On a recent trip north of the border, the team from the Happily Ever Hanks got some surprises on their first RV trip to Canada.
I have to say, after RVing in Canada off and on my whole life, the differences are not drastic, so the video is a little overly dramatic. But if, like our hosts, you were not expecting them, you might be surprised at some of the differences.
As a side note, expect some great Canadian road trip eye candy in this video.
So what are some of the differences you can expect when RVing in Canada?
#1 Distances are measured in kilometers not miles, so have a conversion calculator ready to plan trips.
#2 The same goes for speed limits, so be sure to set your speedometer to kmph instead of mph.
#3 LOTS of rest areas. Canada is very accommodating to RV travelers.
#4 Different labels on fuel. When they went to fill up their truck, our hosts were presented with two options: Marked Diesel and Master Diesel. Which to fill up with? In Canada, off-road diesel is known as “Marked Diesel,” much like red diesel in the U.S. “Master Diesel” is just regular old diesel. Fill your truck with this.
#5 Fuel is dispensed in liters not gallons. Get those conversion calculators out again!
# 6 Expect $1.00 and $2.00 coins.
Having nothing to do with RVing in Canada versus the U.S., the couple also recommends doing your grocery shopping on travel days. I fully concur. It’s just time efficient and that way when you get to your campsite, you are ready to unpack and just have fun!
Although at the Canadian Walmart, visiting that pesky metric system came into play once again!
Have you ever spent time RVing in Canada? If so, please share your experiences (and what you found to be different from RVing around the U.S.) in the comments below. Thank you!
##RVT1112
Definitely over-dramatic.
They are a funny couple. Looking forward to the Canada/Alaska series
The friendliest people I’ve ever met.
What a completely useless video.
Hi, Joe. Well, you seem to be in the minority on this matter. In the three weeks since it was posted, that video has been viewed more than 213,000 times, with more than 7,000 likes and 0 dislikes. I’m sorry that 16 minutes (if you watched the whole thing) of your life were wasted. But maybe being able to complain about it made your day?🙄 I hope the rest of your day goes better. 🙂 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Thanks for that reply Diane!
👍 Thanks, D and J. As you can see, there are those who agree with Joe. To each his own. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane
unfortunately I agree with Joe. After watching a few of the hanks’ videos I quickly realized it’s nothing a 5th grader wouldn’t know. Of course canada uses CAD. Of course canada uses metric. I’ve watched plenty of their videos but I’m not going to waste my time disliking them. It even said so in the article “the differences are not drastic, so the video is a little overly dramatic”.
I think we could have a pretty good discussion however on which is more useless, the original video or this article of said useless video.
Thanks for weighing in, Alan. Like I mentioned to another commenter, to each his own. But those folks who produced the video have a pretty large following, so maybe it’s more for entertainment purposes. Sometimes when I’m moderating hundreds of comments, especially on the weekend, I just get tired of reading the negative ones, e.g., where the author is slammed, or the video or product is put down, or whatever. Kinda makes me cranky after awhile, especially when it’s beautiful and sunny out. I’d rather be at my beautiful mountain property sitting by the creek that runs through it, communing with Mother Nature and the wildlife up there rather than reading negative comments all day. Just sayin’.🙄 Have a great day. 😀 – Diane aka Mountain Mama at RVtravel.com
I enjoy watching the Hanks…entertaining with some pearls of wisdom. There are plenty of strictly educational RV videos out there to learn from to answer the questions but this is funny fluff with some good content. I also work in medicine and their early trips as traveling nurses was inspirational due to the get it done attitude that sadly so many people lack. Joe Goomba, givethem a break, we need to have ambassadors out there to share the funny side of RVing…I know from your comment that you are not impressed but let them have some fun.
Thanks for your positive comment, Scott. Obviously, with Kyle and Renee’s huge following on Happily Ever Hanks (more than 156,000 subscribers on YouTube), they are pretty popular, and those who slam them are in the very tiny minority. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Hey Joe, It’s not supposed to be a documentary. They are U-Tubers and try to entertain their followers on their travels.
The coins and ‘Loonies’ and ‘toonies’
We have camped across Canada from BC to Ontario. Incredible provincial campgrounds and the most friendly folks you will find anywhere.
All the boomers and younger should have had some exposure to the metric system between school and dual scaled groceries (do you do a conversion when you buy 2 liter bottles of soda?) The biggest mistake in my opinion is trying too hard to convert everything to U.S. measurements. Unless critical most people buy things based on relative size. Guess what, you can do the same thing within the metric system. As for temp, do you pay critical attention to temps when travelling – nope. It’s nice, its chilly, its hot. You might glance at a thermometer but you make decisions on those 3 levels. You will quickly figure out Celsius equivalents. Most vehicles have dual scale speedometers.
Watch “Canadian Bacon.”
Gotta love U-TUBERS, purely for the entertainment value of 2 dumb people exposing personal ignorance. I’m not sure if they were shocked that when they hit the border it was not a wall of snow or shocked that tundra did not lie on the north side of the international border. Absolutely shocking for these 2 discovering that the Canadian Rockies are a continuation of the American Rockies. Wow, thats crazy, it’s same mountain range on both sides of the border. WHO KNEW? These 2 in Alaska should be fun to watch. Keep an eye out for albino bears, they’re vegetarians just like giant pandas but without the black patches.
I did not bother watching the video. We have lived next to the border all our lives until we began RVing 20 years ago. We have family in Hamilton, Toronto and Vancouver so have been back and forth since the early 60’s (my wife much earlier). We do take a lift to get to the upper floors and watch out for the lorries on the highway. Never belittle HOCKEY when in Canada. Currency is different there, but it is also different every place out side the US. At least they speak mostly English unless you are in Quebec. The biggest surprise is that something like 90% of Canadians live within 100 kilometers on the US border (I could have said 62 miles). 40 deg C is flaming hot and 0 C is freezing.
All very good suggestions, but I have never heard anybody use the word ‘lift’ when describing an elevator, or ‘lorry’ for a truck. I’m Canadian and have lived here my entire life, so I’m genuinely curious what area of Canada you’ve heard these words used?
Before traveling to Canada, I was cautioned that hookups can be further away from the RV and you might need up to 100′ of electric (confusingly known in Canada as “hydro” which means water to the rest of us!). This was not too much of an issue, and at most campgrounds, I don’t think we needed more than 50′. But at one Ontario Provincial Park I could not even find the hydro box. I ended up having to get a camp staffer to find it. It was near the entry of the site, not the back near the RV, and much closer to the neighbor’s entrance than ours. It required the full 100′ of wire, and I had to lay it across a creek too. We laughed that the hydro was truly ‘over the river and through the woods.’
Just returned yesterday from our trip from the San Diego area up to Canada and back. We stayed in Bellingham Wa. before crossing the border and only had to hand over a few apples by the border agent, who was really pleasant to deal with. Stayed outside of Kamloops, Jasper, and in Banff. Had to cut our trip a bit short, so we missed out on Calgary, but made a stop in Cranbrook at a nice, newer KOA park for a couple of days before crossing back to the U.S. where we had a full vehicle inspection 🤔. Best surprise was how great the roadways were and how polite most of the drivers were. Had a lot of rain and some snow in the Jasper area, but the rest of the time was nice out.
The other not so surprising thing is how bad the roadways are in the states, from up through Ca., Oregon, and Wa., and back through Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada, although fuel prices are lower in the states. Rude drivers everywhere here too.
IMO, you saw some of the best of the west in Ca. Kamloops, Jasper, Banff, Cranbrook. I’m guessing possibly Fernie or Kimberly, maybe Salmon Arm (gr8 KOA), Shuswap or Siccamous. All involve pretty drives on remarkably good highways.
Welcome back.
Thank you, Cheri! Yes, not such a big deal, Canada or U.S. I did watch their subsequent videos and they are doing/did the Cassiar the wrong way. Wrong as in the Cassiar gets worse the farther you go, if going south to north. Or, it gets better the farther you go, if going north to south. We did the latter in 2019 and they are doing the former in 2023.
Hi, Neal. That reminds me of when my sons and I drove up to Skagway via the Cassiar Hwy. in our ’75 Suburban about 34 years ago. About 200 miles of the Cassiar was “gravel,” which was chunks of rock about 2″ to 3″ diameter. I think I vibrated off a couple of pounds in that very rough stretch of the Cassiar. But we sure had fun that trip! Have a good evening/night. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com