Options for getting from Maine to Canada (YUL)?

[SYD]

Recently bought QF SYD-YVR//YUL-ORD-LAX-SYD during the last QF “Sale” for travel later in the year (it was only $500 more to fly back from the east leveraging the YVR J fare - which was pretty good value I thought). Plus, we need to be in Maine for a wedding but returning from say BOS or NYC was much more expensive.

Despite being able to see Canada from Maine, it doesn’t seem to be that straight forward getting to YUL from Portland area. The most direct seems to be AC BOS-YUL but fares aren’t cheap and limited reward seats via VA and UA (early morning departures or one hop overnight ordeals).

Preference would be to fly AA, but that means getting to LGA or even further afield (PHL, ORD). Again, not cheap and I can’t currently search reward seats thanks to QF website having a hissyfit with AA redemptions…

Has anyone done train or bus over the border and where’s best to go via? We’re planning driving around for a few days after the wedding, so no drama heading towards someone in Maine, Vermont or up state NY?

Pointers to recent TRs in that area welcome also.

 

[drron]

Apparently there is no bus or train from Maine to Canada and you have to go back to Boston for either. We drove from Bpston to Canada including PEI in 2019. We then drove back to Boston via coastal Maine. beautiful country. So maybe see if you can hire a car in Maine and drop off in Canada. I guess the one way fee might be large.
I did trip reports on both halves of the journey.

Old and New England with Green Gables.

Time flies and next Monday we are off on our next trip.We will fly to SYD and stay at Rydges.Then our usual BA 16 to SIN on Tuesday. Wednesday and our first SQ suites on SQ 308 to LHR. 12 days driving around Wales with a visit to Fishguard to salute the memory of the fishwives. Then the only...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

The Long Way Back From PEI.

The Green Gables thread has got a little bit long at over 350 posts so I have decided to start again with our trip home.I will post a summary post of PEI on the Green Gables thread as I know quite a few are interested in going there. So to start here is the arrival of the ferry in Nova Scotia...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Matt_01]

Not sure how helpful this maybe, Amtrak run the Adirondack service between Montreal and NYC which stopped during Covid due to the boarder crossing and the Covid rules differences in the US and CA. Depending on when you are travelling it maybe running. We had planned on using it last September but it had not been reinstated. There are a few stops in up state NY and you maybe able to connect to another Amtrak service or just hire a car and drive.

 

[drron]

There are 2 Amtrak services a day from Boston to Montreal and Boston is just a 2 hour drive from Portland Maine.

Air Canada has flights from Boston to Montreal as well.

 

[SYD]

There are 2 Amtrak services a day from Boston to Montreal and Boston is just a 2 hour drive from Portland Maine.

Will look at both Amtrak routes. They weren’t coming up on Rome2rio - so maybe not running still or I was looking too far out.

Air Canada has flights from Boston to Montreal as well.

Yep. That was in my OP. Quite expensive and remaining points flights depart at “sparrows” but I have sufficient UA or VA points to book. The airport hotels (and BOS in general) are hideously expensive…

We fly into BOS and will drive to Portland and then onto a wedding.

 

[drron]

So rather than the site i went go I went to Amtrak and there is no boston Montreal service.
But the New York Train stops in Albany the NY State capital. So you could drive from Portland to Albany. The direct route via the Interstates is just over 4 hours.
The indirect toll free route via New Hampshire and Vermont takes 5.5 hours driving straight through but why not have a couple of days on the way through. lovely countryside.

 

[SYD]

So rather than the site i went go I went to Amtrak and there is no boston Montreal service.
But the New York Train stops in Albany the NY State capital. So you could drive from Portland to Albany. The direct route via the Interstates is just over 4 hours.
The indirect toll free route via New Hampshire and Vermont takes 5.5 hours driving straight through but why not have a couple of days on the way through. lovely countryside.

Yep, the plan was to spend a few days driving around - either end up at an airport or somewhere with a bus/train over the border. Totally flexible.

I still can’t find any trains from the US direct to Montréal. But there are buses from Burlington and Plattsburgh (circa 2 hrs but some weird timings).

This trip isn’t until late September, so maybe some schedules aren’t loaded yet. But would be nice to firm up something sooner than later.

 

[DC3]

How about driving? I’ve driven a Hertz rental car USA-CAN-USA and it was pretty straight-forward. Although I haven’t driven to/from Montreal, it’s about a 5-plus hour (410km) drive from Portland, Maine. Return the vehicle somewhere in the US

 

[drron]

Well this from the Amtrak website.


The Adirondack is the New York to Montreal service but it does not run every day. there is a map of all the stations on there.

Adirondack Train | Amtrak

The Amtrak Adirondack train travels daily from New York City, through the wine country of the Hudson Valley, into Montreal.

www.amtrak.com

PS I just tried booking on a Monday and it says the service doesn't exist from Albany even though marked on their map.

 

[dajop]

Well this from the Amtrak website.
View attachment 316410



PS I just tried booking on a Monday and it says the service doesn't exist from Albany even though marked on their map.

Googling adirondacks service + Montreal brings up various news articles suggesting that Amtrak have not yet committed to a return date for the service beyond Albany. It was suspended in March 2020.

 

[SYD]

Googling adirondacks service + Montreal brings up various news articles suggesting that Amtrak have not yet committed to a return date for the service beyond Albany. It was suspended in March 2020.

Yeah, looks like it terminates in Albany. There’s a Greyhound bus from Plattsburgh that’s looking the best option so far.

How about driving? I’ve driven a Hertz rental car USA-CAN-USA and it was pretty straight-forward. Although I haven’t driven to/from Montreal, it’s about a 5-plus hour (410km) drive from Portland, Maine. Return the vehicle somewhere in the US

Yep, need to check the one way fee and/or if possible. Last time I look going CA to US, it was an “arm and a leg“ cost. But about to look…

 

[Quickstatus]

How about driving?

I've done Portland-lake Placid-Montreal-Albany in winter. I figured that of the planes, trains, and automobiles (incl buses), a good sized car was the quickest and most convenient.

But that was before the the Rona revenge tax.

 

[Matt_01]

Googling adirondacks service + Montreal brings up various news articles suggesting that Amtrak have not yet committed to a return date for the service beyond Albany. It was suspended in March 2020.

Back in June 2022 the Amtrak site said it was going to start operating but I couldn't find any trains to book. I ended up contacting Amtrak and back then they responded stating the restart was put on hold. We like trains and were travelling in Sep/ Oct which is also when the foliage turns so it was planned as part of the trip. In the end we held off until about 2 weeks before we had to head to NYC and then just booked a flight as there was no other option. So my view from the air rather than a train. The first is the vicinity of the great north wood and the second is the vicinity of the Adirondacks Park

Yep, need to check the one way fee and/or if possible. Last time I look going CA to US, it was an “arm and a leg“ cost. But about to look…

I would be interested to know how you get along with the hire car. In 2019 I was planning for trip to be taken in 2020 that was NYC-Portland, Nova Scotia-PEI. If my memory serves me correctly getting from NYC-PWM was not the easiest and I think UA was the only carrier with a direct flight from EWR. We were planning to use the car ferry and looking at hire car options pick up in Portland drop off in PEI, after searching a few of the major providers I couldn't find any options and called it quits.

When planning the trip we took last year I also was looking for options YUL-PWM and it was proving difficult. We didn't have a need to to go to Portland so it was just dropped off, also we like the northeast side of the US/CA so that is an excuse to go back.

Back to the trains and not knowing your preferences or time frames VIA has a service that runs Montreal to Halifax and from there you would need to get some type of transport to the ferry terminal at Yarmouth and the CAT sails to Bar Harbour (it used to go to Portland but this changed a few years back. We did look at this option but did not have enough time. The Maple Leaf line has re-commenced however this starts in Toronto to NYC, I recall looking at this option but as it does not go through the Adirondacks we dismissed it. It may be an option and there is a train from Montreal to Toronto which takes around 3 hours and is quite a pleasant journey.

 

[VPS]

It may have changed because it’s been a few years but the trip from Portland to Boston had a lot of tolls that you needed a lot of small change for. Not overall that expensive though

 

[DC3]

It may have changed because it’s been a few years but the trip from Portland to Boston had a lot of tolls that you needed a lot of small change for. Not overall that expensive though

Some things have changed. Rental cars usually have an electronic tag now, for toll payment, billed through the car rental company and no stopping to sort out change

 

[drron]

It may have changed because it’s been a few years but the trip from Portland to Boston had a lot of tolls that you needed a lot of small change for. Not overall that expensive though

Though there are alternate no toll routes which are better if you are a tourist. Just put no tolls in google maps. On the toll free coast route just after you cross into New hampshire is a very good lobster pound. We visited it a couple of times.

 

[SYD]

Yep, need to check the one way fee and/or if possible. Last time I look going CA to US, it was an “arm and a leg“ cost. But about to look…

Just looked at a same day AVIS car hire from Albany to YUL and it wasn’t too bad.

BOS to YUL for 8 days not much diff than returning to elsewhere. So that looks like the go!

 

[SYD]

Just looked at a same day AVIS car hire from Albany to YUL and it wasn’t too bad.

BOS to YUL for 8 days not much diff than returning to elsewhere. So that looks like the go!

So I booked BOS to downtown YUL back in Feb via AVIS (about US$600 for 8 days). The system allowed me to do it and as mentioned earlier, the oneway fee was really no different to dropping off elsewhere in the US (which kind of made the bus and now train options kind of mute).

I called the BOS AVIS office after making the booking and told all good.

For months, I’ve been monitoring this booking and contemplating contingency plans but we flew in today to BOS and now have a Canadian plated car that’s heading home (we’ll sort of, it has Ontario plates). There was a couple of hiccups, I could see in the app that they’d given me a sh$t awful “unwanted upgrade” - a four door pickup truck! Really? But that was replaced - twice initially because a truck was just stupid and then when I mentioned I’ll need a “Non-resident insurance certificate”, they quickly change that again as opportunistic chance to get CA plate car home! Strange, they still gave me the insurance certificate but that’s probably for when I’m driving a CA plated car in the US!

Some things have changed. Rental cars usually have an electronic tag now, for toll payment, billed through the car rental company and no stopping to sort out change

Alas, this one doesn’t! And I thought Canada was the most tolled country in the world - well at least after Sydney….

Though there are alternate no toll routes which are better if you are a tourist. Just put no tolls in google maps. On the toll free coast route just after you cross into New hampshire is a very good lobster pound. We visited it a couple of times.

Yep, a little preplanning and appropriate GPS default settings work just fine.

BTW, the AVIS system doesn’t let me now book oneway US to CA for any future dates….!

 

[SYD]

Noyan border crossing was a cute and very quiet (no other cars coming or going in ether direction) when we passed through on Thursday before a long weekend.