Driving in New York State/USA and car hire

Looks like National (in some places) will rent to someone as young as 21. However, you'll probably have to call and check. I don't know re being a British national.

Oh, and you might want to check a map. NYC to Boston is about 5 hours. Then Boston to Niagara Falls is another 7 hours. Then from Niagara Falls to Toronto is another 2 hours. So you are easily looking at 3 - 4 days of just driving, if you stay within speed limits and stop for food, breaks, that sort of thing.

I highly recommend that you consider Amtrak or a bus from NYC to Boston. There are a lot of choices. You can get a VERY cheap ticket (something like $10? per person) from NYC chinatown to Boston's chinatown. In any event, this will cut out a day of driving, and if you take Amtrak's Acela, it's only 3 hours.

Another option is a shuttle flight from NY to Boston (don't forget, for NY, you'll have to go to La Guardia, which is on Long Island) - these flights take an hour and are pretty affordable. US Airways and Delta offer flights. Southwest is cheaper but they don't go to Boston, they go to Providence, Rhode Island, which is another 40 minutes or so by car or commuter train. But in any event, you'll save a huge amount of time.

I'd also recommend a short hop flight from Boston to Buffalo (closest city to Niagara Falls). This also takes about an hour. I suspect you want to sightsee, but the bottom line is, if you stop a lot, the driving will take that much longer and, unless you like basketball (the Hall of Fame is in Springfield, MA) or have a desire to see New York's capital city (Albany), the drive is going to consist of hour after hour of farms - nice for an hour, perhaps and then it's pretty repetitious.

If you are talking about renting a car in Manhattan, I have one word for you............don't. Manhattan has wonderful mass transit.....the subways, taxicabs and buses. Parking costs a fortune in Manhattan, and the traffic is an abomination. Besides, you are used to driving on the opposite side of the road in the UK, NYC is not the place to practice your new driving patterns.

Check this out:

http://www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm?pagePkey=11

The free Official NYC Guide is great, lots of info. If you want to spend a bit the Official NYC Visitor Kit will give even more info. Have fun!

When you go to Niagara Falls, check out the Canadian side. It is much more spectacular than the American side.

Once you have reached the Canadian side, and dodged the souvenir stands, pricey motels and the Casino, look for the QEW. That's the Queen Elizabeth Way, and leads you directly to downtown Toronto. The posted speed limit is 100 kph. The only difference in the speeding habits of Canajun drivers is the extent to which they speed. Once your well away from the Falls and out on the QEW, you can probably do 120, or even 125, if you feel comfortably in control of your car. Around Hamilton you'll want to slow it down, espeically if it is rush hour. Past Hamilton, you'll see on your right as you go north and then northeast Ford Motor plant, boasting that it is the home of the Windstar (a "mini-van", I believe). From there forward, unless the OPP (Ontraio Provincial Police) have some particular reason to slow down traffic, everyone most will likely being doing 120, and some a good deal more. Some run it up to 135, but that'll get you pulled over for sure in Hamilton, and you might not want to risk it between Hamilton and Toronto. The QEW becomes the Gardiner Expressway (by staying left) in Mississauga (i think) and that runs you into downtown Toronto. Unless you have lodgings elsewhere and have a route laid out for you, this is a good drive for seeing the "big" sights in the city as you fly by--the CN tower, the stadium where the Blue Jays play baseball, the headquarters of Air Canada, the stadium where the Maple Leafs play. At the eastern end of the downtown area, the Gardiner ends rather abruptly (they've been in a process of tearing it down). Keeping left will take you to the Don Valley Parkway, and you can find lots of good lodgings, although everything might seem dear (after all T.O. is the fourth largest city on the continent--after Ciudad Mexico, New York and Los Angeles). If your luck holds, anyone of our several Toronto members may show up to advise you on lodging and dining.

I have no idea of how roads are engineered in England. From the perspective of an American driver, the highways in Canada are not well marked (we'll have a sign for an upcoming exit at 1 mile, 1/2 mile, and in some busy cities, there'll be exit advice every 1/4 mile--in Canada, you'll see your exit sigmp, and you'll usually have about 500 meters to react). The on- and off-ramps are much shorter than in the States, and with a much sharper curve. The lanes seem narrower, but that may just be my paranoia. In general, though, although addicted to speed, Canajun drivers do signal lane changes, pull back to the left after passing, and let you in when you need to change lanes. On highways with three or more lanes, the left lane is reserved for passenger automobiles, and it's expected that you'll pass an pull back in. Lorries occasionally abuse this by passing in the far left lane, but not that often.

In New York, the posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour. This is not rigourously enforced, but it is enforced. On the New York State Throughway system, the speed limit is 65 mph, and you can probably get away with 70 mph. If you can, tank up (get your petrol) before getting on the Throughway, as there are but a few stops where gasoline is sold, and the prices on the Throughway are exhorbitant. If you pull off the Throughway looking for cheap petrol, you'll have to pay the toll at that exit, and then get another toll ticket when you get back on--you won't be saving much money. Finally, the food at the few plazas on the Throughway will be fast food, or generic, bland chain restaurant food. If you can't handle that, eat before getting on the Throughway, or take something with you.

Have a good trip, eh?

I just wanted to say thanks for all the replies. Im at work at the moment so when I get home tonight I will read them properly.

Thanks for the sugestion of the CN tower, Ive heard it mentioned before. I googled it a little bit and found it has a restarunt so I've booked a table. Just incase anybody reads this and wants to do the same you can do so online http://www.cntower.ca/

Thanks again, I'll post back again later.

Excellent info jespah. I didnt get National come up in any of my searches and although they are a little more expensive they do rent to under 24s. Thankyou so much. I know about the times and distances but thats not anything special for me, as in England the trains are useless and internal flights were really expensive until very recently. Ive done 1200miles in 2 days before and I really enjoy driving so Im hoping it will be fun!

Thanks for the driving tips Setanta. They will be useful when im there, the exits are pretty much the same in the UK as canada. I dont think the gas prices on the interstates will bother me too much, we pay 82pence a litre over here ($5.72 a gallon)

and Phoenix, I have absolutely no intention of driving in manhatten! Ive seen the movies! Its bad enough driving on the ring road round London and I can imagine that manhatten is much worse. That and our hotel is about 2 doors down from penn station so we will have underground and bus not to mention my legs for transport.

Again thanks for all your info.
Sean

You could also think of taking the ferry from Rochestor to Toronto. It is open now.

Hi there, I am visiting Toronto in November and I am thinking about hiring a car for a few days but from what I have seen on the net it seems pricey! anyone got any advice?

Try Alamo, I think they rent to under 25 too. And there's not much around the prices, rental cars are expensive. If you're from another country you have to purchase the insurance which is very expensive.
One cheaper alternative is to look up rental car companies outside the airports. The airport rental places pretty much nail you with the prices.

Call "Enterprise" and find out which is closest to the airport, sometimes they have a shuttle that will pick you up. Their rates are usually a good chunk less than Hertz, Avis, ect.

Try contacting Enterprise Rentals on-line before you go--they have weekend specials, and i believe you could find something reasonable. However, keep in mind that car rental is never cheap. Also keep in mind that the Canadian dollar is not as strong as the American dollar. A month ago, the Canadian dollar cost 75 cents US--of course, you may be doing a conversion directly from pounds to Canadian dollars--i don't know.

If you had thought of renting at the Airport, you will probably pay much higher prices. Look for car rentals in Mississauga, which is near Pearson airport, and you might find something less expensive. Also, you might just rely on public transport in Toronto. For about $2.25, you can ride the "Rocket" from the airport to the Kipling subway station. As long as you don't leave the station, you pay nothing further to take the subway into Toronto. In Toronto, the subway stations are all also transfer points for the buses and street cars (it's one of the oldest street car systems in the world, first started when electric generating plants were built at Niagara falls). If you had in mind visiting places like Niagara Falls, check out one day rentals, all the companies will have daily specials.

I see that Slappy (who knows cars) advises Enterprise, as well. One thing about Enterprise which recommends them, is that they will pick you up. Mississauga is a large town (about 600,000) near the airport, and there is likely to be at least one, and perhaps more, Enterprise offices there. They will come pick you up if you rent with them. When you return the car, they will drop you off at a nearby destination of your choice--your hotel, the airport, etc.

One last tip . . . if doing web searches for car hire in America, don't use the term "car hire." Americans say "car rental"--you'll get more hits using that term in a web search.

Thanks for the info. the best I can come up with so far (for a 3 day hire) is about £80 or $200cdn by the time you add on all the taxes and CDW etc. I will check out Mississuaga too. I did go to Toronto last year and did the 'rocket' thing into the city. We had to get a bus first then the tube into the centre of the city. I didnt get much sightseeing done last year as it was mainly business. This time I am bringing the family so I definitely want to do the whole Niagara, Cn tower etc .

In that case, i would suggest to you that $200 USD would not be a bad three day rental cost. $200 CAN is quite reasonable. Sometimes when i drive from Ohio to Toronto, it is because i've unexpectedly gotten the time off, but don't have enough advance notice to book advanced air fair at a low rate. I will spend from $200 to $250 USD for a three-day rental, with the full insurance coverage which will immunize me from the potential stupidity of other drivers. Canadians drive too fast, and they drive well and courteously. Were you to drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls, you would take the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) through Hamilton. If you made this early in the day, you could finish your afternoon by driving back on the QEW, and keeping to the left-hand lanes when you re-enter the city. Take the Garnier Expressway, which separates from the QEW in the two left lanes, and which goes past the CN tower, the stadiums, and above and across the center of the city.

You might or might not find a three day rental convenient. Two things which could fill one day without a rental would be to visit Eaton Place, and then cross the street to The Bay. Eaton Place is a large indoor shopping mall, and The Bay is the Canadian headquarters and flag-ship store of the Hudson's Bay Company (with the placque on the side of the building advertising their May, 1670 charter). In the afternoon, you could take the ferry out to the islands in the harbor, if the weather is not too bad. November won't be the best time, but you might still have good weather at that time of year. The heaviest snows are the "lake effect" snows, which result from evaporation of the lake water into the prevailing west to east winds of the winter time (brought to you directly from the icy depths of the Canadian Rockies). This means that on both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, the snow gets dumped on the south and east shores. I drove north of Lake Erie, through Detroit and Windsor and then across Ontario to Toronto on December 27th. We got wisps of snow--i was north and west of the lake. Meanwhile, Cleveland, Ohio on the south shore got 12" of snow. Erie, Pennsylvania on the east shore got 18" inches. Buffalo, on the north east corner of the lake, across the Niagara River from Canada, got three feet of snow. One Christmas (Boxing Day, actually), my sweetiepie and I left Kingston, on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. I shovelled snow before dawn, at about 8:00 a.m., and once again before we left. When we got back to Toronto, on the north-west side of the Lake, the streets were dry.

Good luck, i hope you'll have a safe trip and a good time.

I dont know if you guys know whats going on but i made several posts in the autos forum and my posts have all mysteriously disappeared. Is there a reason for this?

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34631