Car hire v flight dilemma Bar Harbor
 

Hi everyone, we have a bit of a car hire dilemma...
We are thinking of flying in to Bar Harbor (from Boston ex Oz) and staying for a week and hiring a car. After the week we want to continue on to Nova Scotia and then eventually Quebec City (some 2-3 weeks later) during which time we will require a car.
The problem is we cannot hire in BH and drop off in Canada - we could hire in Boston and drop off in Montreal but that doesn't really suit our plans.
If we dropped off the car back in BH, how or where would we go into NS to pick up a Canadian rental. Could we leave BH by air or ferry to go somehwere else?
I can't seem to see flights going anywhere but Boston from BH?

I'm not EXACTLY sure from your post what it is you want to do. Hire a car in Maine, drop it in Nova Scotia, then later on hire a car in Quebec and return it to where? Boston?

Anyway, BGR airport is very close to Bar Harbor so I would check the situation flying into BGR and renting your car from there.
NationalCar usually has the best rates for ozzies, with the insurances included...but Hertz or Avis might have the better one-way deals.

Hi joe, original plan was to pick up car in BH and then drive on through to Quebec but cannot do that. Only option for US to Canada drop off is Boston to Montreal. So, if we have a car in BH for a week, how do we then get to the next place in Canada that we can 're-rent' a car for the Canada portion of the trip?

There is the high-speed CAT ferryboat between Bar Harbor and Nova Scotia.

Hertz used to allow car drop from BGR to Quebec but perhaps that is not the case anymore.

www.downeastacadia.com/plan_your_trip/

joesorce, the CAT is no longer running.

Exactly, that CAT would have saved the day!

Why don't you just drive from Boston? Probably 5 hours to Bar Harbor and you'll see other sights. Not a bad drive at all and you won't have to worry about weather delays with a puddle jumper plane.

Agree with cindyj. Just drive from Boston and back. Don't know where you're from or if you would need to rent in Boston or can take your own. Just review the rental co's policy on taking car into Canada. If driving your own, you need a special card to show proof of insurance in Canada, which your ins co will send you. This seems the cheapest solution bcs you won't have to pay a one way drop off charge anywhere.

"The problem is we cannot hire in BH and drop off in Canada"

Kayak.com shows that this is possible, although expensive. Is your problem that you cannot find such a rental, or that you cannot do it because you are not a US citizen?

Possible work-arounds:

1. Rent a car in Bar Harbor if not Boston (or Bangor - probably cheaper to fly into BGR than BHB), drop the car in Bangor. Rent a 2nd car for as short a time as possible, drop the 2nd one in Canada (in Fredericton or St. John, NB, if you can, or maybe Halifax, NS). Rent a 3rd car for the Canada portion of your trip. Or do you run into the same problem trying to cross the border?

2. Rent a car for the Bar Harbor portion of your trip. Return it at BGR and fly BGR-YHZ (Halifax, NS). Rent a 2nd car in Halifax. This might not cost much more than a cross-border rental and would take about the same amount of time as driving directly from Bar Harbor to Halifax. (Of course, you would not be stopping in between to see sights.)

3. Rent a car in Bar Harbor or Bangor. Return the car in Bangor and take a bus to Canada. Rent another car in Canada. Bus trip would be long and possibly uncomfortable, though. You might want to see where along the route you could pick up a car, other than the obvious Fredericton, St. John, Moncton, and Halifax.

http://www.acadianbus.com/search.aspx

http://www.greyhound.com/home/ (the "Station Locator" tab at the top might be useful)

http://www.greyhound.ca/home/