Effective June 1, 2009, per the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, all United States citizens need to have a valid US Passport to travel to Canada, even if traveling by car or boat. You can also enter Canada by land or sea with a US Passport Card, a convenient, wallet-sized ID that costs less than a Passport but only facilitates travel by land or sea to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. Application and processing time for the Card are the same as for the Passport. If you are a resident of Michigan, New York, Vermont or Washington, you can travel to Canada with an Enhanced Driver's License, which also allows cross-border travel by land and sea.
Pre-approved frequent border crossers can use a NEXUS card, which you can apply for online (see Resources below). If you are traveling with a child not your own or one for whom you do not have legal custody, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) may require a notarized affidavit of consent from the child's legal guardians. Your own child under the age of 16 can enter without a passport by land or by sea with you if you have an original or certified copy of a birth certificate. Your child traveling with a school, religious, or youth group can enter Canada with an original or certified copy of a birth certificate as well.
As a visitor to Canada, you are allowed to bring personal baggage, including clothing, cameras, personal computers, private vehicles and boats and camping and sports equipment. Included in that personal baggage can be one of the following amounts of alcohol: 1.5 l (50.7 oz.) of wine, 1.14 l (38.55 oz.) of liquor alone or of wine and liquor combined, or 24 12-oz. cans or bottle of beer or ale. As part of your personal baggage, you can also bring 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or cigarillos, 200 grams (7.05 oz.) of manufactured tobacco, and 200 tobacco sticks. Non-restricted firearms, such as hunting rifles and shotguns, can be permitted as part of your personal baggage only with a completed Form CAFC 909, Non-Resident Firearm Declaration; and restricted firearms, such as pistols or revolvers, can be permitted with the completion of an additional Form CAFC 679, Application for an Authorization to Transport Restricted Firearms and Prohibited Firearms (see the Canada Border Services Agency link in References).
Food products are subject to complex restrictions because plants and animals can carry pests or diseases. Not bringing any food with you into Canada will make your border experience move more quickly and smoothly.
However, if you do need to bring food into the country, follow these limits, as instructed by the Canada Border Services Agency: two dozen eggs, 20 kg (44 lbs.) of dairy products like cheese and butter that do not cost more than $20, three kg. (6.6 lbs.) of margarine or butter substitutes, and 20 kg (44 lbs.) of edible meats and meat products total. Within that meat and meat product limit, you can only bring one whole turkey or 10 kg (22 lbs.) of turkey products, only 10 kg (22 lbs.) of chicken and only 5 kg (11 lbs.) of cattle, sheep, goat, bison and buffalo.
