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Driving from Lakeside to Canada


JGiff

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I know it's early after the border announcement today BUT has anyone traveled across the Mex/US border on there way to Canada ?  I can't find anything online. I know I can get into Canada but not sure about Mex/US border.

TIA  

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You can drive to and cross the Pharr bridge in one day and there are plenty of reasonably priced accommodations right across the bridge.  When we went to Texas up until late last year we did this all the time in 11 hours or less.  Decent roads and tolls significantly less than going via Laredo.  Very little time difference to San Antonio versus the Laredo route.

 

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You can't use the Pharr bridge between 8am and 4pm.  It is closed to car traffic between those hours.  Hidalgo bridge is pretty fast and open to car traffic.  If you are going to eastern Canada a Texas bridge makes sense.  But if you are going to central or western Canada, it's shorter to go through Arizona, New Mexico or California.

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Please keep this thread open.  We will be crossing into US (fingers crossed) mid day Monday, and then up through the US to Canada.   Trying to keep on top of info, but things are changing rapidly.  If anyone is crossing before we do and has info that is helpful, we would appreciate it.    Looks like the US Government may be announcing changes imminently, but itś unclear what they may be.  They SOUND like they are focussing on undocumented workers travelling across, and may let two Canadian pensioners going home across, but itś hard to tell.  

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45 minutes ago, Yo1 said:

You can't use the Pharr bridge between 8am and 4pm.  It is closed to car traffic between those hours.  Hidalgo bridge is pretty fast and open to car traffic.  If you are going to eastern Canada a Texas bridge makes sense.  But if you are going to central or western Canada, it's shorter to go through Arizona, New Mexico or California.

I went to the Pharr bridge web page and can't find anything there about this.  Do you have a link?

 

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Canadian citizens are not part of the travel ban at that border.  The question is what is going on at the Mexican border.  I can't find any verification the Pharr bridge is closed to passenger vehicle traffic.  It was closed for a time beginning in July of last year but we drove across it in the following October.

I went to another bridge site and indeed it shows passenger cars only from 6AM to 8AM and 4PM to 6PM.  No explanation as to why this.  Better take Yo1's advice and go to Hildalgo if going in that direction.

 

 

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49 minutes ago, Jreboll said:

I read on the local news that Pharr Bridge is only open to passenger vehicles on weekends. The rest of the week is for commercial traffic. Since I haven’t used it in a long time I cannot verify this. 

I just looked at the "Bridge Crossing Times" website and they have a graft now. Shows traffic during the day. Sure enough passenger car traffic went to zero at 8:00 am and came back up at 4:00 pm. Today's average crossing time was 22 minutes and last hour was 10 minutes.  (However I have been puzzled as to what their crossing time might mean as I was sitting on the Laredo Bridge in February  and the site said was saying 'average crossing time' is 20 minutes but I was in that line for about 45 minutes.)

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So far it appears "non essential" is being defined as tourism, and there is recognition that people traveling "home" are not considered tourists.    They could be doing a better job about detailing this.....for sure.

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8 hours ago, stuphel said:

Thanks for the info Oatsie. Are your friends US citizens  or Canadians?JGiff if you cross into us before Sunday please let us on this board know?  I will do the same when I find out what happens to us when we try to cross on Monday.

They are Canadian - heading to Southern Ontario.

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21 hours ago, stuphel said:

Thanks for the info Oatsie. Are your friends US citizens  or Canadians?JGiff if you cross into us before Sunday please let us on this board know?  I will do the same when I find out what happens to us when we try to cross on Monday.

Hola stuphel

Unfortunately I won't be able to cross till probably the 1st week of April or maybe the 2nd due to vehicle problems. 

 I would like to go now and my boss back in Canada would love it as well. I am an infection control officer in the health sector ,semi retired , and because of that I am not anticipating any problems. I know it won't be entering Canada and from what I know so far it should get me into the US. 

Please let me know how you make out

Gracias

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A couple of updates:  I called the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City and the person I spoke to said I should get official information from the US Embassy but that it's Canada's understanding that we can enter US territory if we are on our way home.   I tried the US Embassy, who patched me through to Border Control, who did not answer the number I was patched to.  

Articles I'm reading seem to be focussing  on leisure and tourism as examples of 'non-essential' business.   Also, the regs that will define some of the terms the agreement between the US and Mexico are using are not set to come out until Tuesday.   

With these things in mind, and unless we get different information, we're going to try to cross the Mexican border on Monday mid-day. 

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