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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
Subject to any restrictions in your car rental agreement, you can drive entirely freely from one US state to another without stopping, except that on some roads into California there are fruit inspection stations to prevent the bringing in of fruit, intended to avoid the risk of spreading disease to crops. You have to surrender any fruit you are carrying at these inspection stations.
There are inspection stations on many of the roads north of the Mexican border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, intended to detect illegal immigrants.
On major Interstates many states have tourist information centres just after you enter, which are well worth visiting.
You also often see weigh stations near state lines that are purely for trucks and very often closed.
Subject to any restrictions in your car rental agreement, you can drive entirely freely between Canadian provinces and territories without stopping.
Subject to any restrictions in your car rental agreement and any possible immigration complications you can drive across the border between the USA and Canada. You must however stop and show your passport when crossing the border. Visitors from outside these two countries (for example visitors from Britain) almost always need to park their car and visit an office in order to have their passports stamped when they first enter each country - the immigration officer will tell you what to do.
None of the rental car companies allow their cars to be taken into Mexico. US and Canadian citizens who wish to drive their own cars into Mexico have to make special arrangements with insurance brokers in the southwest of the USA; this is the basic reason why rental agencies do not allow their cars to be taken into Mexico. (Note however that New Mexico is a normal American state, part of the USA.)
In the main you can drive freely in Indian reservations, although some scenic back roads in reservations may occasionally be subject to tolls.
Any private or government property which is not open to the public is always clearly marked so.
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Most recently modified 12-Jul-02