Getting home from Vancouver

[shamda]

We are taking a reposition cruise from LA to Vancouver. We live in Ft Lauderdale, FL. I got very good airfares from Lauderdale to Long Beach, CA, however the airfares from vancouver to lauderdale to come home are outrageous! I was thinking of driving from vancouver to seattle and fly home from there. Has anyone done this? Is it a nice drive? Is it hard to go thru the customs check point? From what I can see, renting a car in Canada and dropping it off in USA is expensive. Any ideas?

[jp2001]

Bus or train. I took the bus and it took only about 45 minutes at the border. I used Quick Shuttle, we borded the bus at a hotel at around 2pm in Vancouver and I was dropped off at the airport. It was not bad but it's bus service, you know, nothing fancy but I was so tired, I slept all the way anyway. I prefer the bus than renting a car and driving but I was alone, for a family renting a car maybe a good idea.

[MaxKare]

My wife and I are cruising from San Diego to Vancover in April. The flights back from Vancover didnt work well for us, so we are renting a car and driving to Seattle. I checked out the quickk shuttle but for the two us us it was almost as much money (Shuttle-$85.00 vs $100 rental car with National). Also the shuttlw would have gotten us to the airport 5 hours before our flight. With the rental car we will spend some time in Vancover before driving to Seattle.

[dosi]

Check out the online pricing for Amtrak. They run four or five buses and one train per day. I hear the train is very very nice, but it seems to get to Seattle rather late, you might have to spend the night and then catch your plane the next day.

[shamda]

I did see the train schedule and it does get into seattle about 10:00PM. I dont mind coming home the next day, its just if the train leaves that late it will be dark and we wont be able to enjoy the view. Is there anything to see scenic wise if we drive?

[CanadianMAG]

We are doing the opposite, and were unsure if we will leave from Vancouver or Seattle for our Ft. Lauderdale cruise. I am not sure what you think expensive is the flights from Seattle to FLL are about $350 p/p and about $100 more from Vancouver (this is what my TA told me) we ended up flying 1st class on American Airlines from Seattle it was less lay overs and ended up saving us $300 that way. Plus he is living in Seattle so, and I am in Vancouver so it really didn't mattr too much where we left.

 

The drive is nice, about 45 minutes from D/T to the border, another 1.5-2. hours to the downtown seattle area and another 20min to the airport. Depending on how fast you drive, I do it a few times a week and can get from D/T to Seattle in 2 hours, with all the short cuts and things!