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Going to Canada questions
A couple questions with IMMT coming up.
Heard at the camp a mention of Groupme? Do american phones have coverage there or just thru wifi?
Is there things i.e food not drugs that we can or can't take across the border? Fresh? cooked and frozen? etc
thanks. starting to think about the trip and packing the car.
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I was there for the half last month. My phone worked but had to enable and pay roaming charges. You can check with your carrier, different plans probably offer different coverage.
You are not supposed to bring fruit or vegetables. I didn't and bought some expensive bananas up there. I may live dangerously and try to bring bananas from the USA this time. Worse comes to worse they will make me throw them out.
I hope this helps. See you soon.
Most likely you will need to upgrade your plan to receive calls and texts without incurring expensive roaming charges. I have Verizon and I had to upgrade my plan from the More Everything to the More Everything Plus Canada plan. It was $15 more per month and they will pro-rate it.
Data plans are expensive. Best to just stick with WiFi when available.
If you are staying in a hotel located in the village, they have a free WiFi network which is accessible throughout the entire village. The free access has a 200MB download limit per day. After that it is $10-15 per day for unlimited downloads and then I believe you can pay for the week. They also have corporate account access but I didn't look into that.. (Likely corporate rates with certain companies).
I have AT&T and purchased additional add-ons (voice and data) to my plan so I can make and receive voice calls in Canada ($30 for 80 minutes at a reduce rate than normal international roaming rates). The data plan starts at $30 for data access with a download limit, but I purchased the $60 data plan with Wifi Access to local cell providers which gives me unlimited downloads when I'm connect to a cell Wifi town.
Just make sure you turn Data Roaming off when you enter Canada when you don't need to use it so you don't run up your bill needlessly.
Customs: It depends on the customs agent. When I entered the guy asked if I was transporting alcohol into Canada. I said yes, but it only was a six pack of hard cider which he didn't question. My guess is they are looking for people trying to get around the duty tax on alcohol, tobacco, etc. Other things.. firearms (obviously), animals,.. just avoid the standard things which would flag a red light. I'm sure they all track the reasons you state you enter and leave so as long as you are consistent it shouldn't be a problem. They like to look in the back seat of the car as well so remove anything that might be questionable. I didn't get asked about food or anything.