Canada & USA Holiday Summer 2016 - have I got this right ?

Murphy_The_Cat

In Summers 2016, I'm off on holiday with Mrs Cat, Cat Jnr (aged 12) & Kitten (aged 9).
I'm getting my head around a few things at the planning stage and whilst I THINK I've got thing straight, I'd appreciate peoples thoughts.
We're flying into Vancouver Canada and we have our 4 approved eTA's
We'll be hiring a car from a Canadian rental company for 2 drivers, that will allow it to go into the US.

Myself and the Kitten are travelling via Amtrak to Seattle. It looks like we need either an upto date ESTA, or a paper issued CBP I-94W. I already have an upto date ESTA, but if my memory serves me right, I can't recall a section for filling in train travel details, only flight details.
It looks like we'll be able to collect/fill in a CBP - I94W at Vancouver station. We'll be travelling one-way on Amtrak without any luggage.

In the meantime, Mrs Cat and Junior are driving across the border in the rental car. They'll both need to fill in a CBP- I94W (and pay the $6 charge) to cross into the States. They're going to meet us in Seattle, where we're going to spend 2/3 nights.

We're then all travelling together in the rental car, back to Vancouver, Canada - presumably handing back our CBP-I94W's as we cross the border, back to Vancouver.

A couple of days later, we're flying from Vancouver to San Diego.
Will we have to update our ESTA status to show that on (insert date) we'll be arriving in the US on flight #XX1234, before the flight - as this will be the first time that we've arrived in the States by AIR on this holiday.

We then fly home from California a few days later.

Has anyone done anything similar/offer any thoughts/have recent experiences ?

The US ESTA covers air travel, but not land crossings, but using Amtrak seems so fall into a greyish area.

With me travelling alone with my daughter, on a one way train ticket and then having two entries into the States, 1350 miles apart, seperated by only a few days, I don't need to invite any aggravation from the Customs/Immigration people.I can see that the ESTA system being updated 'realtime'm but I visualise the paper I94W having some timing lag.

p..s this nugget appears on the Amtrak site as well
No Passengers under 18 across the US-Canadian Border Unaccompanied

The Canada Border Services Agency and US Customs and Border Protection Department are very
concerned about the safety of children crossing the border. The following applies to any situation
where a passenger under 18 years old is not crossing the border accompanied by both parents:

• If one or both parents are not accompanying the child, bring a letter from any parent or legal guardian not present giving permission to cross the border. (If part of an organized group, see below for the requirement.) Include addresses and phone numbers.

jackieblack

Oh dear, Murphy, you do like to make things complicated for yourself! :rotfl:


Thanks for the heads up re eTA BTW, that one had passed me by.......

Indout96

I know its only a small thing but make sure they have the $6 fee in cash at customs, paying on a card will cause their heads to explode (or it did when we went over rainbow bridge)

Murphy_The_Cat

jackieblack wrote: »

Oh dear, Murphy, you do like to make things complicated for yourself! :rotfl:


Thanks for the heads up re eTA BTW, that one had passed me by.......

complicated but (hopefully) great fun.

The Kitten really enjoys travelling on trains and I love the Dad and Daughter time.

I'm at the initial 'filling in the blanks' stage of my planning now, which is where the fun begins.

Previously, we've been to a lot of places, which has meant a lot of road time inbetween. For next years trip, the children still wanted to see 'loads', but didn't want to be sat in a car/SUV for so much. So, time in the Vancouver area, short time in Seattle area (looking forward to going round the Boeing factory) and then flying down to San Diego for some California time. Which should please all parties.

Lots of flights, but I think that I'm happy with the flight prices (with starting the trip from Dublin, even allowing for the positioning flight and night in a Dublin hotel, we're still over a £1000 better off than going from Manchester. & yes, the DUB & MAN plane connect with the same plane that takes us to VAN -- absolutely crackers)

Murphy_The_Cat

Indout96 wrote: »

I know its only a small thing but make sure they have the $6 fee in cash at customs, paying on a card will cause their heads to explode (or it did when we went over rainbow bridge)

cheers indout
anything that saves aggravation is good advice for me

blindman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

We then fly home from California a few days later.

Has anyone done anything similar/offer any thoughts/have recent experiences ?

May be worth asking\looking on Fodors forum or Tripadvisor for such specific requirements.

We did a Canadian holiday way back before ESTA's :cool: and for a day drove a hire car from Vancouver to Seattle.

Got stopped at the USA border and had to fill out the Paper form-No hassle.

I "think" we returned it on the way back that evening.

One thing to note:
The queue at the border was Ok leaving Canada but quite long to get back in IIRC.

Why are you doing such a convoluted trip?

jackieblack

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

complicated but (hopefully) great fun.

The Kitten really enjoys travelling on trains and I love the Dad and Daughter time.

I'm at the initial 'filling in the blanks' stage of my planning now, which is where the fun begins.

Previously, we've been to a lot of places, which has meant a lot of road time inbetween. For next years trip, the children still wanted to see 'loads', but didn't want to be sat in a car/SUV for so much. So, time in the Vancouver area, short time in Seattle area (looking forward to going round the Boeing factory) and then flying down to San Diego for some California time. Which should please all parties.

Lots of flights, but I think that I'm happy with the flight prices (with starting the trip from Dublin, even allowing for the positioning flight and night in a Dublin hotel, we're still over a £1000 better off than going from Manchester. & yes, the DUB & MAN plane connect with the same plane that takes us to VAN -- absolutely crackers)

Sounds great


If you have the time, when driving back from Seattle to Vancouver, I can highly recommend taking the ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island (one of the San Juan Islands) and taking a whale watching trip.
This was, hands down and without any shadow of a doubt, the best single day of our 3 week Pacific Northwest/Vancouver Island/BC trip a few years ago, and by far the best of all the various whale/wildlife watching trips we took.


I'm sorry I can't help with your query re the crossings as we flew into Seattle (so using ESTAs to travel) and, after spending a week or so in Washington/Oregon, put the car on the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, spent some time on Vancouver Island and then took another ferry (from somewhere on the east coast of the island whose name escapes me atm) to Vancouver. When we eventually made our way back into the USA (return flight from Seattle) we didn't have to complete any paperwork or pay any fee at the border, presumably because we were still within the 90 days of being admitted under VWP at Seattle when we arrived.

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

Why are you doing such a convoluted trip?

Long answer short :beer:
We've always wanted to go to Canada, but have never fancied the idea of Canada in the cold.
For a long time, we've wanted to visit Seattle, but only if we can do it in the Summer.
The wild card is my American based FiL, who really, really, really wants to have some beach time with us while a) his health is up to it and b) the children still want to do beach time with us all.

Flying IN to Vancouver and OUT of Seattle would have been OK, but would have incurred a whopping one way rental charge for the rental car.

If we were staying in the Seattle, Vancouver area, things would have been much easier, but its meeting up with the FiL that makes things slightly more complicated.

duchy

Hope you managed to use those vouchers somewhere on this trip or the last

I loved Vancouver - I tacked in on to an existing trip and only had 24 hours there but it's on the definitely must go back list !!

Murphy_The_Cat

duchy wrote: »

Hope you managed to use those vouchers somewhere on this trip or the last

I loved Vancouver - I tacked in on to an existing trip and only had 24 hours there but it's on the definitely must go back list !!

They certainly did get used to good effect. I think the good people of New England got the benefit of them:beer:.

We're looking forward to Vancouver, as we've not heard anything but good things said about the entire area (& I'm looking forward to the flight, as I've blagged the throne seat on the A380).

I've a very strong feeling that Seattle & Vancouver will feature in future plans as well.

John259

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

and pay the $6 charge

US dollars, presumably. Best to have both, just in case. Belt, braces, bit of string...