tinasmv

Hey everyone,
I am planning a road trip from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver (B.C) for the Christmas brake with my husband for 2 weeks.
Ideally, we would go for a more scenic drive, stopping along the way, ending up in Vancouver. We would like to spend at least a week in Whistler, and then come back to Portland again.

I am just starting my research, but if anyone got tips on:
- best routes
- confirm if it's not dangerous (snow/ ice)
- To do's along the way
- Any heads up for this route we should be aware of

It would be super helpful!

Thanks in advance,
Martina

happytrailstoyou

In December Seattle is the main attraction between Portland and Vancouver, and I-5 is the best way to go.

For a more scenic route you could take I-5 to Olympia and then drive 101 up the west side of Hood Canal to Port Angeles. You could explore some of the Olympic National Park. From Port Angeles you could take a ferry to Victoria and then from Victoria you could drive and ferry to Vancouver.

If you drive up I-5, you could take a detour to San Juan Island or Orcas Island.

You may or may not encounter snow and Ice on roads--it just depends on weather conditions at the time you are driving.

HTtY

tomfuller

Except for the trip from Vancouver to Whistler, you don't really need a rental car in Canada.
Would you consider taking the one train or train + bus from Seattle?
Remember the passports.

Katzgar

your expectation that we could confirm a lack of ice on the road now is absurd, check the weather before you go.

tinasmv

Thanks everyone.
I have a car, so I would just be driving instead of flying... not actually renting.

Katzgar: "confirm" was not a good choice of word, I believe. I meant general knowledge about driving from Portland to Whistler as very dangerous vs. there may be ice depending on the weather.

amer_can

Roll the dice, spin the wheel, pull on the one armed bandit. You will get as much from a fortune cookie as you can expect from the weather persons here..Don't fret about it and go and drive safely!

happytrailstoyou

No, the drive is not dangerous. The roads are good the entire way.

HTtY

PS I don't know why some of us feel the need to make statements such as this, " your expectation that we could confirm a lack of ice on the road now is absurd, check the weather before you go." It gives me a pang whenever I read such mean-spirited messages.

5alive

If you don't have a passport already, you should apply as soon as possible.

NorthwestMale

Lets put it this way:

The drive between Oregon and Vancouver, BC will be "safe" for most of the two-week period you mention. We just don't know whether that subset will entail 14.00 days, or 11.5 days, nor do we know which small, weather-related pockets will comprise the potentially 'unsafe' windows. It isn't the driving, or the weather conditions you have to worry about, it's the other people on the roads! It snows in Seattle a scant few times during a typical winter, and significant snow can STOP everything for a few hours, or a day. When it comes to that, you'll just improvise on the fly, and that will be that.

The path doesn't have too many significant hills, and there isn't too much twisting and turning on the roads.

Portland to Olympia, WA is about 100 miles of rural freeway driving. Olympia to Everett, WA is about 100 miles of more congested, urban driving with terrible traffic at times, caused by many waterways in the areas, and relatively few surface alternatives. Everett/Marysville, WA to the Canadian border is 75 miles of mostly rural driving conditions.

Given what's on either end, I don't think you should spend too much time dawdling on the path between those ends.

There aren't too many reasonable alternatives to I-5 for the Portland-to-Seattle part, and because so much of the intended path is between two parallel mountain ranges (or water on one side), it might not make sense, in winter, to seek alternatives.

One small and scenic alternative that is easy to do, is "Chuckanut Drive", south of Bellingham, WA.

For that you take (what I hink is) exit #231 and go west, to highway #11, which takes you in a northwest direction, for a few miles, before you rejoin Interstate #5 at exit #250 (with still 25 more miles before you reach the Canada border)

Look that one up and see if it interests you.