Fellow Canadians- ? about U.S. Customs
 

<BR>Hi! Need some help from my fellow Canadians! I will be traveling to the U.S. (flying) this winter for one week, departing from Calgary. I know you are not allowed to bring dairy, meat or fruit products into the U.S. Can I bring food such as pasta noodles, dry cereal- corn flakes etc with me? I checked the U.S customs website. No info, except for the dairy etc. Should I pack these in my carry on or checked luggage, or does it make a difference for security/customs?<BR><BR>We are trying to save some money due to the exchange rate. Thanks for your help!

I am glad to hear you checked the US customs website. I travel to the States quite often from Cda and have not had any problems bringing over food items (of course not the banned items you listed). Even some exotic herbs, medicinal powders, and vitamins.<BR><BR>Just remember to keep items in their original packaging if you can (for obvious reasons), especially if you are bringing pills (medicine) and stuff like sugar. Just check it with your luggage (no need to put it in hand luggage). <BR><BR>Have a great trip.

As long as it is sealed and in the packaging it should be fine. I bring chips and snacks and never have a problem

Newsflash: We have cornflakes and dried pasta here in the U.S. - no need to bring your own.

What Maria is saying is that it is a lot more expensive for us to buy anything in the US than in Canada. Basically what ever you pay for stuff, we have to multiply that by 1.6 or so to convert to Canadian dollars, but if we buy stuff here it is basically the same price as what you pay there, but only in Canadian funds.

Box of cereal (corn flakes) US $1.99<BR>1 lb of pasta US $0.49 (or cheaper)<BR>How much is this stuff in Canada?

less.

Dear Mom,<BR> As Melissa and Gary pointed out, the price tags are the same in Canada as in the US, but the currency is different.<BR><BR>Take the cereal for example. Both cost $1.99 on either side of the border. For a Canadian buying cereal in the US it would cost $3.19, for an American buying cereal in Canada it would cost $1.25. See why it's often cheaper to buy groceries here and then take them into the US? (The metric system also helps! Milk: 4 litre jug/bag is slightly more than a 1 gallon jug/bag, but same price!)

Gary, please let me know where I can buy a box of cornflakes for less than around $3.19 Canadian and pasta for less than around 80 cents Canadian in Vancouver. Obviously I'm shopping in the wrong places. Really, how much is she going to save and is it worth it?

This is what I'm talking about. How much Maria can save?<BR>And I'm speaking from my own experience. We live in the Northeast. Before we went to Hawaii I read some posts here that mentioned how expensive is food there and that some posters take food items with them. We brought our own cereal, tuna cans, spagetti and soups. Well, we could buy the same things for almost same price if we went to Wal-Mart or places like that. We could save maybe $2 or 3. Was it worthy? No way. Not only this stuff was heavy but during inspection some of these things ended up on the table when they search one of our suitcases. It was actually funny to see this stuff just standing there and people walking by looking at our spagetti and tuna. <BR>Also we did not open two cans of tuna and ended up leaving them in our last condo. So much for saving

Thank you for the responses. I guess I should have mentioned that we are going to Hawaii (Oahu).

Try coming from Australia. $1 AUS is worth US 55c. Canada is slightly better at about 86c. And we can't exactly lug groceries half way around the world. We will just grin and bare it.