Cross-border chauffeur service from LondonLimo.net takes you from any London, Ontario address across the Detroit River or the Niagara River in one vehicle with one chauffeur licensed and insured to cross: to Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) for Delta's non-stops and the cheap US fares, to Buffalo Niagara (BUF) for Southwest and JetBlue, to Ford Field, Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena and the Bills' stadium on game day, to Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Auburn Hills and Niagara Falls, New York. Planning figures for a business sedan: DTW $420-520 plus HST, BUF $460-560, downtown Detroit $420-500; the bridge queue is in the rate. You need a passport or NEXUS card, CBSA and US CBP set the rules at the booths, and the chauffeur knows which bridge is moving.
Why a through service, and why most cars cannot do it
Crossing the border in a hired vehicle is not the same as crossing in your own. The chauffeur needs the documents to enter the United States, the vehicle needs insurance that covers commercial passenger carriage on both sides, the operator needs the licensing to run a for-hire vehicle into Michigan or New York, and everyone aboard needs to be admissible. A London taxi will take you to the Windsor side of the Ambassador Bridge and no further; a rideshare driver may not cross at all; the alternative most people fall into is two vehicles and a walk, which at Detroit means a taxi to the bridge, a second taxi in Michigan and a bill larger than a through fare. LondonLimo.net's cross-border chauffeurs are licensed, insured and documented to drive to Detroit and Buffalo and back, and do it every week: for the airports, the games, the concerts, the Michigan medical appointments, the family in Dearborn and the business in Ann Arbor.
| From London to | Crossing | Distance / time | Sedan | SUV | Sprinter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Metro (DTW) | Ambassador Bridge or Gordie Howe bridge | 220 km / 2 h 30 + border | $420-520 | $480-580 | $720-860 |
| Downtown Detroit (Ford Field, Comerica, LCA, the Fox, Huntington Place) | Ambassador Bridge or the tunnel | 195 km / 2 h + border | $420-500 | $470-560 | $700-830 |
| Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Auburn Hills, Troy | Ambassador or Gordie Howe | 230-260 km / 2 h 45 + border | $470-570 | $530-630 | $790-930 |
| Buffalo Niagara (BUF) | Peace Bridge or Queenston-Lewiston | 245 km / 2 h 45 + border | $460-560 | $520-620 | $780-920 |
| Highmark Stadium (Orchard Park), KeyBank Center | Peace Bridge | 250 km / 2 h 50 + border | $480-580 | $540-640 | $800-940 |
| Niagara Falls, New York | Rainbow Bridge | 205 km / 2 h 25 + border | $380-450 | $430-500 | $660-780 |
Planning figures before HST, one way from downtown London, including the normal bridge wait; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date. Tolls are included; an unusually long border wait beyond an hour is charged at the waiting rate, which is rare and explained below.
The documents
Every passenger needs a valid passport or a NEXUS card; Canadian permanent residents need their PR card as well; children need their own passport and, if travelling without both parents, a consent letter that CBSA describes. Non-Canadian citizens need whatever visa or ESTA-equivalent status the United States requires of their nationality. The chauffeur carries their own documents and the vehicle's, and will ask the night before whether everyone has theirs, because a passenger refused at the booth ends the trip for the vehicle. NEXUS lanes at the Ambassador Bridge, the tunnel and the Peace Bridge cut the wait dramatically but only if every person in the vehicle holds a card; the chauffeur does.
The crossings, from the chauffeur's seat
Detroit. The Ambassador Bridge from Huron Church Road in Windsor to I-75 is the commercial and passenger workhorse; the Gordie Howe International Bridge, opened as the new six-lane crossing from the 401's end to I-75, relieves it; the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel from downtown Windsor to downtown Detroit is the shortest route to the stadiums and the casinos but has height limits that exclude the Sprinter. The chauffeur checks the posted wait times before Windsor and chooses.
Buffalo and Niagara. The Peace Bridge from Fort Erie to Buffalo is the direct route to BUF, Orchard Park and downtown; the Queenston-Lewiston bridge is the I-190 alternative; the Rainbow Bridge is for Niagara Falls, New York, and the Lewiston side of the river. Sunday evenings after a Bills game and the Friday of a US long weekend are the queues to plan around.
How the border wait sits in the price
The fixed rate includes the crossing at a normal wait - the fifteen to forty minutes a weekday or an ordinary Saturday costs. If the booth is backed up beyond an hour, which happens on holiday weekends and when a lane closes, time beyond that is charged at the waiting rate in fifteen-minute blocks, and the chauffeur tells you when the hour is passing; it is rare, and it is the only way to price a crossing honestly without padding every fare. Tolls in both directions are in the rate. Secondary inspection, if a passenger is sent to it, is waited for at the same rate.
Detroit Metro: Delta's hub, forty-five minutes past the bridge
DTW is a proper hub with non-stops to places Pearson serves badly or not at all, and US domestic fares that can be a fraction of the Canadian equivalent; for many London families the arithmetic of a Florida week or a west-coast trip flips in Detroit's favour once the car is counted. The chauffeur drops at the McNamara Terminal (Delta, Air France, KLM) or the Evans Terminal (American, United, Southwest, Spirit, Frontier), and on the return meets you at international arrivals or baggage claim with a name board, tracks the flight, and carries the US CBP and CBSA questions on the way home. The DTW page has the terminals and the drive in detail.
Buffalo: the cheap-fares airport
BUF exists, for Ontarians, because Southwest, JetBlue and the US carriers price Buffalo departures below Toronto's; a family of four to Orlando or Las Vegas can save the car fare several times over. The airport is small, the parking is cheap if you would rather drive, and the chauffeured version is a fixed rate from your London door to the terminal curb with the Peace Bridge in it and the return timed to the landing. The Buffalo page describes the terminal and the crossings.
Game days: the Lions, the Tigers, the Red Wings, the Pistons, the Bills
The Sunday Sprinter to Ford Field is the most social booking on this site: fourteen in jerseys, the bridge before noon, tailgating in the Eastern Market lots, the game, the bridge home; Comerica Park in summer, Little Caesars Arena in winter, the Fox and the Fillmore for concerts, and Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park for the Bills, where the Peace Bridge on a Sunday evening needs the hour the plan gives it. The concerts, sports and events page prices the runs and describes how the group return works.
Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Auburn Hills and the Michigan business day
The University of Michigan and its hospital in Ann Arbor, Ford in Dearborn, the automotive suppliers in Auburn Hills and Troy, the medical centres in Midtown Detroit: the Michigan business and medical run from London is a fixed one-way rate or a day by the hour with the chauffeur waiting on the US side, quoted with the crossing in it. Corporate accounts use it for the cross-border supplier visit that the 401 makes a day trip; patients use it for the Michigan specialist appointment. The Detroit destination page describes the districts.
Shopping, family and the weekend
Great Lakes Crossing, Somerset, the Michigan outlets, a family in Dearborn or Amherst, a weekend in Detroit's revived downtown or in Buffalo's Elmwood Village: the cross-border car is also the household's. The SUV takes the shopping, the chauffeur carries the receipts question at the booth on the way home (declare what you bought; the chauffeur cannot do it for you), and the travel desk puts a hotel on the same file.
Vehicles that cross, and one that does not fit
Sedans, SUVs and luxury vans cross at every bridge and the tunnel; the Sprinter crosses at the bridges but not the tunnel, whose height limit excludes it; stretch limousines and party buses cross only where the partner holds the US authority, which the desk confirms per booking. Winter tires from November to April, all-wheel-drive SUVs on the squall days that close the 401 west of London, and a chauffeur who has done the crossing in every season.
Coming home: CBSA at Windsor and Fort Erie
The return crossing is the Canadian one: the chauffeur pulls into the booth, hands the passports, and each passenger answers for themselves - where you went, what you bought, any alcohol or tobacco. Personal exemptions after 24 and 48 hours are CBSA's rules and the chauffeur will remind you of them; the vehicle's own status is the chauffeur's business. Late at night the booths are quick; Sunday evenings after a game they are not, and the plan allows for it.
Three cross-border bookings, as they actually ran
A family to DTW, March break. An executive SUV from Westmount at 4:30 a.m. for a 9:10 Delta departure to Orlando, the Gordie Howe bridge in twenty minutes, the McNamara Terminal by 7:15; the return ten days later met at international arrivals with a name board. Two fixed rates; the fares saved paid for both.
A Lions Sunday, December. A Sprinter for fourteen from Byron at 8, the Ambassador in thirty-five minutes, Eastern Market, the game, and a ninety-minute return queue on the Canadian side that the plan had allowed for. Twelve hours by the hour; nobody drove.
A Michigan specialist, Tuesday. A luxury sedan from Old South at 6 to a clinic in Ann Arbor for 10, waiting through the appointment, home by 4. Ten hours; the household account in Calgary paid it.
Planning figures. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST including tolls and a normal border wait; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date. Border rules are CBSA's and US CBP's; admissibility is each passenger's own responsibility. Venue and airport names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation.
Time zones, tolls and the small things
Detroit and Buffalo are on Eastern time like London, so a 9:10 departure is a 9:10 departure; the bridges charge tolls in both directions, which are in the rate; US mobile roaming starts at the middle of the bridge, so download the boarding passes before Windsor; and the chauffeur carries a US-dollar float for the parking garage at a stadium that takes no cards. Duty-free at the Ambassador and the Peace Bridge is a stop on request on the way home. The Michigan Department of Transportation and Ontario 511 publish the road works the chauffeur checks the night before.
