What's the most fun way to travel from Seattle to Vancouver?

September 18, 2024 7:55 PM

In early October, me and my partner are spending a week's vacation split between Seattle and Vancouver, flying into one city and flying out of the next. We're trying to figure out what the best, most fun way to get from Seattle to Vancouver might be. Plan A is to rent a car, but we're not familiar with the route, and don't know what the best attractions might be to see along the way. Any recommendations? Also open to other transportation options, as long as we can get it done in one travel day.
posted by flod to Travel & Transportation (25 answers total)

We took the bus in May. There was some horrible conflagration which closed I-5 so we detoured and got in a couple hours late, but going back was okay.
posted by Rash at 8:13 PM on September 18

To clarify, do you mean Vancouver, Canada, or Vancouver, Washington?
posted by moosetracks at 8:14 PM on September 18

You could take the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry to Whidbey island, drive the length of the island, and drive out via the Deception Pass bridge. There are lots of nice parks on the island; Fort Casey is my favorite. Mt. Erie in Anacortes offers a stunning view.

Further north, Bellingham is a crunchy college town, with scenic Chuckanut Drive and nearby Larrabee state park.

Instead of this, you could take the train. It would spare your driver, but I wouldn't exactly call it "fun".
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:17 PM on September 18

Vancouver, Canada!
posted by flod at 8:24 PM on September 18

Avoid I-5 completely by taking a ferry to the Kitsap peninsula, drive to Port Townsend for lunch, then drive to Port Angeles where there’s a ferry to Victoria. Have dinner in Victoria and take the Tsawwassen ferry to Vancouver. It’ll be a long day but also fun to get there via ferries. I would do this with my own car, but not sure about international car rental.

You might also consider taking the Victoria passenger Clipper from Seattle and renting a car in Victoria.
posted by oxisos at 8:40 PM on September 18

Getting stuck in traffic at the big border crossing is the antithesis of fun to me. You can take the ferry from Seattle to Victoria and rent a car there, or even take the Ferries Connector from Victoria to Vancouver (longer).
posted by praemunire at 8:47 PM on September 18

Consider a seaplane or small prop plane to Victoria and then a ferry from Victoria to Vancouver.
posted by rockindata at 9:03 PM on September 18

Is there a problem with taking the train?
posted by NotLost at 9:06 PM on September 18

I did this by Amtrak and loved it but I admittedly have a strong pro-Amtrak bias.
posted by Vatnesine at 9:15 PM on September 18

The Clipper is the most fun, closely followed by the train but I like trains.
posted by clew at 9:24 PM on September 18

Seaplane hands down. Harbour Air flies direct Vancouver to Seattle, no Island detour required.
posted by shock muppet at 9:28 PM on September 18

If you do end up going through Bellignham and are at all inclined towards technology and history and museums, the Spark museum of Electrical Invention is really neat, if you happen to be going through on a day they are open. They've got all sorts of cool stuff spanning the history of the development of electricity.

Though if I were looking for the most fun way to travel, I'd also endorse one of the ferry options.
posted by Zalzidrax at 9:29 PM on September 18

Is there a problem with taking the train?

Yes. Only one a day, and it's either too early in the morning or too late at night.
posted by Rash at 9:29 PM on September 18

SeaPLANE! SEAPLANE! SEAPLANE!!
posted by potrzebie at 9:38 PM on September 18

Is there a problem with taking the train?

Yes. Only one a day, and it's either too early in the morning or too late at night.

There are now two trains per day in each direction. You can depart Seattle at 8:30am or 6pm.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:28 PM on September 18

That Amtrak train route has some lovely views. If you take the evening train and sit on the west side, you can watch the sun set over the Sound

Do not drive or bus. The traffic on I-5 is a nightmare most days.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:18 AM on September 19

We did this a couple years ago. As oxisos describes, if you have a car, drive from Seattle to Port Angeles, take ferry to Victoria (there's only one, I think it is the Clipper), then take ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver mainland, drive to Vancouver. We had no trouble renting a car in Seattle and making this drive; however, we did drive back via I-5 with minimal travel interruptions and drop the car back in Seattle so one-way car rental would have to be reasonably priced.

This would be a very long day; we stayed on Victoria Island for a few days which I would also highly recommend if you do not have accommodations/plans in Vancouver already.

Here are some of our timelines: 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive-ish from Seattle to Port Angeles, need to arrive 1 hour early (with a car) for the 90 min ferry and there are a small number of crossings to choose from.

I would spend any extra time on this route in Victoria which is lovely, has great food everywhere, easy to walk. We did get "a bag of Dick's" burgers and fries after leaving the Seattle airport and Korean desserts at T-Town Cafe in Tacoma on the way to Port Angeles.

From Victoria, there is a drive to the ferry (1/2 - 1 hour depending, there are multiple ferry locations), arrive 1h10m hour before, 1h35m hour ferry, drive to Vancouver. We took the Swartz Bay, BC - Tsawwassen, BC ferry.
posted by RoadScholar at 6:13 AM on September 19

If you take BC Ferries, highly recommend reserving your spot. Especially on Fridays and weekends.
posted by lookoutbelow at 7:01 AM on September 19

If you do go the ferry route and are in a car, make reservations when you can. The ferry wait can be long.

The city in the middle of the ferry route from Seattle to Vancouver, Victoria, is lovely and worth at least a pop by to check out. Take the ferry to Tsawwassen and stop in in Steveston, Richmond for lunch or dinner - a cute little seaside town - and then head to Highway 99 northbound to go into Vancouver proper over the Oak Street Bridge.

If you go Victoria to Horseshoe Bay, stop at Lighthouse Park for a fairly easy hike down to the shore for a great view of Vancouver on your way into the city via Highway 1, over the Lions Gate Bridge. You'll also pass through Stanley Park that way, though will have to get off the main road (Georgia) to get into the park itself to stop and look at anything, but it's definitely worth it - though better if you go in by bike than by car and bike around the seawall.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:12 AM on September 19

Another vote for train. It takes 4 hours, the customs & security process is much less annoying than the airport, and also the train stations are more central which saves you some travel time.
posted by elizabot at 8:31 AM on September 19

AmTRAK! AmTRAK! AmTRAK! Cars are for suckers! You could go to Edmonds for the afternoon and then catch the evening train from there, if you don't mind getting in to Vancouver fairly late. The Edmonds train station is downtown, near all the touristy things like restaurants and the beach.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:08 PM on September 19

Few tips -
* The Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal is accessible only from Nanaimo, about a 90 minute drive from Victoria on the un-fun Malahat
* Richmond is a major suburb of Vancouver, dominated by East Asian businesses. Steveston is a part of this suburb. What the poster above is describing is Steveston Village, a tiny subset of Steveston near the wharf. It’s visually nice but you are missing out if you go to Richmond and don’t eat some kind of Chinese food (even street food like dumplings at R+H Chinese in a mall, or HK BBQ Master for pork or duck)
* BC ferries from Victoria to downtown Vancouver is about 4 hours door to door. Reservations are required, I drive north on the Patricia Bay highway and the 9 PM ferry can be full by 7:30. It is an extremely long day to do this detour, and if your first ferry to Victoria goes wrong and you miss the last boat to Vancouver, you’re hooped
* Other posters are suggesting travel days of 10+ hours. At that rate, consider the mountain passes. In 10 hours you can take the I-90 east through Snoqualmie pass, turn north into the Okanagan and cross at Osoyoos, then turn back west and approach Vancouver from the Coquihalla highway. The scenery is stunning and you will see mountain and desert landscapes.

Remember that a non trivial amount of your ferry trip involves sitting in a parking lot and stressing out about being on time. If you can’t take the seaplane, drive a truly scenic route.
posted by shock muppet at 12:17 PM on September 19

Another vote for Kenmore Air, though it's been a long while. It's a quick beautiful trip, and you really maximize your time at destination. In my experience, it was also a breeze thru customs, and I suspected Kenmore Air put something in their water coolers, because everyone who worked there seemed preternaturally cheerful, but amazingly not in an off-putting way.
posted by sapere aude at 12:20 PM on September 19

Thanks, everyone, I love all the different options, and hearing about drawbacks and booking/time requirements is helpful too. The seaplane/ferry combo sounds amazing—may end up doing that one!
posted by flod at 11:17 PM on September 19

Another quick update--we've now made the trip, and it was great! We ended up flying on Kenmore Air from Seattle to Victoria, explored there for a couple of hours, then took the ferry from Swartz Bay to Vancouver. Very fun, very scenic, although it did take us most of the day. Thanks again, everyone!
posted by flod at 2:48 PM on October 10