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Seattle trip - need some advice
Hello,
I'm traveling to Vancouver for a conference in mid-March. My husband and 18 month old daughter are going to join me. We've always wanted to visit Seattle, so we're considering flying to Seattle and spending five days there before driving to Vancouver. A few questions: 1. What is the drive like from Seattle to Vancouver in mid to late March? Will we run into issues with snow? We're in Texas where it's been in the 70s most of the winter and we aren't used to snow. 2. Where are the best areas to stay in the Seattle area that are reasonable and safe? We don't mind staying outside of downtown as we'll have a car. 3. My husband is a EU passport holder. I'm a US citizen. My daughter doesn't have any ID yet (other than her birth certificate). How is security crossing the border these days? How much time should we allow? Thanks in advance. Susan |
1. The drive is all freeway, no snow (maybe wet). Figure 2 hours to the border, 45 min. from the border into downtown Vancouver. Border = 15min to 1+ hour, depending on day of week, time of day, phase of moon... ;) Easier at mid-days on weekdays, worse on Friday and Sunday afternoons/evenings. US delays much worse than Canadian.
2. There really aren't any "unsafe" neighborhoods. You might consider one of the hotels alongside Lake Union (5 min. drive from downtown) - they won't charge as much for your car as the big boys downtown, some (Residence Inn) have kitchen facilities and buffet breakfasts, both the Residence Inn and Silver Cloud (www.scinns.com) offer shuttles downtown if you don't want to drive/park. 3. You should probably allocate an extra half hour or so at the border for passport inspection for your husband - the people in the inspection booths (both ways) will wave you over to the immigration office where he'll be duly logged in. Your daughter with birth certificate will be fine. You will need US ID; a passport is best. You will probably also experience a slightly longer looking-over because your rental car plates will be noted as such by the robots. [We were returning to Seattle one time last year in a rental car (flew into YVR) and spent a low-quality hour in the clutches of the DHS owing to the fact that the previous renter of the car had been a person of interest to the Homelanders. Speedy as always - the guy was long gone and we were not him.] |
Hi,
More clearly, for yourself, bring a certified copy of your birth certificate along with your driver's license. For your daughter, bring a certified copy of her birth certificate. The drive to Vancouver from Seattle will be an uneventful 150 miles. (try not to depart Seattle between 3pm and 6:30pm on a weekday) (try not to depart Vancouver for Seattle on Sunday, unless you WAIT until way late...8pm or after at the border). Even IF it snows, it would be just a whisp of nothing by mid-March, and this winter has been incredibly mild so far. If I were you, staying in Seattle, I would use Priceline.com to get a room for 5 nights in the downtown section, asking only for a "4-star" room. Study the website www.biddingfortravel.com to learn all about how to make the best bids at Priceline. Also, read at biddingfortravel about the prices offered by other winning bidders for downtown Seattle 4-star hotels. There is no significant unique-to-Seattle "safety" concern for any of the downtown area hotels. You'll be wonderfully safe and comfortable here compared with Houston or Dallas, etc. Your trip into Canada, for your husband, will be fairly routine... and they WILL, as stated above, send him inside to go through the motions... but it will take only a short time, and won't be any big deal. On the way back, he'll also be sent inside, and I can't clearly predict how long that will take, but most of it will just be formalities. I wouldn't let the trip through the border either way work as a reason not to go. It won't be a big deal. Hope this helps. |
I drove up the weekend before Christmas and the freeway was fine. A small icy patch that is long gone by now.
As for the passport issue as a US citizen you need yours. A friend with me only brought her drivers liscence and got hell from the immigration guy though he did let her back into the country. Since 9/11 all border crossings are stricter. Enjoy, both cities are great! |
Correction to that last misguided offering:
YOU do NOT need a Passport to enter Canada if you are a U.S. citizen. A certified copy of your birth certificate is just fine for this purpose. (I made the trip last weekend, and have never had a passport in my life) New laws regarding this topic wouldn't take effect until January of 2008 if ever. |
Hi--the issue might be returning to the United States. We were told by the Victoria Clipper (planning a ferry trip to Vancouver Island from Seattle) that we should bring our passports.
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I agree that you should bring one. On my way back into the US aboard the Clipper 2 or 3 years ago, I got quite a bit of hassle for only having my driver's license. The fact that a passport is not yet required for re-entry into the US didn't seem to matter for the border agent who questioned me.
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Several years ago we stayed at the Inn on Queen Ann. It's a former apartment house for priests. It's within walking distance of the space needle and monorail. Parking was on the next block. I don't recall that there was a charge but maybe that has changed. We had kitchenette facilities. The bad part was no elevator and the rooms were a little tired. It's in a nice neighborhood with restaurants within walking distance. I think a continental breakfast was also included. If they are operating in March, the Duck Tours pickup near the Space Needle, too.
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A clarification re the monorail...it is out of service and will remain out of service until next year (best guess).
Bob Gardner |
Actually, they just announced that repairs on the monorail are in progress and they are planning on having it up and running by summer. No date set yet though.
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RIDER ALERT
November 26th, 2005 I got all excited since will be there late June, but, this is what is on the website: The Seattle Center Monorail is currently closed for repair. No reopening date has been schedule. When more information is available it will be posted to this site. Please check this page periodically for updates. |
Yes, Thanksgiving weekend there was an accident. The Mayor announced last week on the news though about it being repaired.
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Hi,
Just wondering-Has the Passport requirement always been the same in Vancouver? We had to have our passports when driving to Montreal from NY and back, and the last time was about 2 years ago. Do you think Vancouver has different rules? |
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Thanks all for the advice. I should have mentioned that my husband is a green card holder so I hope we'll have an easier time re-entering the US than if he were just an EU passport holder. We'll allow enough time -- especially on the return.
Biddingfortravel.com looks interesting -- difficult to understand and I'm still not sure I fully get what all I'm supposed to do, but I'm going to try it and hope I don't get reprimanded like some of the users have been! Thanks again for all the responses! |
The problem with staying outside of downtown is actually traveling downtown. Traffic is pretty bad sometimes. If you do stay outside, go south instead of north--the traffic is slightly better heading north to Seattle than south to Seattle. Renton is where I live and it generally takes about 30 minutes to drive into Seattle. There are lots of great things to do here.
Also, in crossing the border, turn off I-5 at Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham to head to Lynden. Going across the border at Aldergrove is a lot quicker. Also--stop at Edaleen's Dairy for the best ice cream--it's on the left just before the border. Here's a link for some other ideas of fun things to do in Seattle. http://www.writingup.com/melee3/springtime_in_seattle |
Firstly, will everyone kindly STOP with the erroneous crap about PASSPORTS.
You do NOT in any way need a passport to cross to or from Canada if you are a U.S. citizen. A certified copy of your U.S.-born birth certificate or appropriate papers documenting your citizenship (if a non-native citizen) is just fine when combined with state-issued photo ID (I.E. Driver's License). Someone who was hassled for only having the license (and no birth certificate) upon return does not count as being a fair dispute of the rules or laws for crossing the border as they exist today. I just went to and from Canada (seattle-vancouver path) on the weekend of Feb 3-4 with my birth certificate and had no problem, as is always the case for people who are appropriately prepared as discussed. No reason to get people worried for exactly no reason. |
To starterfish,
I strongly suggest that you NOT bother to interact with the witch who seems to run biddingfortravel.com. Just cheat off of what is written and assembled there, and you can do a great job of finding a super hotel at a super price. In brief: Each city (Vancouver and Seattle) has different "regions/areas" where you can bid on a hotel. For the sake of example here, lets say that you ONLY want the poshest level (4-star) of accomodations in the downtown zone in either city. Because both cities have other zones that simply DO NOT HAVE any 4-star hotels, each of those other zones represents a "free rebid" to you. When a person makes a very first bid on Priceline, he/she names a price, the date(s), a zone, and a hotel quality level he/she will accept. IF that first bid is not taken by Priceline's hotels, then you are required to ALTER your bid in one of the following ways: Date(s) Zone Hotel Quality level Example: If you were interested in staying downtown at the Taj Mahal (mythical top of the line place) and you bid $55 per night to stay there. Your first bid may be rejected by Priceline. Then you would be required to change something about your bid. At that point you could indicate that you would be willing to stay in an opulent establishment in EITHER the downtown area, OR in some suburb called "Rat City". You would do this only because you KNOW that Rat City simply has no 4-star hotels, and thus it is physically impossible to 'win' a bid on a 4-star hotel there. Effectively this lets you *nudge* your price up for the 4-star downtown, without having to change anything. Maybe the Taj Mahal would consent to have you at $60 per night... so you would then score the room there. Vancouver and Seattle each have 2 or 3 areas in their metro area which simply do not contain 4-star hotels, and you could use this info to your advantage. Upon arriving at Priceline for active bidding, the first thing to do is take a blank sheet of paper, and then get to the spot where you select a "zone" in a particular city. Put a checkmark in one zone, then go to the bottom of the page and click next/ok/finish/(whatever the word is to get you to the next page)... THAT NEXT PAGE will show what STAR-LEVELS the "zone" that you selected has. On your blank sheet of paper, write the highest star level for each zone. (first one you likely did was "downtown"... and it has 4 star hotels, so you write that down) THEN, (and this is the IMPORTANT PART), hit "back" on your computer and UN-CHECK the "downtown" zone... and now click "(Rat City)" (or the equivalent)... and then repeat the process of going to the next page, where it will say that "(Rat City)" has a maximum of 2 1/2 star establishments. THEN you hit the back button, and UN-CHECK "(Rat City)", and now put the check by "Airport"... and find that they have as high as 3-star establishments... You want to have a list of all 5 or 6 zones, each checked BY ITSELF, to learn the highest STAR-LEVEL offered by Priceline in that zone. THOSE ZONES which have less than the 4-star hotels that you are likely targeting, will be of great assistance when you're beginning your bids at a very economical rate, and INCHING upward until you score. Mid-March should be a buyer's market in either city for Priceline hotel rates. Let us know here if you need more assistance. FYI... If, after sampling the going rates mentioned for your city in terms of recent Priceline hotel purchases, you are unlucky in not being able to score a room at the price you wish to pay, after going through 3 or 4 unique bids, you can simply WAIT 72 HOURS to begin anew, repeating the process. (for example: If you start on Feb 13 at 6pm bidding for your Seattle rooms on March 10... and you began at $55 per night, and inched upward 3 times (to $70) and were unsuccessful. You need only wait until Feb. 16 (at least 72 hours later) to perhaps begin bidding at $65... and using your "free rebids" to inch up to $80 per night this time. IF THAT didn't work, you could wait another 72 hours and begin at $75, inching upward 3 times to $90 per night. (it would still only be Feb. 20 and you'd have plenty of time.) If it came to that, I'm sure somebody from this message board (including myself) would be happy to coach you through the bidding process via live online messaging somehow. |
Northwest male is 100% correct- you do not need a passport - all you need is a
certified birth certificate - and another picture ID ie. drivers licience Personally I think the border people are not a very friendly bunch and seem to find reasons to hassle. Last time I crossed ( last summer) I handed him my passport - and it had my green card stuck in the passport - he growled at me and said next time to show the green card first - despite a sign at the enterance saying they would greet you with a smile - no smiling immigration people that day. |
There is a lot of confusion about what documentation is now, or will be, acceptable for border crossings. Part of that confusion seems to reside at the DHS.
Stiffened requirements were to have been rolled out beginning at the end of 2005; however they have been delayed upon "reconsideration" by DHS. You can read the current official policy and the likely changes that will be implemented between now and the end of 2007 at this website: http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/c...bpmc_2225.html I encourage people to consult official sources before relying on hearsay from internet bulletin boards on something this important. If you can navigate your way to Fodors you ought to be able to figure out how to access the DHS and State Department. And FWIW I think dissing Sheryl at BFT is old hat and not very gracious. It's a great resource. Besides, her presence on those boards seems quite a lot less lately. |
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