Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WHAT YOU CAN BRING TO SAN FRANCISCO
Every visitor over 21 years of age may bring in, free of duty, the following: (1) 1
liter of wine or hard liquor; (2) 200 cigarettes, 100 cigars (but not from Cuba),
or 3 pounds of smoking tobacco; and (3) $100 worth of gifts. These exemptions
are offered to travelers who spend at least 72 hours in the United States and who
have not claimed them within the preceding 6 months. It is forbidden to bring
foodstuffs (particularly fruit, cooked meats, and canned goods) and plants (veg-
etables, seeds, tropical plants, and the like). Foreign tourists may carry in or out
up to $10,000 in U.S. or foreign currency with no formalities; larger sums must
be declared to U.S. Customs on entering or leaving, which includes filing Form
CM 4790. For details regarding U.S. Customs and Border Protection, consult
your nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, or
U.S. Customs
(
%
202/927-1770;
www.customs.ustreas.gov).
WHAT YOU CAN TAKE HOME FROM SAN FRANCISCO
This is an important thing to research, particularly if you plan to buy bottles of
wine on your trip.
For a clear summary of
Canadian
rules, write for the booklet
I Declare,
issued
as publication no. RC4044 by the
Canada Border Services Agency
(
%
800/
461-9999
in Canada, or 204/983-3500; www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca).
For information,
U.K. citizens
contact
HM Customs & Excise
at
%
0845/
010-9000
(from outside the U.K., 020/8929-0152), or the website at
www.hmce.gov.uk.
A helpful brochure for
Australians,
available from Australian consulates or
Customs offices, is
Know Before You Go.
For more information, call the
Australian
Customs Service
at
%
1300/363-263,
or log on to www.customs.gov.au.
Most questions regarding
New Zealand
rules are answered in a free pamphlet
available at New Zealand consulates and Customs offices:
New Zealand Customs
Guide for Travellers, Notice no. 4.
For more information, contact
New Zealand
Customs,
The Customhouse, 17-21 Whitmore St., Box 2218, Wellington
(
%
04/473-6099
or 0800/428-786; www.customs.govt.nz).
GETTING TO SAN FRANCISCO
With all those tourists and conventioneers on the move, San Francisco is served
by lots of airlines coming from all directions. In recent years, fixed-cost airlines
such as JetBlue and Virgin America, on which prices rise by a formula as seats are
sold, have added service to the city, too, making it relatively easy, with advance
planning, to score an affordable ticket. How affordable? Well, that's a relative
term, but for cross-country flights from the East Coast to the West Coast, a rate
of $250 each way is common as long as you book several months ahead. Here are
some other tricks to finding decent airfares:
u
Look at the low-fare carriers.
Airlines such as
JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran,
America West Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country, and Virgin America
sometimes have better fares than the larger airlines like American, Delta, and
United, but they may not be searched, or at least displayed in an obvious
place, if you go to a site such as Expedia. So use a search tool such as
Sidestep.com
,
Kayak.com
, or
Mobissimo.com
, which search airline sites
