Vancouver to Bellingham Airport?

[ACDSNY]

Anyone know what the drive from the Vancouver Cruise Terminal to Bellingham International Airport is like? How long does it take? It looks like it's a little over an hour away. How's the border crossing?

I've done the drive from Vancouver to SeaTac before and noticed Bellingham is a closer option.

We may do the LA to Vancouver cruise next May.

 

[Bunless]

You'll be a little over an hour closer than with seatac.

Border crossings are tough, it really depends on the time of day... and of course on occasion there's an incident of some kind that really increases the delay. Recently, we've been through around 6:30am where there was one car ahead of us. We've also been when it took 2 1/2 hours around noon.

 

[ACDSNY]

Thanks. I was thinking if it's a nice day we may go to Stanley Park before heading home.

 

[jeepwreck]

after you cross the board Bellingham Airport is about 30 mins away..

i was just down there this weekend shopping and drove pass the airport, we have nexus so the board line up are never more then 5 mins but they can range quite a bit in the regular line ups

 

[ACDSNY]

It's a few hundred dollars cheaper to fly out there and it looks like it might be a nice drive down the coast. Looks like I'll need to leave plenty of time to get across the border.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's a few hundred dollars cheaper to fly out there and it looks like it might be a nice drive down the coast. Looks like I'll need to leave plenty of time to get across the border.

I've never gone *into* Bellingham, but the drive down 5 isn't along the coast. The train is along the coast, but not the road.

 

[KEmum]

We live in Surrey and cross the border often. The border crossings can range in waits from 5 minutes to 3 hours. Usually the PAC highway crossing at 176 Street is faster than the Peace Arch crossing.

The drive is nice with lots of farms and forests alternating. The airport turn-off will come before you know it!

 

[deanimal]

I live in Abbotsford (just across the border north of Bellingham) and we love flying into and out of Bellingham. The airport is a great size, its easy to access, and so much cheaper. As others have said, the border is a big variable. Weekends are the worst, and holiday weekends can be especially bad. Make sure you check both American and Canadian calendars for holidays because Canadians swarm across the border on our long weekends.

Car rental could also be tricky. I'm not sure what the rules are for dropping off in Canada but there could be hefty surcharges. The train is a nice option and it stops in Bellingham. You'd have to take a cab from the airport to the train station, but I don't think the distance is huge. Once you're in Vancouver its easy to explore without a vehicle.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

You can use the http://www.quickcoach.com/ or the https://www.boltbus.com/

 

[ACDSNY]

We live in Surrey and cross the border often. The border crossings can range in waits from 5 minutes to 3 hours. Usually the PAC highway crossing at 176 Street is faster than the Peace Arch crossing.

The drive is nice with lots of farms and forests alternating. The airport turn-off will come before you know it!

This sounds great to me. We live in the country and enjoy site seeing.

I live in Abbotsford (just across the border north of Bellingham) and we love flying into and out of Bellingham. The airport is a great size, its easy to access, and so much cheaper. As others have said, the border is a big variable. Weekends are the worst, and holiday weekends can be especially bad. Make sure you check both American and Canadian calendars for holidays because Canadians swarm across the border on our long weekends.

Car rental could also be tricky. I'm not sure what the rules are for dropping off in Canada but there could be hefty surcharges. The train is a nice option and it stops in Bellingham. You'd have to take a cab from the airport to the train station, but I don't think the distance is huge. Once you're in Vancouver its easy to explore without a vehicle.

It will be the Monday of Memorial Day weekend so I'll plan for a long border crossing. If we get through faster it will just leave some site seeing time in WA.

You can use the http://www.quickcoach.com/ or the https://www.boltbus.com/

Thanks I'll get these out too.

 

[ACDSNY]

I've never gone *into* Bellingham, but the drive down 5 isn't along the coast. The train is along the coast, but not the road.

We're looking at going down Hwy 99 instead of 5 so some areas are close to the coast.

 

[wannagoback]

It's a few hundred dollars cheaper to fly out there and it looks like it might be a nice drive down the coast. Looks like I'll need to leave plenty of time to get across the border.

This is funny to me because I live on the actual coast of Washington and never thought of the land surrounding Puget Sound as the "coast."

If Bellingham is cheaper, I would definitely fly out of there instead of Seatac. Even for the same price, I would! Actually, I'd have to be saving a substantial amount of money on airfare to drive from Vancouver to Seatac instead of Bellingham.

 

[ACDSNY]

This is funny to me because I live on the actual coast of Washington and never thought of the land surrounding Puget Sound as the "coast."

If Bellingham is cheaper, I would definitely fly out of there instead of Seatac. Even for the same price, I would! Actually, I'd have to be saving a substantial amount of money on airfare to drive from Vancouver to Seatac instead of Bellingham.

I know it's not like the coastline, but it's still a different view than going down I-5. It's a view of the water isn't it?

 

[bumbershoot]

We're looking at going down Hwy 99 instead of 5 so some areas are close to the coast.

Does 99 continue into WA? I'm pretty sure that that's the route we generally take out of Vancouver (we like to visit there), and it just sort of plunks onto 5. From the map it looks like you could go to 548, but that's still not really along the water.

I could be totally wrong, but just in case I'm not (and if anyone else wants to chime in on this it would be great), I would hate for you to want a *water* view, and realize you're in farm country (the Delta) with a smelly horse farm along the road, and one (if memory serves) glimpse of the TOP of a ship at one point as you veer towards where the water is (over there beyond the things in between), before you veer back...


Now, to go into White Rock and go along the road...that looks cool, and if you're a Psych fan it's bonus fun b/c they film there sometimes... But if a train goes by while you're driving along, there goes your water view until it's gone.


DS's birthday is over Mem Day weekend most years, and we went up there around that time, and the Peace Arch was NOT fun. The only fun was watching the people get into the NEXUS lane, then at the last minute supposedly realize that they shouldn't be in that lane, and then scrunch their way into the normal lane, a good hour ahead of where they would have otherwise been. And that's not very fun.

If we were doing it again, we would take the train! (and did take the train to and from Vancouver for our honeymoon RCCL cruise) Then again, last time we took the train there was a landslide 2.5 days before our journey home, and so we got to take a most UN-fun charter bus home. no bathroom, no food, no water view...sigh. (they have to wait a certain number of hours before they get trains on the tracks after a slide)

 

[geoffrey]

We're looking at going down Hwy 99 instead of 5 so some areas are close to the coast.

hmmmm, I don't think so. The main road from Vancouver to Bellingham is called Highway 99 in Canada and becomes Interstate 5 at the boarder. There are sections of old highway 99 in Washington that run roughly parallel to I-5 in Washington. (Note: it is not referred to as "The 5" in Washington)

However, none of them really give you a view of the water. You can see a little bit of water right at the border, but other than that, you really don't see it from any of these roads. Sorry. But it is a beautiful drive. Hopefully Mt. Baker will be out for you.

If you get off the main highways, you can get a nice view of the water in some places, but north of Bellingham, there really aren't any scenic drives. South of Bellingham is Chuckanut drive, which is wonderful, but it doesn't sound like you will be going that way.