Travel Tricks
Canadians: Know this if you take a US plated Car into Canada
Aug 3rd
My routine when traveling back to Canada, as a Canadian living abroad, is to land at a US airport not far from the border, rent a car and cross into the home country. The advantages of doing it this way are multiple: much cheaper car rental rates, cheaper flights, debit check cards can be used, and generally friendlier border agents. It has been smooth sailing in nine years of doing it this way. However, you ask, aren’t Canadians prohibited from driving US plated vehicles into Canada?
Yes, it is true. The main difference is that the restriction applies only to Canadian residents. As a foreign resident, I have the same status as any tourist, even if my passport is Canadian. However, I must state that fact when asked where I live. I have never been asked for any proof of residency, even though I have such documentation, and I have never been asked about the car. My driver’s license is Canadian, but that would have no effect, a Canada customs information person told me, and I was never asked for that either Just saying you live outside of Canada is deemed good enough.
For Canadian residents, even if you were living abroad and are now just returning to reside in Canada, you would have to go through the arduous process of importing the vehicle and have the paperwork in hand at the border. Definitely not something you want to do in the case of a rental, and it might cost you money if it is your own car. While the rules I read are aimed at drivers of US-plated car, it is a safe bet the same law applies to vehicles with plates from other countries as well.
Although I have never had problems driving into Canada, I did run into a potential disaster returning to the United States with a Michigan plated car. I guess I caught a Homeland Security officer who was having a bad day, because as soon as I told him I was a Canadian citizen, but living in Argentina (at the time), he got rude and accused me of being an illegal immigrant in the USA. After some tirades about supposed hordes of Canadians overstaying their welcome, he asked me to produce my return flight reservation, and I stupidly could not find it in the jumble inside my suitcase. Then I remembered I had not printed-out my reservation! The border agent was now victoriously telling me he was going to bar me from entering the country. That is an automatic five-year long denial of entry, not to mention not being able to return the vehicle to the Detroit rental car agency, losing my return air fare, and having to spend a bundle to travel direct to Canada or via other countries than the US. I plead with the man, and after what seemed like an eternity, he finally he tells me: “show me the car’s rental contract”. He glances over it, and says, “Have a nice day”, and I am on my way. Personally, I think my baby blue shirt ticked him off! However the lesson learned is when returning to the United States with your US plated rented car, immediately proffer the rental contract with your passport, and have a printout of your return reservation handy in case they ask for it. I have been doing this ever since that ugly incident and I have never had any further border issues.
So, if you are worried about problems driving across the border, worry not unless you are living in Canada.
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The Medical Tourism Check-Up
Feb 12th
There’s an old story still going around about doctors in poor countries re-using syringes and even bandages. It’s a myth. If it ever did happen, it was in some remote outpost, and even then I would still doubt it. Fact is, medical schools in large cities across the developing world turn-out highly skilled doctors and the facilities they work in are often as good as in any in the developed world. The major difference is in what it costs to be treated by these doctors and those hospitals: a fraction of what it does in the United States. Furthermore, the cost of medications is also vastly less than in the US, and can usually be bought without a prescription.
Photo courtesy of Fernando Audibert
It’s no surprise, therefore, that medical tourism is all the rage, especially in areas usually not covered by insurance plans, such as plastic surgery. Flip through the pages of the on-flight magazine on any plane bound for Buenos Aires and you’ll notice the abundance of ads by state of the art plastic surgery clinics. Learn to dance tango and get a face lift! Just how big is the cost difference? A heart bypass surgery invoice for 140,000 USD in the USA might only be 20,000 in Mexico, 10,000 in India, or 9,000 in Thailand. A face lift would set you back 15,000 dollars in America, while only 6,500 in Costa Rica, or 5,000 in South Korea. Even after you factor-in your return airfare, hotel, food and the rest, you still come out ahead and you get to spend time in an exotic locale!
Medical insurance is also generally less expensive and more generous in its coverage than in most developed nations that don’t provide universal medicare. There’s usually a free government-run public insurance plan, but it’s almost guaranteed to include the lowest level of care. Instead, if you’re gainfully employed in your new country, get hooked-up with your employer’s health plan, which will be inexpensive and offer complete coverage. For example, Sura, a health insurer in Colombia offers a plan through employers which covers even medications and dental work for as little as 40 dollars a month for the entire family of the insured. There’s usually a small user fee for each service performed, but it rarely amounts to more than a dollar. There’s also private insurance plans which are much more costly (but still less than in the US) but will give you priority care (no waiting!) in the top hospitals and clinics.
Why does medical care and medicine cost so little in developing countries? First and foremost, because the cost of living and wages are much lower, but also because malpractice insurance isn’t a requirement or is inexpensive since patients aren’t as likely to litigate, and finally because the medical industry’s profits aren’t so hefty and protected by lawmakers greased by lobbyists. Just to mention a couple of advantages for the user: generic versions of drugs are more freely produced and distributed, and experimental treatments are readily obtained as they aren’t blocked by laws.
However, the lure of cheap medication and surgery comes with a warning label: Stick to the reputable clinics, many of which cater in large part to medical tourists, and don’t get your drugs from just any dispensary, lest you want to run the risk of a botched operation or ingesting bogus medicine.
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Gringo Discrimination Alert!
Jan 11th
Imagine going to a restaurant and being handed a different menu than other diners. The menu is identical in every way to the others, save for the prices, which are three times higher. This would never happen in New York, Toronto, or Sydney, but it happens routinely in Cozumel, Mexico, and a lot of other places in the developing world. The reason you were given the pricier menu is that you were deemed to be a foreigner from your appearance. If that isn’t discrimination, what is?
Photo courtesy of Karl-Erik Bennion
This unjust practice isn’t limited to restaurants. It’s also commonly used to gouge foreigners for a hotel room, entrance fees to national parks, and even for airline tickets, to name a few. For example, virtually every quality hotel in Buenos Aires (Argentina) will charge a room rate that’s higher for foreign nationals. It’s also routine for national parks in Mexico and Colombia to charge higher gate fees to non-nationals. I’m only giving examples that resulted from my own experiences, but I suspect that this money grab isn’t limited to the locales I mentioned.
Businesses who engage in such ludicrous behavior may actually be violating local laws, but as enforcement of such regulations is usually very poor (and corrupted) in the developing world, they do so with virtual impunity. The one situation that made me most furious amongst all was that Lan, the big South American airline, charges higher airfares for foreigners traveling within Argentina, where I reckon they’re permitted to do so. I will think twice before flying with them again!
There are some things you can do to defend against such practices. In the case of the restaurants, ask them for the “menu local” (local menu), which is what the other patrons have in their hands. Point-out in a friendly way that you’re a resident if you need to, and if you’re rebuked, just eat elsewhere, no matter how great their shrimp cocktail is! For hotels, have someone who’s a national reserve for you, and avoid using credit cards, which would identify you as a foreigner. If you’re given a rough time, ask for the manager and nicely request that you be treated fairly and pay the resident rate. You could try the same strategy with the airlines and other types of businesses, and if you know that what they’re doing is illegal, you could bring up that fact to great effect. I would be very careful not to escalate the tone of any dispute, especially with those who handle your food!
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24 Hours is all you Need to Visit Any City!
Jan 9th
If you travel as often as I do, you’ll break-up the physical and mental torture of long trips by including a brief stop in a major city of interest, preferably where you’d be connecting to another flight taking you to your final destination.
If you travel as often as I do, you’ll break-up the physical and mental torture of long trips by including a brief stop in a major city of interest, preferably where you’d be connecting to another flight taking you to your final destination.
I’m going to be a heretic and tell you that you can indeed visit just about any major city in the world within a single day. Forget the travel guides whose pages are chock full of “Must Sees” and “Must Dos”. The authors have to fill pages and are thus prone to fishing in obscure waters for dubious interesting places for you to visit. There’s an astounding number of sights in any given city which the natives themselves have likely never heard of, let alone would bother visiting. Why would you travel thousands of miles to waste an hour in a Renaissance pottery museum? If you’ve seen one major zoo, you’ve probably seen them all. Ditto with botanical gardens and city parks. Any science center, natural history museum, or planetarium is pretty much the same the world over. Unless you’re an art fanatic, or your stopover city has a unique collection, art museums will just make you tired and cranky. Old Christian Churches the world over repeat the same dreary themes and can be overlooked, unless we’re talking about something like Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or Notre Dame in Paris. Avoid the sites that are prone to big lineups and be content with seeing them from the outside, or consider an alternative. For instance, in New York, since the loss of the World Trade Center, most tourists will line-up for the observation deck at the Empire State building, not knowing that there’s another observation level at the Rockefeller center. In London, most will head for the “London Eye” not realizing you can get a great panoramic view of the city from atop the Monument, and for just 2 “quid” to boot! Look for those kinds of alternatives and don’t be a sheep!
Books and TV shows greatly exaggerate the importance of dining out. In this day and age, you probably can get a better meal at a French restaurant in your hometown than in some overpriced and overrated joint on the Champs Elysees. Instead of wasting 2 hours at a full service restaurant, grab a bite at a Quick’s (if you’re in Paris) and use the extra time to discover another emblematic site. Walking and riding subways are without a doubt the most efficient, economical and quickest ways to get around just about any big city and see it all. 90% of what you want to see is more than likely to be in the city center anyway. You’ll generally find transit system maps of any city right on the web, which you can download and print. The open air tour buses found in most cities are fun, but are usually very expensive and don’t give you the freedom to explore when and what you want to. The tour buses that do allow you to jump out at any point in their trajectories wind-up wasting you hours waiting for the next bus to come along.
Planning ahead what you’ll visit and how you’ll get there will definitely help you to see everything that needs to be seen in short order. Most importantly: wear comfortable shoes, or blisters will put a damper on your adventures!
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Money-Saving Tips for Renting Cars in North America
Jan 9th
Renting a car in North America is a similar experience to buying a car in North America. If you’re not attentive, you might wind-up signing a rental contract that is anything but a good deal. There’s a few things you should be aware of before you make a reservation that will help you understand the game rental companies are playing at your expense. There’s even a few tricks you can have up your own sleeve that will allow you to come out on top!
Most important, when shopping for the best deal, base your cost comparison on the final costs, not the advertised base rate. Once all the extra, non-optional charges are factored-in, the best deal may actually have had a higher base rental rate. Rental franchises are quite clever at tacking-on extra charges, making them sound as if they’re taxes, when in fact they’re not. Thus, you’ll see mysterious charges such as “Concession recovery fee” or “Customer Facility Charge”,”Vehicle License Recoupment Fee”, which translate to “our lease costs of our location”,”the cost of our infrastructure”,”our license plate cost”, respectively. These bogus charges are arbitrary and will vary greatly from one franchisor to the next, adding as much as 15 per cent or more to your bill, not including the real taxes that will go on top of all this. What this means in real terms is that an advertised rate of 30 dollars a day is really 35 dollars before taxes. Such costs, in a normal world, should be included in the base rate, but unfortunately the car rental industry as a whole is guilty of this dishonest behavior and I’m afraid is does work at making people believe they’re paying less.
Don’t go for the pre-paid tank of gas deal. You’re not very likely to return the car completely empty and no matter what price per gallon/liter they quote, it’s their win. The inconvenience of refilling the tank before returning the car is a very small thing!
Don’t let them pressure you into buying optional features, such as insurance. Liability insurance is more than likely not necessary as your own policy probably already covers you. For example if you’re a Canadian or US driver and you’re renting in either country, your driver’s liability insurance takes care of you. Some credit and debit cards also include such coverage. Furthermore, the high priced option likely comes with a big deductible. Life insurance is just money thrown out the window.
The loss/damage waiver (LDW) isn’t insurance. The car they rent to you is covered by the their own insurance already, and the LDW is just a treaty between you and the franchisor whereby they absolve you of any responsibility if the vehicle is damaged. The problem is that the price of this option often exceeds the rental rate. LDW is a very important source of profit for rental companies, and they’re quite eager to sell it to you. The usual recommendation is to decline the LDW, especially since your own insurance may already cover you for damage to rental vehicles.
Rental car franchises also inclined to charge a weekly rate for what is really a 5 day rental. While sometimes the weekly rate might be a better deal than paying a daily rate for five days, verify first that that’s actually the case. Verify that those bogus extra charges mentioned earlier as well as any other daily charges aren’t also charged for 7 days instead of 5.
Book via the Internet for the best rates. Competition amongst the car rental companies is most fierce on the Internet and there’s no easier way to compare rates. Pay attention to the specials or “deals” on offer.
Most rental car franchises in the USA accept debit cards with the Master Card or Visa logo, instead of credit cards. However, few accept them in Canada and there are areas of the USA where almost no rental companies will accept them, such as in New York City. If you reserve a vehicle, make sure to verify that they indeed accept your debit card, or you might have an embarrassing moment once you get there. Some states prohibit rental car companies from refusing debit cards. Such is the case with New York state, apparently NYC being exempt from that law.
Review the rental agreement carefully before signing it. Some unscrupulous franchisors are known to add-on rental options without asking if you actually want them. One even had me down for life insurance, as if that had anything to do with renting a car!
Now, a dirty little trick of your own: Always book “economy” cars, thus guaranteeing the lowest rate possible. If you book well in advance, it’s most likely that they won’t have any economy vehicles on the lot when you get there, and you’ll be upgraded to a compact, mid-size car or even a van at no extra charge. If you didn’t really want the economy car and they have one, then just change your mind on the spot and upgrade, although in this case you will pay a higher rate. In the long run, you’ll save a fortune, even if you’re being a bit dishonest in the process!
Some rental companies allow you to drop-off the vehicle at a different location within the same state at no extra charge. For example, I recently picked-up a vehicle from National rent-a-car at Westchester County airport and dropped it off at John F Kennedy airport at no extra cost. Normally, you’d have to pick-up the vehicle at the same place as you drop it off, and in the case of JFK, that would have meant a much higher rental cost.
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