PNW 8-days
 

We are planning 2 nights in Seattle at The Edgewater, then taking the Amtrak Cascade train to Vancouver for 2 nights at the Sylvia Hotel. We’ll take the train back down to Bellingham and head to Friday Harbor via ferry (on foot) the next day. We have 2 nights booked there at Earthbox Inn, then will return to Seattle on the Clipper foot ferry for our last night at The Warwick. We are hoping to do this without driving/renting a car, other than one of the days on San Juan Island (M & W car rental). Our Airbnb host in Bellingham will we picking us up at the train station there. We are hoping that we can Uber to Anacortes for the ferry...Does this seem doable? We really appreciate your input!

It seems doable but the Uber ride from Bellingham to the Anacortes ferry terminal is going to be pricey - depending on where you start in B'ham it's close to 50 miles one way. When you add in things like cab fare to/from the Edgewater, train fares, the Uber and Clipper fares, my hunch is that a rental car would be cheaper, not to mention infinitely more convenient. If you don't want to take the car on the ferry to Friday Harbor, you could park it in Anacortes (although I'd take it; San Juan Island has too much to see not to have access to a vehicle.)

I'd agree do-able but expensive and a bit cumbersome. Is there a reason you wouldn't want a car for the entire trip? Or at least the Bellingham/SanJuans/Seattle portion?

This is a bucket list trip for my husband who really wants to take the train from Seattle to Vancouver. Economy is not the issue, we’d just rather not drive in the cities and we love the idea of the ferries and trains. A one way rental car from Bellingham to Anacortes looks like it will cost about double what an Uber would be, best I can tell. I’ll be checking in a few days to see if I can pre-book the Uber. (I read that it needs to be within one month & we’ll need it on August 5th.) I will also be checking with our Airbnb hosts in the Fairhaven neighborhood in Bellingham for their suggestions. We do have a rental car reserved for one day on SJI. (We’ll be doing a Legacy whale watching tour the other day.)