baadbee

The challenge is that the whales are a quite a bit north of Seattle around the San Juan Islands.  You either take a long drive (90+ minutes, not that long) and a shorter sail or a long sail.  Since cars are faster the long sail option can leave you with less time near the islands.  You should consider the transit time when booking.  That high speed catamaran Ferry_Watcher mentioned might help solve the problem, I haven't heard much about it.

If your travels give you the option of whale watching out of Victoria BC it is much closer to the whale spotting areas.

This is a perfectly reasonable plan for mid May.  The roads are in excellent shape and are most likely going to be bare and dry.  You are being careful which is most of the battle.  Mountain weather can be very weird and inconsistent so double check the reports before heading out and follow advice.  Be willing to adjust your plans on the fly.  A snowstorm is not probable, but certainly possible, you don't want to be at altitude when it hits.

Even Canadians consider the weather around Calgary a little bizarre at times (it has snowed in August).

The main thing I will tell you is don't stress about it.  Some people will insist it is rude to use US dollars but truly nobody cares, especially in tourist areas.  I'm a dual citizen that has lived in the US for a couple of decades and when I see family in Canada I often never bother getting any Canadian money, even for a week long trip. Mostly I use credit cards, as is safest when travelling, and they work everywhere (best to have a card with chip).   At some point I buy a soda or something small at a store (ignoring the subpar exchange rate) with a US $20 (always ask if it is OK out of politeness, it usually will be) and use the Canadian change for parking or anything involving a machine that won't take credit cards (those are getting rare).

Nobody objects to a tip that is 20% bigger which is what they get with US money.

I haven't taken that tour but might be able to help with specific questions.  I used to live in Vancouver and currently live near Seattle.  I looked up the itinerary out of curiosity. 

The Vancouver touring day (day 8 ) looks light, the day to Vancouver Island (9) will be a long one, you'll be exhausted by the time you get back.  The train trip is a long one (19 hours?) so it will be mostly relaxing, not much to do but look out the window (there is a snack bar but you might want to bring your own favorite snacks).   The Selkirk mountains are spectacular, some of the most forbidding, sharp and bare mountain ridges and faces you will ever see.  You might want a book for when all the peaks start to look the same. 

 It looks like they give you the afternoon off in Jasper (day 11) so that will give you some walking around time.   Days 12 and 13 look quite busy, that's a lot of travelling and a lot to see in two days.

You are covering a lot of ground here so you will see some great scenery but your time to enjoy it will be limited.  I would want more time to see all this (again) but sometimes you just need to pack it all in if you are only going to get the one chance.

Have fun.

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I was initially responding to DirtyDawg's post about always being ripped off in Europe. 

Not sure why it is acceptable for Americans to accuse us Europeans of swindling them, but woe betide anyone who implies that similar practices take place in the US ? 

Bad things happen all over the world, including the US.

 

 

But to be fair it's very unlikely you will get ripped off this way in the US.  Shot in the face, beaten to death with an iron pipe; those are much more likely, look on the bright side.   /s

Thanks chengkp75, heidi13, navybankerteacher and all others. It's always made me curious that the sea condition questions aren't answered with hard data where general weather questions are (can be). I guess the problem is that you can't meaningfully summarize highly chaotic data...

I use this one for wave heights

http://www.oceanweather.com/data/

Thanks for that link, fun to click around on that and see where things are heavy (seems like things are quiet in much of the oceans this week).

So I just read a thread about "will the waves be big for my cruise to XXX" for the umpteenth time. The answers, as always, were that waves are unpredictable and you should be ready for anything. It left me thinking... are there statistical models for wave height per month (per something...) that are useful for evaluating sea conditions for cruising (or any shipping)? I'm hoping one of the expert retired mariners on the forum could enlighten me. Google searching reveals only very specific studies that don't seem useful for prediction by a traveler.

It's easy enough to find detailed weather info for anywhere in the world. I can't know for sure if it will be warm somewhere next Feb but at least I can know whether it's likely to be warm (and how warm). Are sea conditions so highly variable that no meaningful statistics can be provided? Are there any interactive maps that can be used to compare typical sea conditions between areas at specific times of year?

Just wondering...

Chris

I currently live in Seattle (well the suburbs) and previously lived in Vancouver, and yes, definitely, Vancouver is the more scenic city. Seattle is a perfectly fine place but Vancouver is one of the most beautiful you'll find anywhere in the world. For Americans it also provides that international feeling, in a very safe and convenient, same language sort of way.

Babs, the drive across is a great once in a lifetime sort of trip but be sure you are ready for the distance. Toronto to Calgary (the most boring part) is the same as the driving distance between London England and Moscow, approx. 1800 miles\2900 km. Then you have another 600 miles to Vancouver. Between Winnipeg and Calgary there is nothing; no trees, no hills, no structures, just grass and very occasionally some cows (OK, yes I am exaggerating a little, but it will seem that way).

On one of my trips I did it east bound on the Trans Canada hwy in a beat up manual transmission pickup truck that wouldn't stay in top gear unless I held the shifter the whole time. It was a long tiring trip :).

For anyone leaving out of Seattle the air is much better today than it was Wednesday. There is still a hint of smoke but it is expected to continue improving over the next two days.

Thanks for the responses about attitudes towards tourists. It’s great to see common sense and courtesy winning the day (here on the board and in Vancouver). It is a confusing time...

Martincath and others, I'm curious if you've been hearing anything lately about attitudes towards American tourists being less friendly given the current tariff dispute? Are folks finding Canadians less welcoming? I don't in any way want to start a discussion about the merits of the politics behind this (not appropriate here), just interested in traveler's experiences...

Most of my family is in Canada but I've been in the US for a couple of decades. My sister recently cancelled a week long trip to the Olympic peninsula because she doesn't want to spend any tourist dollars in the US until the relationship between the countries improves. I'm not a fan of boycotts but it's definitely her right to spend her money however she wants. For Americans who may not be very aware of the situation, what really has my sister, and I'm guessing a lot of Canadians, ticked off is not directly the tariffs but the justification for them which describes Canada as a national security threat to the US in the same category as China.

PS. No one should be turned off their cruise out of Vancouver by this question. The Canadians who feel strongly are likely to still be more polite to you than an average New Yorker ( my father was born in Manhattan so I'll take that free swipe).

They're still mostly Canadians of course, so as drunken buffoons go relatively polite and not very stabby,

Ok, you win quote of the week. 🙂

Avoid comparing Canada unfavorably to the US, and for the love of god don’t criticize Canadian beers and there should be no stabbiness at all. 😉

I regularly drive by Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell Wa. I don’t really know much about it but it’s a really cute spot. It’s a tiny little lake in the bottom of a small valley with RVs around it. It’s just off the 405 with good access to restaurants and other stuff. It’s about 30 min (50 in rush hour) from downtown Seattle. You could check it out.

The advice in this thread is all good, but my advice is don't worry about it too much. :) As a Canadian who's lived in the US for the last 25 years I visit Canada fairly regularly and never exchange money anywhere. On weekend trips it's credit cards almost everywhere and $20 sometimes for small purchases, use the change for parking or the next small purchase. Ask politely if US money is OK just for the courtesy of it. I don't recall ever being told no. Usually I withdraw some CDN from an ATM after a few days but I've gone a whole week without getting around to it. Never a problem.

The less than perfect exchange change rate on the USD isn't worth worrying about for tiny cash purchases. Credit card and ATM rates can't be beat.

It's easier to let Canadians assume I'm a native born American than explain where I grew up. Hopefully I leave them with a positive experience of a US tourist :)

Thanks, I should have mentioned that I took the Pearl (I think it was the Pearl) from Van to LA in 2015. Why isn't that trip listed on NCLs site? And none of the ship and port tracking sites list any info for the ship during that period... Odd

So I'm looking for repo cruises and can't account for the Pearl between Seattle on Sept 30 and LA on Oct 3. Why no scheduled repo? Private Charter? Servicing of some kind?

Thanks,

Chris

Didn't that apply to Atlantic/European crossings from/to North America?

The historical accuracy is questionable but I've always heard the derivation of posh as relating to travel from England to India. Port out and starboard home meant you were on the landward side both ways and had a view.

Hi kjpabl, I'm also staying at the Coast Plaza at the end of June. That area is one of my favourites in Vancouver. There are a ton of restaurants near there, one my wife and I love is Legendary Noodle. It's on the east side of Denman about two blocks north of the hotel. It's a traditional hand pulled Chinese noodle house where you can watch the chef stretch your noodles. It's very authentic which means not like a typical Chinese restaurant. It's probably best for lunch and dirt cheap. There are some good sushi places along Denman but I forget the names. There is a very popular (good but perhaps slightly overrated) Greek place about 6 blocks east on Davie called Stepho's. People lineup for an hour to get into the place. Be warned it's an uphill walk.

BTW-I always use Canadian currency when in Canada. I think it is a matter of respect and common courtesy if nothing else.

I'm a dual citizen living in the US but most of my family is in Canada so I go back and forth a lot. Your view is certainly a commendable one but nobody in the major cities is concerned about use of US dollars. I mostly use my credit card in Canada and even with the foreign transaction fee the base exchange rate is so good that it works out about even. I always intend to pick up some Canadian cash at an ATM but sometimes don't get around to it. I've several times gone a week with the only Canadian cash being what I got in change from small purchases.

The point being, for those travelling to Canada for the first time, don't worry too much about exchanging money the moment you land. Canada is very tourist friendly. Note that the worst exchange rates you'll get for cash will be in hotels and gas stations, better to use plastic there.

There are tide pool areas near Horseshoe Bay just north of Vancouver but they are impacted by the urban density and boat traffic. For more undisturbed environments you do need to go over to the island as Dennis mentioned.

Do you mean coming from the east as in driving from New Jersey? If so the border is the least of your worries :) No, there are no direct routes to Sumas approaching from the east unless you really enjoy leisurely scenic drives on secondary roads. All practical routes for long distance cross the Cascades on I90 and go up I5 from Seattle to the border. Here in the west the shortest driving distance between two points is rarely a straight line. There are pesky mountain ranges in the way all over the place.

For a trip like this don't waste any worry on border waits and enjoy the drive for it's own sake.

Border wait times are highly variable. On a Friday evening before a long weekend they can go to 2-3 hours. After crossing the border a few hundred times I've only run into that a handful of times. Typically it's 15-30 minutes. Try to avoid obvious peak commuter and weekend travel times if you can. I find it is usually worst heading south on Sunday afternoon. The Canadian side seems to staff better and ask fewer questions.

I usually cross at what is called the truck crossing on SR543 (but it's open to everyone) out of habit but it tends to have about the same wait times as the main I5 crossing, Peace Arch. You can go east and cross at Sumas which typically gives shorter wait times but 30-45 minutes more driving. I've never considered it worth the bother but some folks always cross at Sumas in the summer time. To cross at Sumas you leave I5 at Bellingham.

take a look at this: http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/border/default.aspx

My wife loves London Drugs and wants to visit one every time we visit Vancouver (seriously). They carry an astounding variety of cheap crap, I mean useful stuff. I'm sure there must be some drugs in there somewhere behind the snacks, widgets and gizmos. They are all over with one on Robson at Bute in the stretch with the high end shopping and restaurants.