Getting from Vancouver to Seattle

Just started planning our west coast trip for next year. We will be flying into Vancouver but departing on our cruise from Seattle. It'll be a round trip cruise, but we'll be staying on for the extra day to get to Vancouver at the end. Sooooo.... we are trying to figure out the most efficient way to get from YVR to somewhere in Seattle. We don't know yet where we will book a hotel for one night pre-cruise so if anyone has advice on that we would greatly appreciate it!

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Best way depends on what you value. The train is a good starting point - with an extra day in Vancouver you can take either the morning or evening train (morning train leaves too early for same-day travel after disembarking). It's a nice route, near the water, and at $32pp is also one of the cheapest possible ways. In comparison to a bus it's simply delightful - onboard food and booze, somebody else driving, nice views, no border hassles (you preclear US immigration at Vancouver before boarding, so it's a token border stop southbound).

The only benefit of buses is that in theory they're faster as they generally have fewer stops than the train (assuming you don't wait too long at the border), and if you get lucky with Bolt tickets they can cost as little as $1pp (more realistically, ~$20pp is the best rate you have a good chance of finding). Some buses (QuickShuttle, Amtrak) are MORE expensive than the train though - QS pricing does offer value if you need to get from pier to SEA with minimal hassle, but for someone going downtown to downtown their value sucks (and no WiFi onboard). Biggest issue IMO is the hassle of schlepping your luggage inside the border post and back to the bus - while you get lucky sometimes and they don't make you do it, always assume you will have to do this (and by yourself - there will be no porters to help and drivers are only required to handle bags to/from the curb).

Car rentals are far and away the most flexible - and per person, can be the best value too. Book a refundable rate early and keep checking right up until the start of your vacation (or even onboard if you have internet access). Rates as low as $29 have been reported, though in the last year I can't recall anyone claiming <$50 - and it's always possible to find cars for under a hundred bucks with all tax, charges etc. included. There are many folks who do one-way rentals both directions, so while several franchises will slap on ridiculous drop fees especially a long time in advance, in practise those fees disappear as the date approaches.

You can of course also fly, or take a ferry to Victoria then another to Seattle, but these are expensive propositions - I assume you're flying out of SEA because it's cheaper so spending more than you save isn't really a sensible thing to waste research time on...

Hotel pre-cruise - I always recommend the YWCA Hotel, as it's by far the best deal in the region. Cheap, clean, safe, great location, with basically the only downside the consumer psychology issue of whether you can handle 'staying at the Y' or not. If you can, get it booked - it sells out frequently before cruises, especially double rooms.

Just started planning our west coast trip for next year. We will be flying into Vancouver but departing on our cruise from Seattle. It'll be a round trip cruise, but we'll be staying on for the extra day to get to Vancouver at the end. Sooooo.... we are trying to figure out the most efficient way to get from YVR to somewhere in Seattle. We don't know yet where we will book a hotel for one night pre-cruise so if anyone has advice on that we would greatly appreciate it!

 

 

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I would recommend the Quick Shuttle from Vancouver direct to Pier 91 in Seattle. They do not pick up at the Vancouver Airport so you would have to take the Canada Line/SkyTrain rapid transit train to the Bridgeport station (only a 7 minute ride from YVR) which is connected to the River Rock Casino Resort where the Quick Shuttle picks up on route to Seattle. Here is the link to the Quick Shuttle schedule from Vancouver to Seattle and the cruise ship pier.

http://www.quickcoach.com/schedule.htm

Paul

• Be aware there is only TWO train departures daily.... Real early or arriving real late in the evening.
  
• With Quick, Amtrak, Greyhound and Bolt.... it feels like there is nearly a dozen buses daily to fit your schedule. Are you travelling on a weekend? Long weekend? Be aware the morning crossings can be super busy with competing tour buses.
  
• After a few days in Vancouver, what some do is spend a day in Victoria before catching the Clipper ferry onwards to nearby Seattle.
  
• you can also whale watch your way between the cities with your luggage. https://princeofwhales.com/vancouver-tours/vancouver-to-seattle/
  

Wait....

• flying into Vancouver
  
• travel to Seattle
  
• round trip cruise
  
• return to Vancouver?
  
• Flying home from Vancouver???
  

Why not just do the round trip cruise from Vancouver?

Why not just do one of those plane trips from Seattle?

This may be none of my business, ;) but why not book a cruise (Alaska, I'm assuming) that does a round trip from Vancouver since you're flying there anyway?

If you still need to get from Vancouver to Seattle, I swear by Quick Shuttle. A lot of people here tout Amtrak, but the schedule and location doesn't work for me. Quick Shuttle picks you up right in Canada Place, and there are 2 scheduled trips right after embarkation. No need to go from Canada Place to the Amtrak station and/or lug your suitcase around Vancouver all day.

Roz

Thank you all for your great help. The reason we want to fly in and out of Vancouver is that we can do it in half the amount of points that we would use going to Seattle and/or Seattle plus Vancouver. We also plan to spend a week post-cruise in BC since we have relatives to visit in the Okanagan Valley. I mean, if we're going to travel across the continent, we might as well do more than the cruise!

So really, our only wondering is that getting from Vancouver to Seattle. We don't plan to spend any time in BC pre-cruise, so we would probably fly in on the Thursday or Friday before the cruise leaves Seattle on Saturday. We want to do this particular cruise because with the exception of San Francisco, all the ports are new ports for us. (We've already done an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver.) With the extra one day re-positioning cruise tacked on, that's just for the experience and gets us back to BC where we will rent a car for the rest of our vacation.

Since we haven't made any hotel plans for Seattle yet, we are just trying to check into what transportation options there are, and where they end up, so that we would know how to proceed with getting a hotel.

^Whoops. I misread your first post and assumed it was a Vancouver hotel you needed before heading to Seattle for your cruise. So, for clarification, you mean to fly into YVR then immediately head for Seattle, to hang around THERE for a couple of days before your cruise?

Car rental is the only method guaranteed to work with your schedule then - everything else you'll have to wait around until next departure, and also get from the airport to somewhere else to board it whether it's a train or a bus. Given how often airlines tweak their flight times, plus potential delays on the day, I wouldn't ever book a train or bus for the same day as a flight in without a lot of padding.

You might find that a car rental from downtown rather than the airport is cheaper - there are fees of over 20% levied for YVR pickups that do not apply to non-airport locations. Whether it's enough cheaper to be worth the cost of transportation to a downtown rental office ($31 to downtown by cab, $9.10pp on SkyTrain, less if you arrive in the evening) will be a bit random.

I'm leaning towards landing Friday morning.... board an afternoon Quick Shuttle from the nearby casino (4pm) and then getting a hotel in Seattle (8pm?) for the night.

Here's an another idea....

• Arrive Friday and grab a hotel near the airport.
  
• head over to the casino Saturday morning at 7am. There is a half dozen hotels near the casino for different budgets.
  
• board the 7:25am Quick Shuttle at the casino http://www.quickcoach.com/schedule.htm
  
• drops off around 10:45am downtown for a shuttle
  
• 11am at the Seattle Pier for you to board the cruise ship.
  

Well, for those of you waiting with bated breath to know what our decision is on how to get from Vancouver to Seattle, we, after reviewing the helpful advice given, and after re-working the points on our air miles card, found the best way to go was to fly directly to Seattle (well, certainly not DIRECTLY, there are two stops along the way) on the Friday, and get a hotel near the airport, and just get a cab to the port the next day for boarding the ship. Yay! Much simpler - we will see what we can see of Seattle at the end of the cruise before heading to Vancouver on the one-nighter. Next task - best bet for a hotel near SEATAC, and determining the best way to get to hotel from airport, and from hotel to port. My guess for the two of us is a cab each time. I think I still have lots of time to figure some of this out. Thanks all!

Well, for those of you waiting with bated breath to know what our decision is on how to get from Vancouver to Seattle, we, after reviewing the helpful advice given, and after re-working the points on our air miles card, found the best way to go was to fly directly to Seattle (well, certainly not DIRECTLY, there are two stops along the way) on the Friday, and get a hotel near the airport, and just get a cab to the port the next day for boarding the ship. Yay! Much simpler - we will see what we can see of Seattle at the end of the cruise before heading to Vancouver on the one-nighter. Next task - best bet for a hotel near SEATAC, and determining the best way to get to hotel from airport, and from hotel to port. My guess for the two of us is a cab each time. I think I still have lots of time to figure some of this out. Thanks all!

All the airport hotels near Seatac (well, all that you'd consider staying at) have free shuttles so that's not an issue. To get to the cruise dock you can use various car or shuttle services or Uber, or ride the light rail to downtown Seattle and cab/Uber it from there. Note there are two cruise docks in Seattle, one of which (Pier 66) is located on the central waterfront downtown, while the other one (Pier 91) is located a couple of miles north in a very pedestrian-unfriendly zone. Which cruise line are you using?

We will be on the Ruby Princess. Is there a shuttle from the airport to pier?

I used Shuttle Express, which has an office/station in the SeaTac parking garage. You can make a reservation and pay ahead of time by going online.

Roz

We will be on the Ruby Princess. Is there a shuttle from the airport to pier?

If you mean free shuttle, no. If you mean a paid shuttle, sure, but for two or more people a cab or Uber from the hotel will probably be cheaper, plus you won't have to schlep to the airport from the hotel.

Princess uses Pier 91, so also be advised that if you want to do any sightseeing in Seattle before you board, it's very difficult to do, since there's nowhere short of the cruise terminal to stash your luggage while you tour. If you want to stay at an airport-area hotel, I'd just go straight to T91 on your departure day.

RE hotels at SEATAC, I have not stayed there yet, but I am currently holding reservations at the Fairfield and the Best Western. Both get good reviews.

Reason for two reservations if anyone cares, lol: I booked one night at the Fairfield when I thought we would be flying home 6/19 and got a great Marriott Rewards rate. When our plans changed to stay an extra night and fly home 6/20, the second night price almost doubled, so I booked the BW. I'm hoping another sale will pop up for the Fairfield (it is closer to the light rail that we will be using to sightsee in Seattle), so I have not cancelled the one night yet. If not, I will cancel it later.