, getting testing appointments, drove an hour to get tested, then sit tight to wait for results, I was finally off to the Maine-New Brunswick border.
Entry into Canada is always "at the discretion of the border agent". In the past, there's never any doubt that discretion would be anything but "enjoy your visit to Canada". But with the Covid business, I can't be 100% positive of them accepting my test. So I decided not to book hotels until I'm IN Canada.
Test result in hand, I started working on the required online form called ArriveCan while awaiting for my dinner at an outdoor eatery. But half way through, I got bogged down. It asked what my quarantine plans are if I was picked for on-the-spot testing and it turn positive. Well, I had plans for that, I'll simple come home and self-isolate. Thankfully, that's one of the options too. Easy, right? Not so easy. Then it asked for the address of my quarantine site. That's stupid, my home address was already filled out earlier. OK, I typed it again, street, house number, town, state... But wait, there's no option to put in US states! The drop down list only includes Canadian provinces!
Well, my food arrived. So I ate while my brain rest. OK, let me put in the province I'm visiting. But it doesn't recognize "Somers, NB" as there's no such town in New Brunswick. OK, give it a real town. Now it complains the address isn't valid. Of course it isn't valid, I don't know of a real address in New Brunswick! Well, I'm just going to show up at the border and let the Canadian border agent sort it out, and hope for the best.
But wait, I do have a hotel in mind, even though that's NOT where I would have been quarantining had I be tested positive at the border! So I stick that address into the form. Lo and behold, it let me continue the form. Next page ,next, next... and eventually, a big "SUBMIT" button was followed by a page with a number verifying I've completed the form correctly and in its entirety!
The quickest way from Maine to Nova Scotia is through Houlton (Maine) then Fredricton, Moncton, Truro. But the Canadian government sites had warned of long waits on border crossing points. They even have a web page published wait time at each border crossing. Houlton has 30 min wait. (later I was told by other American traveler they saw 1 out of 5 cars being turned around). So I opted to cross at a "minor" crossing of St Stephen. As I drove up, there's no line. I cruised right up to the little booth in the middle of the town's Main Street, a little draw bridge separating US from Canada.
The border formality was actually quite smooth. The border agent did need to look up the type of test I did to verify it's one that's accepted by Canada. But other than that, it's just like before.
Once in New Brunswick, I relaxed. First order of business, lunch! The Maritime provinces are known for their fresh seafood. Sit back and have my first lobster roll. So good... (by the way, I could have sat indoors. But the weather was so good, sitting outside was actually more pleasant. The rest of my trips, I've mostly opted for outdoor sitting, nothing to do with Covid, just enjoying the nice weather)
I've been to NB many times. So this week I wanted to go further, to Nova Scotia. But in the hotel, I saw this brochure of Prince Edward Island. Oh yeah, how did I forget? The land where dead cyclists go to instead of heaven!
So I instantly changed my mind, to add PEI to my itinerary.Since I breezed through the border so quickly, I had time to kill in the afternoon. So I went out for a quick drive to soak in the scenery. Saw a tiny bike shop and decided to stop to check it out. The lone employee was thrill to tell me about places to ride. Then the owner showed up and offer to show me some of the trails! Wow!!! During the ride, we chatted about where else to go ride. Upon hearing I'm heading over to Prince Edward Island, he casually mentioned I need to fill out a Covid form. Really? OK, no biggie, right? Wrong! The form needs to be "approved" before I would be let in! Ooops! So much for my impromptus decision to detour to PEI,
OK, maybe I'll go there on my way back. So I filled out the form dutifully. And continued on to Nova Scotia. (The next day, I was "approved". So I change course again and went to PEI for a few days)People are still wearing masks in many indoor settings (shops, restaurants, visitor center). Although I personally don't see the point (due to low case count), but I put it on just so I don't stand out like a sore thumb being the only maskless patron. But outside, people are not wearing mask. It's so nice to see people's face, and their smiles!
PEI is not just heaven for cyclists. Its seafood are to die for too!
I almost wanted to stay at PEI for my entire vacation. But I've hauled my kayak hundreds of miles, I want to kayak the coast of Nova Scotia too. So leaving PEI, I drove all the way to Cape Breton, which in my opinion is where kayakers would want to go instead of heaven!
In summary, though it's a hassle to get through the border formality, once in, it's a relaxing environment. Knowing it's a land of no covid really makes for an enjoyable time. Delta variant or what not, the probability of catching Covid is practically zero because there's no local cases and all visitors were double vaccinated. Some of the social distancing practice are actually kind of nice. Nobody breath down your neck when you're in line for bathroom or at gift shop checkout. Hotels too, are much cleaner than usual thanks for all the extra cleaning. (the only drawback is no late checkout, they need time to clean).
Canadians are generally friendly. After the past year and half of stressful time, it's nice to move amongst smiling people again (and you get to see the smile without the mask too)
Given how much I enjoy touring Canada (and feeling safe), I might go again before the weather turn cold. However, I've been told by another American who cross back and forth that there maybe a potential snag. When we leave Canada, there's no exit control. So that American had trouble doing the online form, because the "system" think they were still in Canada! So I will probably try to test fill the form ahead of time (you only submit it when you hit that "submit" button at the very end of the form)
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