For those who are curious, I booked the rental car for my Canada trip pre-flight. In fact what I did was, I booked the flight bundled with the car rental via ebookers. It came out cheaper and I was able to save about a hundred euros. So that is a TIP for you my dear readers =)
I do not exclusively use ebookers by the way. It just so happen that they were the best one at that moment. Cheaptickets, Skyscanner and Momondo are also good sites that I use.
Another TIP for those who want to save money: Always book the cheapest and smallest car when travelling to Canada (and the USA) because you will for sure be upgraded to the next class. Fact: Small cars do not exist in Canada and the USA. Automatic cars are also the standard there, which is fine. I do not mind lazy driving.
For this trip I booked a Kia Rio, the smallest in the economy range of rental cars, but when I arrived in Montreal, I was upgraded to 2 levels higher and was given a Toyota Corolla LE inclusive of GPS. Not bad. It is a bigger and luxurious car than the Rio so I welcome that. I didn’t buy any extra insurance coverage as well, I just took the standard plan which was part of the original booking. The Hertz guy however did his best in selling me some extra insurance, but no thank you. I have travel insurance myself and this should cover all the excess and risks. Plus I drive carefully.
The car rental area in Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport is located on the ground floor of the parking building. It is very easy to find with the signs. Returning the car is also straightforward, just follow the rental car signs back to the airport.
What surprised me in this Canada visit is the horrible state of many roads, especially in Montreal. I saw some road construction works going on though, so that is quite positive. I hope the new government addresses this with a fast track plan because potholes and short-term road bandaids reflect a very bad image of the city.
A blooper I made that could have turned expensive mistake was parking beside a fire hydrant system in Montreal. I did not know, I did not see the thing as it was very dark when I parked that evening. Only when I came back in the morning together with my friend Pat that she pointed out my mistake. Ooops! I quickly moved the car of course.
Overspeeding in Canada is expensive. You could easily pay up to $25,000 if you are not careful. Luckily they do not have speeding cameras there like here in Europe. It is all done by cops on patrol. Maximum speed on highways is 110 kilometres per hour, however, I noticed that people were driving at 120 km/h, which technically is overspeeding already. Police officers do not really flag you down at this speed though, as told by the Hertz guy. So I drove between 110 and 120 km/h =)
And oh, a first time experience for me as well was parking the car 10 floors under the earth! The Centre de Commerce Mondial in Montreal has 12 floors of underground parking. It was a cool and interesting experience to go down that far below the abyss…
Travel Period: September – October 2015
Destination: Montreal | Ottawa, Canada
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)