Driving into Canada?

[Nebula]

Hey! I'm hoping someone has some experience with crossing the US-Canada border by car. We've been trying to plan a during my winter break, but a lot of things are unclear with how border crossing works. Sites range from having to give a full declaration list of every item in your car to just being asked a few questions and then going on your merry way. He'll only be visiting for 2 - 4 days, so it shouldn't be too complicated. Is there anything we can expect?

[snow_girl]

I'm pretty sure it is harder to enter the states then Canada and the few times I've driven in they asked purpose of visit, where I worked, what we had in the car just the basics and then let us pass, it shouldn't be any harder then that.

[mllebamako]

I've crossed the US/Canada border twice by car and both times were really simple. The line was a bit long and took up some time. But once we got there, they just asked the purpose of our visit, when we were planning on coming back, and what we had in the car (but not like a detailed list).

[kteire]

I lived about 20 minutes away from a border crossing from NY to Ontario, and have been across so many times! I was going in the opposite direction, but I would imagine it's much the same - they asked the purpose of my visit, and if I was carrying any restricted items in. They might do a random search of your car, but just be honest and don't bring across anything that would make them ask questions

[mllebamako]

Funny story to ease your worries: my friends and I decided to go to Canada just for dinner, since we'd never been and we were super bored. My roommate was out of town so we "borrowed" his car (bad decision). Up at the border, we got on line with all the other cars and when we were about 7 cars from the border, I got this horrible feeling in my stomach. I suddenly remembered that my roommate was a big pot smoker and usually had some in car. We checked the center console and there it was, a bag full of weed and a pipe. I spent the next 20 minutes having a mental breakdown (I was the driver). We were too scared to try and move it to hide it since there were cameras and border patrol people so we just covered it up with something.

At the border, I tried to stay calm and answer the guys questions. He asked me to pull off into the search area. I was really starting to freak out. I felt like one of those people on Locked Up Abroad. Luckily, there was no drug dog or anything and it turns out that they wanted us to remove the firewood that was in the trunk of the car. And then we went on our merry way. Once in Canada, my two friends smoked most of the weed that was in the car (I don't smoke) and we ditched the rest in a bar.