We flew into Seattle and drove to Vancouver Canada to leave on a cruise to Alaska. We spent two days on either side of the cruise in Seattle, only allowing 2 days total for Vancouver. What a mistake. We found Seattle to be a nice enough city, but not nearly as pretty or exciting as we had imagined. It was just one big freeway. If we had to do it again, we would have spent the bulk of the time in Vancouver, which was just magnificant. Vancouver was what we imagined Seattle would be - gorgeous sites with much to do and see, great restaurants, extremely clean and very friendly people.

Yes, it is just one big freeway. I don't think anyone should visit Seattle.

Long Live Emmett Watson

K.B.O!

Barbara if you don't mind can I ask where you are from?

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your time in Seattle- we definatley have our share of freeways but there are a ton of hidden treasures too.

I spent 4 days in Vancouver and 1,5 days in Seattle - I should have done it the other way! I live in San Francisco, and Vancouver looked like a copy of my city, typical american city, some version of SF. When I was in Montreal and Toronto I felt I was in another country. Not in Vancouver. Even the trip to Whistler did not change it.

Seattle is very different and I will certainly go there again.

I live in Vancouver and so, with a lot of bias, I have to agree with you. Seattle for years promoted itself as a "business" city and did not pay a lot of attention to tourism. They made a lot of errors with the freeways and closing in the waterfront but in recent years have made some significant changes that will eventually have a positive effect on the setting ( I understand the Alaskan Way is designated for removal ) There are few cities in the world than can match Vancouver for it's setting and we are very thankful for that.One of the good things Vancouver did years ago was remove all industry from the waterfront so that there is public access and open space everywhere. However, there are some lovely areas outside Seattle and, for an American city, I suspect it is a lovely place to live -- as is all of the American Pacific Northwest and Canadian Pacific Southwest. Thanks for the plug for Vancouver -- most people would agree with you -- but next time in Seattle, ask one of the locals for some suggestions and I think you could really enjoy it.

And for Faina from SF, how could you ever feel like you were in another country in Toronto? Toronto is the great wannabe. It is desperate to be a "world class city" and spends all it's time trying to be New York, London, Paris -- everything but Toronto. Want something really different than just about every place else in North America, try Quebec City. Cheers from sunny and hot Vancouver

I had the identical experience and opinion as you Barbara. I wish I had spent more time in Vancouver. I found Seattle to be very disappointing. Something you didn't mention is that despite Seattle being "one big freeway", traffic didn't move and it took forever to get anywhere.

I wasn't aware that there was a competition.

Seattle and Vancouver are superficially similar in some respects - watery, mountains surrounding, big port, climate, public market... but economically and culturally they are very, very different. Seattle's manufacturing background is considerably more extensive than Vancouver's, national defense has been a big player in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett region and had no counterpart in Vancouver; Vancouver was the national terminus for transcontinental railways in Canada, while Seattle had to fight with Tacoma every step of the way, and so on. In the national psyche, Vancouver is the San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle of Canada. It's the golden west, all of it. Seattle is half of Seattle-Tacoma and that's about it. Seattle's borne a big influx of immigrants (not all from California, by the way) but so has Vancouver, especially Hong Kong. It's a much more Chinese city than it used to be - not a bad thing but very different.

For a tourist it's easy to focus on the few aspects of a city that tourists come to see - Stanley Park or Robson Street, maybe, or the Pike Market and Pioneer Square, but I think the real attractions of both cities are their neighborhoods, where very few if any tourists spend much time. How many Vancouver visitors have ever heard of - or spent any time in Kerrisdale, for example? How many tourists in Seattle spend any time in Madison Park or on California Ave. or Broadway? Not many, because the sights are less spectacular than tooting ferries or jumping Orcas. But the neighborhoods in both cities are the real soul of the towns, and what make them special. That's true of many cities, whether they're tourist magnets or not, of course, but it's especially true in Seattle and Vancouver.

Seattle's traffic is a by-product of the region's rapid growth and the city's geography - chopped up by lakes and coastline so that everything flows north-south and getting cross-town is as hard as it is in Manhattan. Vancouver's traffic is no slouch either, by the way. The freeway ends at the city limit (right where the sign used to declare Vancouver to be a "nuclear free city" - oh, good - I was worried) and the bumper-to-bumper begins there. Try driving over the Lion's Gate at 5:30 some Tuesday and tell me how bad I-5 is in Seattle.

Things are not all rosy in either place nowadays, either. Both towns have been clobbered by a weak economy, Vancouver arguably moreso, so unemployment is quite high. Seattle's traffic is pretty awful, but Vancouver's drug abuse statistics are terrible, too. Homelessness is a big problem in both cities, but perhaps more easily encountered by tourists in Seattle (although I think the problem is more dire in Vancouver, actually.) Both cities seem plagued by politicians who have limited vision, to put it kindly.

Seattle's waterfront freeway is the subject of great debate, just like the Skyway was in San Francisco before Ms. Nature got pissed off and did some urban renewal of her own. The same fate is probably in store for the Alaska Way viaduct one of these days.

Come visit both towns. Learn something about them before you travel, though, so you won't have misconceptions about what you're in for.

I love Seattle and try and visit as often as I can. Vancouver is nice as well, but I just have a preference for Seattle. As a previous poster mentioned, you have to get away from just seeing the most touristy sections of town and enjoy some of the smaller neighborhoods and restaurants frequented by the locals and not that cater to tourbuses.