TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

In the good old days, you used to be able to travel between Canada and the USA with little documentation. Birth certificates or driver's licenses were acceptable identification, and everything was nice and simple.

If you haven't had to cross the border lately, you might not know the rules have changed. Any border crossing between Canada and America will now require a proper passport.

Some Canadian provinces are implementing new Enhanced Driver's Licenses that may be a valid document. These are NOT your usual driver's license, and require a separate application to acquire.

It's best to have a passport, to be on the safe side.

This one is for the more adventurous tourists who enjoy seeing a foreign country in its wild state, by hiking or walking outside the main cities. You really should not take any routes that might take you near the border of the country you are in. Borders can be poorly marked, or not marked at all. If you are caught on the wrong side, there could be trouble.

You might simply be guided back over, or you could get arrested for entering a country illegally. Two American women crossed into North Korea for less than a minute, and ended up being sentenced to years in a forced labor camp.

I'd say that is an extreme example of what may happen, but the risk is there.