Renting car to go from Quebec City to New York?

[World Gallery]

We are going to finally book, the Crown Princess, cruising Oct 13 - 23. The only obstacle is airfare into NY but out of Quebec City. It costs 5 times as much as a direct flight into and out of New York (from New Orleans). So, our plan is to rent a car in Quebec City and drive to New York. I went to Google maps and it looks like it will take 8 and a half hours. Plus, we have never been to this part of the country, so we won't mind the drive (I think!).

My questions:

Has anyone ever done this and if so, how was the experience? How long did it take? Any problems?

Is there an Avis center close to where the cruise docks in Quebec City?

Thank you.

PS Anyone ever gone on the Crown Princess? Any feedback?

[kruzin']

I think you will have a change of heart once you start investigating how much a 1-way car rental will cost..you might rethink some things once you take the time to check out your options

[cruisinnewfy]

A drive from Canada to Nyc in the fall. Sounds pretty good to me. Should have great fall color. Upstate NY should be great. While the most direct route is the NY Thruway, you might want to meander through Vermont and New Hampshire depending on your schedule. Sounds like a great "shore excursion."

 

I am on the Crown Pricess on the 9/23 cruise. good luck

[maryann ns]

Check into the train or the bus perhaps.

[Captain Canuck]

drop off charge..and you get to drive in New york..not for the faint of heart...and the driver (normally me) does not get to see as much....I would look into the train...bus tours (couple of days with hotels) and they have Chinatown bus services that are cheap......greyhound just announced that they are pulling out of Manitoba and Ontario so I would be careful about planning to use them in Quebec

[Twickenham]

I hear ya regarding the whole airfare thing. Flying out of YQB is usually at a premium, so unless I'm on a points ticket, I usually drive to YUL. The best I'm finding for the 23rd is $297 each to EWR on Continental.

The drive to NY from QC is lovely, even better through Vermont IMHO. 8 hours is a fair estimate. The issue, as already pointed out, is the one-way rental price.

The train is a valid option, but when I was researching this for a planned QM2 crossing, the problem was connecting in Montreal - the earliest QC train arrived 7 minutes before the Adirondack to NY leaves!

One thing you could consider is driving/train/bus to either Burlington or Plattsburgh airports. For instance, I'm seeing plenty of $89 flights from Burlington on the 23rd, a mere 4-hour car trip from QC.

[Twickenham]

greyhound just announced that they are pulling out of Manitoba and Ontario so I would be careful about planning to use them in Quebec

 

We have Orléans Express in Quebec. No Greyhound AFAIK.

[DanJ]

.greyhound just announced that they are pulling out of Manitoba and Ontario so I would be careful about planning to use them in Quebec

 

They are asking permission to stop service to small remote communities only and concentrate on cities.

[Captain Canuck]

served notice of quitting service and asking for $15000000 in subsidy...although I am sure there are stupid government regulations stopping competitors

[GTJ]

We are going to finally book, the Crown Princess, cruising Oct 13 - 23. The only obstacle is airfare into NY but out of Quebec City. It costs 5 times as much as a direct flight into and out of New York (from New Orleans). So, our plan is to rent a car in Quebec City and drive to New York. I went to Google maps and it looks like it will take 8 and a half hours. Plus, we have never been to this part of the country, so we won't mind the drive (I think!).

My questions:

Has anyone ever done this and if so, how was the experience? How long did it take? Any problems?

Is there an Avis center close to where the cruise docks in Quebec City?

Thank you.

PS Anyone ever gone on the Crown Princess? Any feedback?

 

The air fare between Montreal and New York is typically more reasonable than between Quebec and New York. Orleans Express operates quality bus service between Quebec and Montreal's airport.

 

Even more reasonable than the air fare between Montreal and New York is the rail fare on Amtrak. It is a beautiful day-long trip between the two cities, during which you pass through the edge of the Adirondack mountains, the side of Lake Champlain, and then along the Hudson River. Unfortunately the train leaves Montreal early in the morning, so on the day your vessel arrives in Quebec you would likely have to travel to Montreal, then spend the night there before taking the train south the next day.

 

The road trip can be spectacular. I remember a few years ago deciding to take the local route from Montreal back to New York along U.S. 7. Picturesque towns with tree leaves changing color the whole way. The journey was via Greyhound Lines from Montreal to Burlington, then Vermont Transit Lines to Bennington, then Bonanza Bus Lines to New York. Alas, VTL and Bonzanza have given up these routes so it is no longer possible to do this journey by bus.

[jp2001]

When I sail out of NYC, I always take Greyhound bus (from Montreal). You could take the Quebec City-Montreal bus then the Montreal-NYC bus. The day buses take about 10-12 hours with many stops but the overnight buses take only 7-9 hours because there are much less stops.

 

BEWARE, if you plan to take a greyhound bus, plan to get in line HOURS in advance. I almost missed the last bus once (had I missed it, I would have missed the QM2) and this was after waiting in line for over 2 hours (I was in line at around 8.30, was planning to catch the 22.30 bus but it was full, then the 11.15 also full and I was one of the last 10 people onbaord the 11.45 bus (I was so stressed out, didn't want to missed my B2B TA Crossings!)

[GTJ]

BEWARE, if you plan to take a greyhound bus, plan to get in line HOURS in advance. I almost missed the last bus once (had I missed it, I would have missed the QM2) and this was after waiting in line for over 2 hours (I was in line at around 8.30, was planning to catch the 22.30 bus but it was full, then the 11.15 also full and I was one of the last 10 people onbaord the 11.45 bus (I was so stressed out, didn't want to missed my B2B TA Crossings!)

 

That's one of the reasons I had taken the local route last time since the express service suffers as you've described.

 

I would also try, if at all possible, to aim to use the Trailways service, rather than the Greyhound service, since it generally offers a higher quality of service. New schedules go into effect on 15 September 2009, and with those new schedules are the following departure times. Greyhound Lines at 7:30 (arriving 16:40), 7:45 (arriving 15:20), 17:00 (arriving 1:30), and 23:45 (arriving 7:15); Trailways at 9:00 (arriving 18:15) and 22:30 (arriving 6:15). There are additional Greyhound departures on weekends: 11:15 Fri and Sun (arriving 20:15), 21:00 Thu, Fri and Sun (arriving 4:30), and 23:00 Thu, Fri and Sun (arriving 6:15). Note the fewer number of departures these days.

[rsquare]

We recently did a version of this trip in the other direction, from Cherry Hill NJ (a suburb of Philadelphia) to Montreal using a minivan rented from Hertz. Total cost was a little over US$200 ($184.38 for the car, turned in within 24 hours of pickup, $20-$30 for gas, and $13.55 for tolls and rental of Hertz's EZ Pass for a day). Obviously it would be more from Quebec, and in Canadian dollars, and admittedly one of our party had a corporate discount with Hertz, but it still compares favorably with airfare for a couple. Incidentally, for the trip back from Boston (where the cruise ended), Avis quoted about the same rate to me on the web with no discount as my friend got from Hertz with the discount, so I don't think it was a big factor.

 

However, in our case, the decisive factor was all of the luggage that two couples were taking on a Canada/New England cruise departing from Montreal. The thought of schlepping all of those rollaways and garment bags on a plane and paying extra to check them, or taking trains and having to change trains in NY was discouraging. The rental car took us from three miles from my house to the door of our hotel.

 

So what we had was a a nice 10-hour drive up the NY Thruway, with a stop for lunch at an amazing little Lebanese restaurant in downtown Troy, and occasional stops for coffee and comfort. We probably could have done it in an hour less, but we hit the approaches to the Champlain Bridge in Montreal just at rush hour, and it C-R-A-W-L-E-D. One word of caution if you do drive - the 30 or so miles from Montreal to the US border is flat farm country with few tourist services, and the next leg of the trip, from around Plattsburgh down to about Glens Falls is very pretty but very rural, with only two rest areas on the Thruway.

[RickT]

One thing to think about... will you be able to take a Canadian Rental car across the border? I used to travel to Detroit and would have to go to Windsor while there. A number of times I was not allowed to go into Canada with a US rental car (I'm Canadian). They said it was viewed as importing the car in to Canada and since I was a Canadian Citizen there was nothing to confirm I'd return to the US with the car.

 

As mentioned, look into bus/train/rental car from Quebec City to Montreal. Flights should be much more reasonable from Montreal. The two cities are about 2 hrs apart (maybe 3).

[jascruise]

One thing to think about... will you be able to take a Canadian Rental car across the border? I used to travel to Detroit and would have to go to Windsor while there. A number of times I was not allowed to go into Canada with a US rental car (I'm Canadian). They said it was viewed as importing the car in to Canada and since I was a Canadian Citizen there was nothing to confirm I'd return to the US with the car.

 

As mentioned, look into bus/train/rental car from Quebec City to Montreal. Flights should be much more reasonable from Montreal. The two cities are about 2 hrs apart (maybe 3).

 

We tried to do this a few years ago...rental car from Montreal to Massachusetts. There were no companies who would allow their vehicles to do a one way from Canada across the border--at least that we could find.

 

However, one way rental TO Montreal was not a problem. We've already looked into a one way to Quebec City for next fall and that seems to be OK, as well.