Made in Canada

The decision to buy a Safari Condo Alto was easy – in our opinion, they are the most beautiful and well-made camper on the market today.

Buying a Canadian-made camper has its challenges. With this post, I’m not trying to discourage anyone from buying an Alto – my goal here is to let everyone know about those challenges so that they will be prepared.

You’re buying in Canadian Dollars

Except for your final payment, Safari Condo only accepts Canadian currency. Any payments need to be converted to Canadian currency before being sent to SC. 

If your bank or credit union does not offer wire transfers or direct international currency transfers, you’ll need to find a bank and/or a service that will convert your currency and wire to Safari Condo’s bank.

We used Capital One and Wise to pay our $7,000 US deposit (yes, you read that right $7,000 in US dollars, converted into CAD).  We also made payments toward our total when the exchange rate was favorable.

When your trailer is ready, SC will send you a document with the final amount owed in Canadian and U.S. dollars, based on a stated exchange rate. Buyers have three options:

• Wire the final payment in Canadian dollars.
• Wire the final payment in U.S. dollars
• Bring a check in U.S. dollars. 

The exchange rate SC stated in their paperwork was not as good as what was offered by Wise. Even with fees, we saved $700 by using the more competitive Wise exchange rate. There are other services similar to Wise. I suggest checking each and deciding which works best for you.

Canada May Be Far

As far as we know, SC does not deliver its campers to individual buyers in the US.

UPDATE: Four Corners RV in Durango, Colorado is the only US dealer of Safari Condo camper vans and trailers.

Otherwise, it’s up to you to travel to Quebec, or to one of the Canadian-based dealerships–Getaway RV in Abbotsford, BC or CanAm RV in London, Ontario–to pick up your camper and drive it home. It can be a long way to travel

From or home in Virginia, that drive was about 1,000 miles each way. We were fortunate to stop at Vic’s parents in Central New York to break up the trip.

There’s a Border Crossing

If you pick up your Alto from Safari Condo or one of the Canadian dealerships, you’ll need to cross the border. There are rules and restrictions when you’re entering Canada, and when you’re returning to the US. (Note: Canada does not permit pocket knives that can be opened with one hand. Ask us how we know.) You’ll need a U.S. Passport or Passport card. 

We entered Canada at Champlain, NY, with no issues (once the pocket knife was stowed away). 

Here was our process picking up from Safari Condo in Quebec.

There was a brokerage fee included in our invoice. The broker prepared all of the paperwork we needed to cross and sent us the U.S. Customs Form 7501 that was required to register it when we got home. 

At the end of our orientation at the SC sales office, Francois gave us the paperwork (including two copies of the eManifest) and explained the process of crossing. 

When leaving Canada, we used the commercial lane (advised by Francois) so that the Canadian Border Patrol could stamp our eManifest document as “Delivery Authorized.” Then we brought that stamped document and gave it to the U.S. Border Patrol agent. The second, unstamped copy of the eManifest was for our records.

 U.S. Border Patrol processes the document, then sends the 7501 Form to the broker, who will send you a certified copy by email.

A note: The commercial lanes are designed for tractor trailers, so the border agents are sitting in booths about 10 feet off the ground! You’ll need to get out of your tow vehicle to hand them the paperwork.

The broker says it takes 2-3 weeks to receive the 7501 Form. We crossed the border back into the U.S. on Nov. 30, and we didn’t get our form until the first week of January. 

Traditional RV Financing Not Available

We did some research to find out how we could finance our new Alto. We searched online and reached out to a few banks but found that none would finance a Canadian-made travel trailer. We don’t know why. But we wanted to finance part of the total cost – we didn’t want to dip into our savings for the entire $50K+ to pay for the camper.

We used cash on hand for about half the total balance owed and used a home equity line of credit for the rest. The interest rate was OK, and we’d have 10 years to pay it off, if need be. Plus, we can pay it off on our own timeline.

French Was Not a Challenge

Quebec is a French-speaking province. Everybody we dealt with at SC also spoke English. We never had any issues with miscommunication or something getting lost in translation. 

Everyone we encountered in Quebec – at the hotel, restaurants, the grocery store – spoke to us in English when we asked, or did their best to communicate. Note to self: Learn some French before our next trip to Quebec.

Are You Interested in an Alto?

If you’re interested in buying an Alto, contact us! They have a referral program, and if you buy one based on our referral, we’ll get cash or credit – in Canadian currency! Contact us if you’d like to talk about buying an Alto, or seeing ours in person during our travels or at our home in southeast Virginia.