ingridshawn

NorthwestMale: you have been so helpful, but now we have a huge snafu...

Nothing has been booked as of yet, except for our flight into Portland on the 26th (arrive at 11pm) and leave from Seattle at 10:55pm on Sept 3. Now it seems we have to be in Portland on Saturday the 1st for a family event.

My question is: we still want to do vancouver and seattle, is this feasible?

We are thinking land in Portland, pick up a car, stay the night at my sister-in-laws, leave in the AM to go to Vancouver, leave thursday early afternoon to drive back to Portland - Drop off car. Hang with family Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday AM. Take the train to Seattle Sunday afternoon and spend sunday night/monday all day in seattle.

Is this too much? is it true it takes 9 hours to get to Vancouver? What are you recommendations? Can you tell us the best time to drive, or if we should take the train to Seattle and rent a car from there on Monday?

I need help...i have less than two days to start pricelining all my hotels, cars, etc.

Thanks

boom_boom

Not NorthwestMale, but. . .
it is about 300 miles from Portland to Vancouver and even allowing for traffic and delays at the border it shouldn't take you 9 hours. Unless your train/plane connection is perfect you are probably better off with the car from Portland. What about flying between Portland and Vancouver? Your proposed schedule is doable, but you might save a lot of time if flights between Portland and Vancouver are reasonable and fit your schedule.

eurotraveller

I am also not NorthwestMale but I can assist with my 2 cents worth.

I recently had to drive from Portland to Vancouver, BC to get a new Canadian passport and then made the trip back up 4 weeks later to pick it up. The drive takes about 6 hours but the border crossing can be pure hell!

My first trip up I crossed over at Peace Arch crossing and it only took about 40 minutes to cross. On that trip on the way back it took about 20 minutes to cross at the same crossing.

On my most recent trip a couple of weeks ago we crossed over at the truck crossing and were through in about 5 minutes. On the way back we did the truck crossing and it took over two hours.

There is a radio station that is strictly traffic and it covers ferry crossings, border crossings and significant traffic issues. The truck crossing was and typically is a shorter wait time than the Peace Arch crossing.

Yes, I think visiting all three is feasable. You throw some dates in there but then you switch to days of the week and I am too lazy to go look at a calendar to see how long you plan on staying in each place.

As for when to do the driving, if it is a weekday you will want to avoid driving through Seattle during rush hour, which seems to be all the time but it is worse between 7-10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m.

I typically time my drive from Portland to Vancouver so I avoid rush hour out of Portland as well. I leave Portland at 9-9:30, which puts me through Seattle at about 12-1 pm. and then I arrive in Vancouver between 4-7 depending on traffic and border crossing.

I hope this is helpful to you!

Cheers!

artlover

I'm a NorthwestFemale and looking at your plan would suggest that you not drive all the way back to Portland from Vancouver and then back to Seattle--too much driving. Can you fly into Portland and out of Vancouver? Then you can stop in Seattle on the way.

suze

I am also no expert nor the person you are asking for, but I do live here.

Seattle is *between* Portland and Vancouver, so the order you propose does not make sense to me.

Driving from Portland to Vancouver and back to Portland, you will have driven right thru Seattle (twice)! Then turn around and take the train back? I don't get it.

eurotraveller

Looks like Ingrid already has the flight booked, right?

Yes, it doesn't really make sense to land in Portland, drive to BC, drive back down to Portland and then back up to Seattle but it is definitely feasible.

In only 7 days I would save BC for another trip and concentrate on Seattle and Portland as these two cities have so much to offer!

ingridshawn

wow..thanks for all the help. It is beginning to seem completely infeasible. I only have about a week to get everything in and the thought of being in a car for 6 hours after flying 6 hours is not really heart warming. Any more advice would be appreciated.

sidenote: I know the order doesn't make sense but plans got changed. We have to fly into Portland on the 26th (Sunday) and then we have to be there again on the 31st(Friday)

suze

Plan A: Portland on Sunday. Monday AM drive to Vancouver (6 hours), stay 2 nights sightseeing 1/2 Mon and Tuesday. Wed AM drive to Seattle (3 hours), stay over Thur. Friday morning drive back to Portland for your appointment.

Plan B: Better yet just come to Seattle (I live here) on Mon thru Thursday, and skip Vancouver as you really don't have time this trip to do it up right.

ingridshawn

Thanks everyone...we decided to cut our BC and do that on another trip. So now we are going to spend the early part of the week in Seattle, they off to Portland, and back to Seattle for Sunday night to monday.

Any advice on must sees...also, any good microbreweries - hubby and are are big beer tasters.