Seattle-Victoria-Vancouver inAugust
 

My husband and I are planning our trip (for Aug 26-Sept 2,)to Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. We are thinking of using public trans instead of renting a car. We already have our flights RT to Seattle, so our trip would have to start and end there. I am getting confused about how to do the travel to Victoria and Vancouver. The Cascades train sounded very nice, and the ferry to Victoria, fun. How many days at each is also a tough decision since we've never been to any of these destinations. Any help in itinerary is appreciated. We enjoy cultural, architectural, beautiful scenery and "chocolate". tee hee


My husband and I are planning our trip (for Aug 26-Sept 2,)to Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. We are thinking of using public trans instead of renting a car. We already have our flights RT to Seattle, so our trip would have to start and end there. I am getting confused about how to do the travel to Victoria and Vancouver. The Cascades train sounded very nice, and the ferry to Victoria, fun. How many days at each is also a tough decision since we've never been to any of these destinations. Any help in itinerary is appreciated. We enjoy cultural, architectural, beautiful scenery and "chocolate". tee hee

You can take the Victoria Clipper from Seattle to Victoria, then a B.C. ferry to Vancouver, then the Amtrak back to Seattle (or reverse order). Whichever way you go, both the train and Clipper leave Seattle in the morning, so you will probably have to at least overnight in Seattle.

You could split your time evenly between Sea/Vic/Van and have a great time.

Just to clarify the previous post a bit, you'd actually be taking a PCL bus from Victoria to Vancouver, which goes on the BC Ferry.

Note that the train only goes once a day between Vancouver and Seattle (leaving Seattle in the morning and leaving Vancouver around 6 PM). Amtrak will show other departures but they are buses not trains--the train is much more scenic.

Oh, and there was just a story recently in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (one of our daily newspapers) about the growing Seattle chocolate scene.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/3...ocolate06.html

I have a similar question. My friend and I will be traveling to Victoria/Vancouver in late July. Our travel agent has us staying for three days in Victoria and three days in Vancouver. Is there enough to see in Victoria and Vancouver for three days each? I had gotten the idea that Victoria was about a day and a half - is that correct? I always appreciate everyone's replies. Thanks so much.

In both Victoria and Vancouver there is also a city bus that can take you to/from the ferry into downtown. You do need to allow a little extra time for this (probably 2 hours each side), but considerably lower cost. I think it is about $2.25 from Victoria out to the ferry and probably $4.50 or so on the Vancouver side. The only catch is that you will need to carry your luggage with you if you take the city bus whereas you can check it if you take the Pacific Coach Lines (PCL) bus (www.pacificcoach.com). City bus information is available from BC Transit (www.bctransit.com) for Victoria or Translink (www.translink.bc.ca) for Vancouver.