Driving to Vancouver

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Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
I just booked the 6/10 Alaska cruise. Airfare from Sacramento to Vancouver costs about half the price of the cruise, and it appears to be only a 14 hour drive. Any idea on parking costs at the port in Vancouver? Do any hotels offer a park and cruise option?
 
I just booked the 6/10 Alaska cruise. Airfare from Sacramento to Vancouver costs about half the price of the cruise, and it appears to be only a 14 hour drive. Any idea on parking costs at the port in Vancouver? Do any hotels offer a park and cruise option?

You can probably cut that airfare in half by flying to/from Seattle and using Quick Shuttle from SeaTac to Vancouver.
 
There is cruise ship parking at Canada Place (where the cruise ship terminal is located).

You can book the parking in advance.

Go to this site:

http://www.vinciparkcanadaplace.ca/cruise-ship-parking.html


Long-term Rates:
Cruise Ship Rate: $16.98 plus applicable taxes per day (=$23.00 per day)
Cruise Ship Weekly Rate: $135.77 plus applicable taxes per week (=$184.00 per week)


Good luck and Bon Voyage!!!!

Kate :thumbsup2
 
Whatever you do, get into town the day before the cruise. Driving through Seattle can be jam-packed, and getting across the border can take some serious time.

Also, Vancouver is nearly an hour away from the border, which still comes as a surprise to me even though I've been driving to/from Vancouver since I was 18! While there's a Tim Horton's along that drive, it's not a totally easy one...lots of traffic at times, and to a US-based driver it can be a little confusing (and not just b/c it's in km).

And that's not even counting the rest of the drive and the surprises and slowdowns that can crop up. Just give yourself lots of time, OK? If you get there early, bonus, because Vancouver is beautiful and is worth a bit of exploring.
 


It's not a bad drive, especially if you have time to break it up a bit and make it part of your vacation. We did it once the other way; went from BC to Napa Valley for a four day weekend. Our only problem was that when we got to the border on the way home the guard wouldn't believe that we'd driven that far for just a weekend. We finally had to show him our gas and hotel receipts before he'd believe us!

So, if you enjoy driving its a totally do-able option. But also check the airfares into Seattle. They are often less than half and we usually cross the border to fly south.
 
Used to drive between portland and Disneyland and on the drive home there were signs from Stockton to Sacramento saying that portland was still over 600 miles away!

DCL first year in Alaska we drove to Vancouver, we found a great deal - parked at the airport for about $40 usd for the week. We bought a book of 10 tickets on the sky train into downtown ( was cheaper than the individual tickets) it dropped us one block from the port. Was an easy way to get there and back again.
 
Is there a good time to pass through the border? Early morning, late evening, middle of the day? We will be going through on either a Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

Whatever you do, get into town the day before the cruise. Driving through Seattle can be jam-packed, and getting across the border can take some serious time.

Also, Vancouver is nearly an hour away from the border, which still comes as a surprise to me even though I've been driving to/from Vancouver since I was 18! While there's a Tim Horton's along that drive, it's not a totally easy one...lots of traffic at times, and to a US-based driver it can be a little confusing (and not just b/c it's in km).

And that's not even counting the rest of the drive and the surprises and slowdowns that can crop up. Just give yourself lots of time, OK? If you get there early, bonus, because Vancouver is beautiful and is worth a bit of exploring.
 


We actually live very near to a border crossing on the Canadian side, in fact I can see the southbound long weekend queue winding past my house as I type. Most of the time it seems like there are more Canadians heading south than Americans heading north, so the lineups are longest on the Canadian side in the morning and on the US side going into Canada in the evening.

However, we always plan for the worst case scenario whenever we go. Weekends in summer will always be quite busy and any sort of drug seizure or other incident can slow things right down for hours. We just try to leave enough time and look at it as "enforced family togetherness time"!
 
Is there a good time to pass through the border? Early morning, late evening, middle of the day? We will be going through on either a Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

I'm not the person to ask for that....the time it took us ages it was a weekday. Summer, but still, a weekday. I don't remember the time. I'm sure others will know more; I just know to not have any time constraints because it's hard to know. And another thing is that sometimes they flat out close one of the borders, and you'll be shunted to the other. I love going through the Peace Arch border, but if it's closed ya gotta go to Blaine (I think that's the name), which then makes that crossing much busier.
 
I loved the billboards on the Canadian side heading back into the USA ... Warning, entering the country of very expensive medical care. Buy your insurance now!
 

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