Tony Hughes

Bearing in mind we need to head east towards Idaho, where's the best place to head to from Victoria. Should we take the ferry to Seattle or would it be quicker to take the ferry to Vancouver and head south from there?

thanks

Susan

I don't think there is a car ferry to Seattle - I think it may just be foot passengers. So if you're in a car, you may have to take the ferry to Vancouver. There are several of them every day and you won't have to drive all through Vancouver - you're basically near the highway when you dock.

Tony Hughes

Thanks Susan

I took the car ferry from Victoria (or schwarz bay or whatever) to vancouver back in september and remember the signs for seattle.

Is this quicker (for travel eastwards) than the ferry back to Port Angeles?

Susan

I've not taken the ferry to Port Angeles, but from what I've heard, it runs a lot less frequently and there are often line-ups for it. (That's in the summer.) Not sure about the winter as I've never tried the car ferry in the winter.

Tony Hughes

The MV coho runs twice daily from PA to Victoria, I've checked that already. My main question was that is driving from Vancouver to Idaho quicker than driving from Port Angeles to Idaho assuming both dock at about the same time?

thanks

sheri

If you're heading east, it will be most likely be faster to take the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver than to Port Angeles. If you go to Port Angeles, you'd have to deal with another ferry to get to Seattle and points east. Just be aware there could be a line-up at the border, so if you're traveling at a busy time, cross into the US further east than the main 99/I-5 crossing.

There is no longer a car ferry directly to Seattle from Victoria.

Where in Idaho are you going and when are you traveling? If you're heading to the northern part of Idaho, and you're traveling in the late spring or later, then definitely consider Rt. 20 (the North Cascades Highway) as your route across the Cascades. It's quite spectacular.

Robyn

I agree with Sheri,

Taking the ferry to the Vancouver (Tsawwassen) ferry terminal would be faster than taking the ferry to Port Angeles. Not only does the BC ferry travel more frequently, but when you arrive on the mainland, you'll be right on the freeway and closer to your destination than if you were to go to Port Angeles.

Tony Hughes

Great, I can do that no problem! Thanks both of you.

Tony

rand

Definately ferry to Vancouver. I second the route 20 option if you are not in a hurry. I do that every couple of years and return by highway 3 when I need a couple of days alone with my motorcycle.

John

Tony, if time permits, I'd recommend you travel from Vancouver Island to the mainland either via the Tsawwassen or Nanaimo/Horseshoe Bay route, then east on the TransCanada hwy, then south by east via Nelson BC to the US border crossing at Metaline Falls, thence south to Spokane and on to Idaho. Nelson is a gorgeous little town in the mountains, used as the setting for the film Roxanne (Steve Martin); the Pend Oreille country north of Spokane is very beautiful, with pothole lakes, meadows with horses, etc. The US customs shack at Metaline Falls is a picturesque Victorian piece of gingerbread, not terribly daunting as the welcoming facility to the motherland. Beats the tarnation out of I-5/BC99 at the Peace Arch, aka Checkpoint Charlie.

April

If movie sites are a draw, then stop in at Hope and drive 5 or so minutes out of town to the Othello Tunnels where First Blood with Sylvester Stallone was shot. Awesome spot.

Tony Hughes

John

Are you suggesting driving along the TCH to somewhere like Salmon Arm then heading south? Or should I leave the TCH at Merrit and head for kelowna, then on to grand forks and Trail?

Is there a connecting road between needles and fauquier? The road seems to stop at each side of the lake?

Are these roads ok in mid april? No snow chains required I hope? April, where's Hope?

Robyn

I'm not April, but I can answer your question.

Hope is a small town about as far east as you can go out of Greater Vancouver before hitting the Cascade mountain range. It's also a main freeway connector area. You either go east on Hwy 3 through Manning Park in the Cascades (the scenic route), and through to the Okanagan (Kelowna, Penticton, etc), north-east on the mountainous Coquihalla toll-highway to Merritt (the short cut), or you can take Hwy 1 north along the Fraser Canyon (the slowest route) to Cache Creek.

If you go to this website, it sort of illustrates this:

http://www.bchighway.com/coqrates/

Hope is about a 2 hour drive east out of Vancouver.

John

Tony, regarding the route, I'd actually follow the TCH as far as Revelstoke (big mountain scenery by this point) then head south on BC Hwy 23 toward Naksup, then on to Nelson. Very pretty drive. There's a fun, free car ferry across the lake at Galena, and a couple of really nice hot springs resorts on the road, good places to relax. Road conditions ought to be okay in April, but you are getting near the Rockies, and anything's possible. (Cut to song, Springtime in the Rockies...)

greg

We have done both Tsawwassen-Schwarz bay and Victoria-Port Angeles. I would only do Victoria-PA only if we are going to the Olympic Peninsula.

Here is the reason: the BC ferries run very frequently. We happened to be there in the middle afternoon with practically no queue, about 40 minutes from the time we paid to get loaded. Looking at the size of the parking lot, lead me to believe there can be quite a wait.

The Victory-PA, however requires better logistics. At each side, at least few years ago, there were 2 ferry load worth of parking space. We had to leave our car there to secure our place. To be sure, we had to be there when they load 2 ferries ahead of the one we wanted to take (~6am). Then about one hour before the loading time (~1pm), we had to come back to our car and do boarder control things. In all, we had to leave the car in the waiting area for about 8 hours. We had to find something to do in Victoria without a car, but we had to plan it that way. There was also some sort of standby or express line, perhaps to fill the boat with whatever spaces may be left or to take the place of those who were late returning to their car.

The boarder check on I5 at Blaine was very very slow. I would try hard to cross into US elsewhere.