My husband and I are travelling to Seattle and Vancouver in June. Can anyone suggest the quickest and most scenic way to travel between the two cities? By car or train?

How are you arriving in Seattle? If you only want to see the cities, The Amtrak train or Amtrak bus works fine.
Make sure you have your passports.
There are several good threads here with things to see in each city.

Be aware that there are actually very few trains that ply that route -- most of the Amtrak schedule is serviced by buses, not trains.

That said, we took the 7:40 a.m. train from Seattle to Vancouver. It arrives in Vancouver at 11:40 a.m. We found it to be very convenient and pleasant (we love trains in general). The drive is shorter, but depending on when you go, getting across the border can be quick or very slow.

Thank you. In the case of driving, is it a scenic route? How much shorter is the drive? We have heard that the train is scenic and pleasant. We saw that there are limited trains.

We are also interested in seeing Vancouver Island. Would you recommend having a car for that or other areas between Seattle and Vancouver?

The ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria: http://www.cohoferry.com/main/
It depends on how much you want to see outside of Victoria whether you want to take your rental car on the ferry.

IN this day and age... you might as well take the train...


The drive, while it would seem somewhat scenic to SOME... is a mix of city and rural, trees and grass, hills and water...


You could enhance the scenery of a drive (still at $4.50 a gallon, by then) by taking "Chuckanut Drive" exit #231 northbound I-5 and then Highway #11 to Bellingham.

AND then maybe taking Hwy #539/(13 in Canada) from Bellingham northward, and then westbound on Canada hwy #1.

The train is already scenic, and you wouldn't necessarily need a car on either end, so these days you may as well take the train, unless you have special interests/desires for which a car offers the needed convenience.

We have gone back and forth between the two cities for decades using all the methods described above.

We prefer driving. The drive isn't scenic the way Highway 1 between Cambria and Carmel is scenic, but it is reasonably pleasant. Also, when we drive we don't need to worry if the train will turn out to be a bus (as it often is) or if we will be delayed because of huge crowds at the ferry dock.

HTTY