Seattle to Vancover and back before cruise

[dewats784]

We are cruising next August out of Seattle. We are planning to fly in to Seattle on Saturday and travel to Vancouver to sightsee before our ship leaves from Seattle on Monday. I have been reading about the things to see and do in Vancouver and know we probably won't have time to see it all. My question is what is the best way to travel from Seattle to Vancouver and back. We hope to take an early flight that will arrive in Seattle by 8 or 9 am. How long will it take to travel this distance. Still trying to decide whether we should stay in Vancouver Sunday night and travel back to Seattle on Monday to get to the cruise or if we need to go back to Seattle on Sunday night.

[Kamloops50]

We are cruising next August out of Seattle. We are planning to fly in to Seattle on Saturday and travel to Vancouver to sightsee before our ship leaves from Seattle on Monday. I have been reading about the things to see and do in Vancouver and know we probably won't have time to see it all. My question is what is the best way to travel from Seattle to Vancouver and back. We hope to take an early flight that will arrive in Seattle by 8 or 9 am. How long will it take to travel this distance. Still trying to decide whether we should stay in Vancouver Sunday night and travel back to Seattle on Monday to get to the cruise or if we need to go back to Seattle on Sunday night.

 

The easiest way is to drive to and from Vancouver.This way you'll have a vehicle to explore parts that aren't in the central core. Chose a hotel near the airport and use transit to get downtown. Parking is expensive and stree parking is none existant. Hotels near the airport are cheaper and have onsite parking.

[Taylor D]

I would rent a car and drive for sure. If you come back Monday morning be careful traffic into Seattle on a weekday morning is terrible so allow at least an extra hour and arrange to drop the rental car off in Seattle, if you have to drop it off back at the airport that will cost you another hour. If you can fly in Friday night and stay at a airport hotel you can get an early start and be in Vancouver by 10 or 11 in the morning.

[Gardyloo]

From the Seattle airport, the drive takes around 2 1/2 hours to the Canadian border, then, depending on traffic, around 45 minutes to get to downtown Vancouver. The wait at the border can be minor or quite long, say 15 minutes to over an hour, and it's usually worse returning to the USA. There are advisory signs along the road on both sides of the border indicating the wait times at the two major crossing points, one on I-5/BC 99 ("Peace Arch") and one just to the east that's called the "truck crossing" on the US side and "Pacific Highway crossing" on the Canadian side.

 

Given that you'd have to return the rental car before going to your cruise, I probably would suggest returning the night before, especially if you have to return the car to the airport. Otherwise, if the traffic is bad or you're delayed somehow you could be getting pretty nervous.

 

I guess I should ask why you couldn't fly into Vancouver in the first place, then maybe take the evening train south the night before your cruise or even the early train the morning you sail. If you wanted a car in Vancouver you could rent one locally. The train takes around 4 hours, is quite inexpensive and very scenic, and you'd end up downtown in both cities rather than the airport.

 

http://www.amtrakcascades.com/

[VTX-AL]

I am assuming you're on an Alaska cruise. If you want a couple of days pre-cruise in Vancouver, I would also recommend Vancouver as a departure and return (if round trip) point, instead of Seattle Don't get me wrong here - Seattle is a wonderful city to visit as well, but you did say you wanted to spend a couple of days in Vancouver. Air fare shouldn't be that much different and you would benefit from the US/CDN dollar exchange, as well.

 

...VTX-Al

[martincath]

Agree with everything above! If you do decide to stick to initial idea, car rental is by far the most flexible and generally the fastest way to travel (train does have the nicest/quickest border crossing, but base time is an hour longer than driving and only 2 daily departures).

 

Personally I would fly into YVR - then you only spend the travel time and cost between the cities once. It's probably pricier than SEA - but by the time you factor in car rental/gas, or bus/train tickets, and allow for 4hours or so of your time being worth something, paying extra $ to fly into YVR will seem more of a bargain...

 

Whether to return on the day or night before - if you are nervous travelers, definitely night before (take evening train if you don't rent a car, very civilized method and ideal if all you need to do is get to Seattle, hit hotel, sleep). If you're less risk-averse, a morning to travel down is quite feasible - the early train, an early bus, or car rental will all get you to downtown Seattle by noon giving plenty of padding to get onboard. Quickshuttle will even take you right to the pier, although unless you're traveling solo it's cheaper to take a different bus or train then jump in a cab - they charge through the nose for the convenience of the pier dropoff.

[dewats784]

Flying from KC to Vancouver is pretty expensive and then it not being roundtrip, since we come back into Seattle, makes it even more so. We will think about renting a car, but not sure there is anyone in the group of 5 that wants to drive. May consider coming in Friday evening and taking the train up to Vancouver so we would be there for the whole day on Saturday. Just realized I said my ship sails on Monday and it is actually Tuesday. We may take the Monday morning train back and then explore Seattle the rest of the day. Any suggestions on lodging in either place if this ends up being how we do it. Thanks!

[martincath]

Flying from KC to Vancouver is pretty expensive and then it not being roundtrip, since we come back into Seattle, makes it even more so. We will think about renting a car, but not sure there is anyone in the group of 5 that wants to drive. May consider coming in Friday evening and taking the train up to Vancouver so we would be there for the whole day on Saturday. Just realized I said my ship sails on Monday and it is actually Tuesday. We may take the Monday morning train back and then explore Seattle the rest of the day. Any suggestions on lodging in either place if this ends up being how we do it. Thanks!

Hmmm - every August Sat/Tue combo I've plugged in has a consistent price variance where MCI-YVR is indeed more expensive than MCI-SEA (usually by about $80-120), but flying two legs MCI-YVR and SEA-MCI splits the difference pretty much right down the middle. In other words, flying to SEA then paying a per-person travel rate to get to Vancouver will save you little if any $, and cost you several hours, compared to flying to YVR and back from SEA.

 

With a group of five though, that SEA RT plus a rental car would be a BIG saver of $ - and if you head straight for the border on arrival you could be in Vancouver four hours after landing at SEA. Depending how efficiently you can get connecting flights - no direct MCI-YVR services I can find - you may end up only wasting a couple of hours compared to total time flying.

 

Hotels - never had to find a hotel for more than 2 in Seattle, so depending how your group breaks down into spouses/families/solos for sharing YMMV. Airport hotels are usually cheapest - Sleep Inn is our preference any time we're using SEA. If we're staying in town and want to maximise sightseeing time, Seattle Center area is a bargain compared to downtown proper - many attractions are actually in or closer to Center (Space Needle, several museums, zoo) and downtown core is walkable. If you just want to get back to Seattle in time to sleep, stay near the airport - car services, taxis, light rail, shuttles will all bring you back downtown next day for boarding. With 5 of you a large Uber will probably be the cheapest rate per person from airport area to pier.

 

Vancouver, with a bigger group, Rosedale on Robson is an all-suites ex-condo hotel that offers larger units with kitchenettes; YWCA is the only hotel that could actually sleep you all in one room, they have quints. They also have regular double/twin en suite rooms, shared full kitchens and laundries every couple of floors, and are the hands-down cheapest hotel in the city. Us locals don't need to spend any time staying in hotels here though, so I'd point you to Tripadvisor, Expedia ratings etc for qualitative advice about hotels - anything in downtown is a good location though, Vancouver is extremely compact.

 

Parking downtown ain't cheap though - another good reason for the 'fly in to YVR' option as a car in Vancouver is more of a liability than a benefit unless you only want to visit out of downtown attractions. With just a day or two, you won't even come close to seeing what's right in downtown!

 

If you can persuade someone to drive just one way, it's very easy to rent a car here and drop it in Seattle - there are tons of one-way rentals thanks to cruisers, so while a drop fee is common if you book months or years out, as you approach the 1 month mark they disappear (everyone has a car or two in the 'wrong' city and need to get them back to where they should be). Rates as low as $50 are found and reported often, and I have literally never failed to find a rate under $100 a couple of weeks in the future for one-way rentals. Even if you did fly SEA RT, two one-way rentals may be cheaper than keeping a car the whole time and paying for parking.