crossing border from Montana into Alberta/best option?

As demand is limited ... At last report, there were no public transport services crossing the I-15-Canada border ... Suggest you keep the heap or fly into Calgary as well ... carracar

If you want to cross the US border on public transport, your options are Vancouver to the west and Ontario to the east with a BIG gap in between with no public transport over the border. There is plenty of public transport within Canada so you will have no problem getting to Calgary once you get into Canada. Some of the bus companies that have stopped crossing the border have cited unpredictable crossing times which make it hard to keep to a schedule. While the cars in the US and Canada look the same (they are often made in the same factory) there are subtle differences which make it hard to import a car built for one country into the other, for example the speedometer has two sets of numbers, in the US the larger are miles and the smaller are kilometers which in Canada it is the opposite, which is why the rental car companies do not do cross border rentals, you can rent in one country and cross the border as long as you return it to the country you rented it in but rent in one country and return in the other country is not easy as you have found..

Good advice.

Generally driving across the border with a rental is not an issue, as mentioned, it's the one way rental. There are often big surcharges for one way rentals even within Canada or the US; you also need to read the fine print carefully as an unlimited mileage rental in the US will often turn to pay per km in Canada. Companies will sometimes waive one fees between large markets (i.e. Seattle to Vancouver), but Montana is not a big rental car hub.

If you are from the UK/South Africa/Ireland/Australia you might be able to find a one way deal without a drop off fee through a company called Canadian Affair.

The differences between cars are actually very small - lots of people move between Canada/US and take their cars. The speedometer differences are becoming less of a problem with digital dashboard displays. The bigger issue tends to be in the winter when rules about snow tires are different in parts of Canada.

I'm not sure I would say there is plenty of public transport in Canada - in Alberta & BC, there is generally decent public transport within the major cities. Outside of the cities, it's basically Greyhound and occasionally another long distance bus company. There is one cross-Canada train route farther north (through Japser and Edmonton) with trains a few times per week. In southern Alberta, Greyhound is basically the only public transport and it's not one I'd choose over other options.

I think your options are going to one of a few:

1) Return the car in Montana, fly to Calgary and rent another car for the Canadian leg of your trip

2) Head over to Seattle. From there you can either return the car and fly, ferry or take the train to Vancouver. Rent a car there and head to Calgary. You might also be able to find a one way rental from Seattle to Calgary - a lot more people cross the border there, so it's easier for rental companies to deal with getting cars returned between countries.

3) You could probably find a patchwork of buses from Montana to Calgary, but you'd be going via Vancouver so it would take 2-3 days

admittedly I am in Ontario. but here I had, no problem renting from hertz or uhaul for cross border trip and leave it there did it twice in past. try them .

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