North America Travel Guides

Each country decides separately, so entering one tells you nothing about the next. Many visitors who do not need a full visa for the United States still have to apply for an ESTA before they fly, and Canada has an equivalent called an eTA for visa-exempt air travelers. Both are applied for online, cost a small fee, and are not issued at the border. Mexico has its own rules again. Check the official government site for each country you plan to enter, and do it weeks ahead rather than days.

You can, but the distances will eat the trip. This continent covers about 9.5 million square miles (24.7 million sq km), and the drive from Toronto to Mexico City is longer than the drive from Lisbon to Moscow. Two countries in two weeks is realistic if you fly between them and pick one region in each. Three is a trip about airports. Pick a corner instead: the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest desert parks, eastern Canada, or the Yucatan.

For anything outside a major city, yes, and this is the single biggest difference from traveling in Europe. National parks, small towns and scenic routes are built around the assumption that you arrived by car, and many have no public transport at all. Inside New York, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal or Mexico City a car is a liability rather than an asset. The usual pattern that works is transit in the city, then pick up a rental on the way out of it.

Rarely, and this catches out visitors who are used to European rail. Passenger rail in the United States and Canada runs on freight-owned track, which means limited frequencies and routine delays, and a cross-country trip is priced and paced as a scenic experience rather than as transport. There are honest exceptions worth using, notably the Northeast Corridor between Washington, New York and Boston. For everything else, compare against flying and driving before you commit.

More than you are probably expecting, and it is not optional in the way it is elsewhere. In the United States and Canada, tipped restaurant staff are paid on the assumption that tips make up the rest of their wage, and eighteen to twenty percent is the normal range for table service. Bartenders, taxi and rideshare drivers and hotel housekeeping are all tipped as well. Mexico is gentler, with ten to fifteen percent usual in restaurants. Check the bill first, because large groups are often charged an automatic service fee.

Because sales tax is added at the register rather than shown on the shelf, and it is set locally, so the same item costs different amounts in two neighboring towns. Hotels add occupancy taxes and sometimes a resort fee on top of the nightly rate you booked. Budget roughly ten to fifteen percent above the advertised figure for everyday spending and read the full breakdown before confirming a hotel. Mexico is the exception: tax there is normally included in the displayed price.

For the United States especially, yes, and this is the one to not skip. There is no public health system covering visitors, and an ambulance ride and a few hours in an emergency room can run into five figures. Buy a policy with medical cover well into the millions and check that it covers the activities you actually plan to do, since skiing and hiking are excluded from some basic policies. Canada and Mexico are cheaper to be ill in, but not cheap.

Three, one per country: the US dollar, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso. They are not interchangeable, and a shop in Canada that agrees to take US dollars will set its own rate rather than the bank rate. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in the United States and Canada, and widely in Mexican cities, though small vendors and markets in Mexico are still cash. Withdraw from a bank ATM on arrival and always choose to be charged in the local currency.

For the popular ones in summer, plan on it. Several of the busiest US parks have used timed-entry or vehicle reservation systems in recent years, and the rules change season to season rather than staying fixed. Lodging inside parks, in both the US and Canada, books out months ahead regardless. Check the official park service page for each park a few months before you travel, because that is the only source that will be current.

The shoulder seasons, spring and fall, across most of the continent. They also happen to be the best weather for cities and parks in the United States, so you are not trading much away. Summer is peak for Canada and the northern US, winter is peak for Mexico and the southern states, and both are the expensive end. Late January through early March is the cheapest window almost everywhere except the ski resorts and the Mexican coast.

Not automatically, and roaming charges between these three countries surprise people every year. Some North American plans bundle all three, many international plans treat each as separate and expensive. Check what your plan covers before you cross a border, and consider an eSIM bought for the specific country instead. Coverage is also genuinely patchy in the mountain west and in the national parks, so download offline maps rather than relying on a signal.

It depends on the trip you want. The United States has the widest range and the cheapest internal flights, so it suits a first visit built around one region. Canada is the easier country to travel in, with less driving between highlights in the east and better public transport in the cities. Mexico delivers by far the most for the money, and a week in the Yucatan or in Mexico City and Oaxaca costs a fraction of the equivalent north of the border.