Why don't more Americans travel to Canada?! (living, legally)

[Nunnor]

How come not that many Americans drive to Canada, especially those in northern states (10 hours or less drive to the border)? I can guarantee that 95%+ of Canadians living near the U.S. border in big cities, including small, have traveled/driven thru the U.S. for any reason.

Here in New York/New Jersey area, I see plenty of Canadian license plates (Mostly Quebec and Ontario).
Canada is a unique and beautiful place to visit... sad that not that many have been there despite being close to the country. Quebec being north of us is a taste of France!

I know many Americans who says that they never been outside the country.... well you have an easy option to travel north! It's affordable and easy. All you need is passport (Should be required but whatever).

Canada is a great country, slightly different from America, and is very diverse and has anything you want!

[nycjowww]

i love canada. in fact id love to live in canada. But i hate winters in nyc, and winters in nyc arent even that bad, so i could imagine winters in canada.

[Nunnor]

Originally Posted by nycjowww

i love canada. in fact id love to live in canada. But i hate winters in nyc, and winters in nyc arent even that bad, so i could imagine winters in canada.

Western Canada (Vancouver area) has mild winters with barely any snow in winter and temperatures stays usually slightly above freezing.

If you want to stick to Central and Eastern Canada, you could visit anywhere between April - October for warmer weather. Toronto and Montreal has hot and often humid summers!

[nycjowww]

Originally Posted by Nunnor

Western Canada (Vancouver area) has mild winters with barely any snow in winter and temperatures stays usually slightly above freezing.

If you want to stick to Central and Eastern Canada, you could visit anywhere between April - October for warmer weather. Toronto and Montreal has hot and often humid summers!

i visit montreal normally. i love it plus my parents are haitian. Vancouver does not look like a place for me.

[Lifeshadower]

I was just in Vancouver last weekend, and there were more plates from the United States (Washington State mostly, but a huge contingent of California plates like me) than there were BC plates around tourist traps like Stanley Park.

I live way more than a 10 hour drive from Canada as well.

Unfortunately, due to more lax drinking laws in Canada, there are probably lots of young Americans who go to Canada to drink legally.

[iNviNciBL3]

I've only been to Manitoba and Western Ontario. Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg are beautiful, The city of Winnipeg is pretty nice too, ill defiantly make it back there some day. Western Ontario is pretty much just a even more peaceful version of Northern Minnesota. didnt care to much for Thunder Bay though.

[steel03]

I love Canada. <3 Quebec City is like nothing else in North America, and Ottawa is so beautiful, and Toronto and Montreal are so bustling and exciting, and Vancouver has those incredible mountains, and then you've got the Canadian Rockies and Quetico and Niagara and the charm of the Maritimes. I really don't know why more people don't visit Canada either.

[Finger Laker]

I think 10 hours of driving is well beyond the tolerance of many ... I also think this premise is a bit flawed when it comes to border areas as there is a lot of travel from both areas ..... many Americans do make that travel, especially those that are only a few hours from places like montreal, toronto, niagara falls, etc

there are border towns that are pretty much party destinations for americans as well

i also know a lot of people that blend between western washington and british columbia

I think where it gets a bit more isolated is in the manitoba/alberta area where you really don't have huge population centers that are close to each other and not that much of a draw to get people to hop on a flight

it's interesting that accorinding to 2009 Statistics Canada data that there were 11.67M overnight trips by americans to canada and 21.27M same day trips by americans to canada

this is way down from a decade ago when the overnight trips were closer to 17M and they are down for a number of reasons

however, that isn't an insignificant number

canadians do travel south a lot - 17.98M overnight trips to america and 21.27M same day trips

this is where it gets interesting for me .... the place that is most visited - NYC ... not surprising, it's on the radar for a lot of americans as well and is relatively close to a large number of canadians

however, the location where canadians spent the most number of nights in 2009 (a combined 47,488,000) is in FL .... so much of that population is doing the same thing as their northern US neighbors - heading south to escape the long winters

canadians also spend 2x the amount of time in the US than americans spend in canada (8 days to 4 days)

the number of overnight visitors to canada from places other than the US in 2008 was a combined 4.6M - roughly 1/3 of the overnight US visitors even at a time when US visitors are at an all time low

[cpg35223]

I've been to Canada an even dozen times. Great place. However, three things I'd like to point out.

1) It's a haul for people in the Southern half of the U.S. to get to Canada.

2) Even Canadians drive through the United States a great deal of the time when driving cross-country. Most of of the Trans Canada I've driven (Around Lake Huron between Toronto and Sault Ste Marie) is two lanes or three lanes with not many amenities between towns. We stopped at a diner in some small town along the way and the waitress commented on our funny Southern accents. When we mentioned where we were driving, she said, "Why aren't you going through Michigan? That would be a lot easier."

3) The average Canadian gets 26 paid vacation days a year, while the average American gets 13 paid vacation days a year. So after Americans burn through 5 days a year just doing things like going to family events and the like, they have one week left. Not a lot of time to spend in the car driving up north.

[garmin239]

I don't know very many people who haven't been to Canada, but I love closer to the border so it may be different. Just from talking with people, the passport issue is a big hurdle to them.