Train to Portland Oregon after Vancouver disembark

[roupa]

Obviously not a cruise question, but taking a shot for thoughts on our idea following Alaska cruise…

We have family in Portland, Oregon so thinking of doing Amtrak from Vancouver to Portland then fly to Boston..  ( possibly cheaper in the long run then $$$$$ flight from Vancouver to Boston!😬)

 

suggestions/opinions??

[d9704011]

Without knowing the dates and your schedule, I'd say it's tough to estimate overall travel cost.  Of course, if you really want to take advantage of being on the west coast and visiting relatives, this may provide a good opportunity to do so.  Are you sure Amtrak offers good value (cost, time and schedule) for travel between Vancouver and Portland compared to air?

[primopj]

We plan to do Amtrak from Vancouver to Portland (stopping over in Seatle.  We are trying to see all 50 States and we need Washington and Oregon)  We will then fly home from Portland to Cincinnati.  .  

[primopj]

Amtrak fares are very cheap and the route is supposed to be scenic.  

 

[martincath]

@roupaAs my profile might give away, this route is not unknown to me... 😉

 

The only problem - and in the grand scheme of things it's actually more of a benefit really! - is that you cannot take the train the day you disembark unless you are on one of those rare 'overnight in port' cruises where immigration would be done day of arrival, so you could get off at oh-dark-hundred the next day without any CBSA issues.

 

Only the morning train goes all the way - the evening stops in Seattle - but if you look at this as an opportunity to overnight in Vancouver (we are pretty awesome, even if not as wonderfully weird as Portland!) it's a great idea! For @primopj, with a Seattle stay to break it up same day evening train is easy (the station will even hold big bags for the day, IIRC $6, if you show a ticket) and then there are multiple daily PDX trains from SEA. It's possible to use Amtrak bus to connect to one of these later trains, but having to bus over the border ruins the two biggest benefits of the train - an easy Preclearance at the station before boarding rather than schlepping bags off at the border for inspection, and I5 running well inland for big chunks of the route to SEA while the Cascades hugs the coast more closely - and believe it or not, the much-crappier buses actually cost MORE than the train does, no Saver tix for them!

 

With the longer run, lowest possible prices by train are higher than alternate bus options (Saver tix minimum price for VAC-PDX was $64 last time I checked; to SEA it's $34 so per mile traveled very comparable rate - but VAC-PDX buses on flixhound are better value than either shorter leg, we can always find <$40 fares, and the faster travel of the buses might be a factor for some too - though it doesn't sound like that matters much for either poster in this thread who are planning a hang rather than trying to get a cheap flight ASAP! Speaking of that - do take the MAX to your flight @primopj, it's dirt-cheap compared to cabubers and much faster when there's any traffic; one of the very few bad things about PDX are the traffic backups of far too many people driving cars there at peak hours.

 

But the train is nice - we treat ourselves to the train every spring (well, full disclosure, not for 3 years as service return date was all over the place this year and there were no trains at all during the Covid times!) to avoid the Tulip Festival in Skagit valley! Other than that, we do drive almost every trip because despite the niceness of the train gas only costs me <$30 each way, with NEXUS lanes and quality planning we consistently manage a ~5h15min drive time door-to-door unless there's a major highway incident, and it's handy having a car for Costco runs and day trips! For a tourist though, without their own car? Train, hands-down, is my recco for getting to PDX unless time is at a premium (in which case, fly).

 

I'm assuming your Portlandian rellies are going to drive you around @roupa, show you the place, wine you and dine you, I'll leave that to them (although I always like finding new good stuff, so if you could pop back with a list of where they plan take you that would be great!); but if they're actually out in the 'burbs and don't go downtown much, happy to also suggest some sites and dining (just ballpark your interests, any mobility or budget limitations etc., otherwise honestly the best advice I can give is trawling through tripadvisor to get ranked categories from a broad opinion base!)

Edited June 26, 2023 by martincath
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[GTJ]

6 hours ago, roupa said:

[T]hinking of doing Amtrak from Vancouver to Portland then fly to Boston.

Difficult to do this exactly because of the train schedules. You would not be able to get from the vessel to the train station in Vancouver in time for the morning train, and the evening train only goes as far as Seattle. The most convenient alternative would be to travel from Vancouver to Seattle by bus, then from Seattle to Portland by train. From Vancouver, Cantrail Coach Lines goes directly to the Amtrak station in Seattle, and Amtrak will sell a combined ticker for Cantrail plus Amtrak, from Vancouver to Portland. The 9:00 a.m. bus arrives in Seattle at 12:45 p.m., in time for the Amtrak train at 2:12 p.m., arriving in Portland at 5:37 p.m. Anticipate the fare to be about $77.

[roupa]

Thanks for much great info and descriptions!  Just what I was looking for!  Helps immensely in planning. 
Now to find ( convenient 😉🤣) flights west to east that won’t break the bank!  😬

[quack2]

10 hours ago, primopj said:

We plan to do Amtrak from Vancouver to Portland (stopping over in Seatle.  We are trying to see all 50 States and we need Washington and Oregon)  We will then fly home from Portland to Cincinnati.  .  

What?  Oregon last?  Sacrilege.

[GTJ]

19 hours ago, primopj said:

We are trying to see all 50 States and we need Washington and Oregon

For U.S. states I have touched, the only one left being Hawai'i. Not much interest in beaches or other things Hawaiian, but I share that same type of urge to visit for completing the list, so I have been looking at some Hawaiian cruises to do so.

 

For the record, I have visited all the Canadian provinces, but I am missing one Mexican state (Colima, a challenge to get there). Still some effort for Central American countries, still needing to visit El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua (some cruises visit the last two, not so for El Salvador).