Driving from Victoria, BC Canada to Disneyland

[aurorae]

Might be more choices in Bellingham.

 

[blackjackdelta]

Maybe we're taking too many bathroom breaks???

Actually, we always run into a lot of traffic by the afternoon. All the cities we pass in the afternoon, we seem to hit a major clog. Going through L.A. takes a while too. Then we always run into summer traffic construction which shut down freeway lanes.

I'm sure we can make better time. But the past 3x we've driven down, our times of arrival into Anaheim were pretty consistent.

We always go mid august and have driven this route more times than I can count. There are 6 of us, 4 females, we drive until someone has to go. We make a noon stop for lunch and BR and then gas prior to heading up the grapevine. Never have arrived at DLR later than 1500 and I am a relative conservative driver, I do not get in the 80+ lane other than passing, Who knows????

Jack

 

[Littleprincess2010]

Might be more choices in Bellingham.

Thank you, I checked and found a few that were resonably priced and got good reviews on TripAdvisor.

 

[c&m]

Ok, now that ya'll have given me a better understanding of how long it takes to get through traffic and make stops I think we're going to add an additional night and go over on the ferry the night before. This way we can get up and leave early and hopefully be in Redding by dinner time.

So we'd take the 7pm ferry on the Thursday and get to Vancouver by 8:45 and then drive through the border crossing and then........ well, thats where I got stuck. Where should we stay? should we drive a bit or try to find a place right in blaine?

Depends on how far you want to drive by that hour. For us, we go as far as we can so we have less to drive the next day and arrive in Redding earlier. Sometimes we go as far as Bellevue, other times we like to stay in the SEATAC area so we don't have to deal with that downtown Seattle traffic the next day.

In Bellevue, we usually see what the hotel rates are. Our fave hotels are the Residence Inn Bellevue, Hyatt, or the Hilton Bellevue. If they have ~$80 rates, we just go for that, and if not, we use Priceline.com. In the SEATAC area, we always use Priceline and get the Doubletree Seatac for $40-$55. (Sidenote: If you go to the Canadian forum, a lot of West Coast Disers like the Marriott properties close to SEATAC and Southcenter Mall.)

But if you don't feel like all that driving at that late hour, as the PP suggested, Bellingham is good too.

 

[Littleprincess2010]

Depends on how far you want to drive by that hour. For us, we go as far as we can so we have less to drive the next day and arrive in Redding earlier. Sometimes we go as far as Bellevue, other times we like to stay in the SEATAC area so we don't have to deal with that downtown Seattle traffic the next day.

In Bellevue, we usually see what the hotel rates are. Our fave hotels are the Residence Inn Bellevue, Hyatt, or the Hilton Bellevue. If they have ~$80 rates, we just go for that, and if not, we use Priceline.com. In the SEATAC area, we always use Priceline and get the Doubletree Seatac for $40-$55. (Sidenote: If you go to the Canadian forum, a lot of West Coast Disers like the Marriott properties close to SEATAC and Southcenter Mall.)

But if you don't feel like all that driving at that late hour, as the PP suggested, Bellingham is good too.

How long does it take to drive from Vancouver to SEATAC? or Bellevue?

 

[whimseysgirl]

I like getting through the cities at night when I can, but since it's just DS and I, and we're both night owls, we can make it work. For Anaheim we head all the way to Portland the first night, but on other trips we too stay in either Bellevue or Seatac using priceline. I find SeaTac is a bit closer to the highway to get on the road the next day. If you're taking the 7:00 ferry, you'll likely have shorter lines at the border, which will be good. You're looking at about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to SeaTac, depending on border wait times, traffic, how many stops you might need, etc.

And Bellingham is a good place to stop, if you don't want to drive too far, as is Mt Vernon - about half an hour past B'ham, if you want to get some more miles behind you.

 

[c&m]

Richmond to Bellevue: about 2 hrs.
Richmond to Seatac: about 2.5 hrs.

Those are estimates given that you go on a Friday evening with a minimal border wait and after Seattle's rush hours.

 

[Anj]

I would at least try to get to Bellingham after your ferry ride. Esp if you're going to the Tsawwassen terminal, as that's only 40 minutes from Blaine. If it was me, I'd shoot for Seattle (SEATAC area), it would depend on how the kid(s) were.

 

[Littleprincess2010]

I think we're going to go with SeaTAC, its the farthest I think we could go before gettting really tired.

I've been sifting through all the hotels on Tripadvisor.com but Im wondering if anyone has any personal experience with hotels near SeaTAC that they would like to share.

We need a room for 3 adults and 1 child.

 

[sasywtch]

Is it the Hilton just before getting into downtown Sacramento?(Garden Hwy)?

That's the one. It's in the South Natomas area if you look on priceline. I like it because there's free parking, free wireless and a fridge and microwave in the room. We've had great luck there - less luck with the Portland one. The other hotel that I've won in the area is the Sheraton 4 Points, which was also very nice. Got one downtown that was very dodgy once, so now I just bid in the S Natomas area...thus far it's worked out well.[/QUOTE]

If you stay there again (Hilton/garden hwy), wave across the freeway. I work directly across the freeway from there. There are some new ones 2 exits back (toward north), Homewood Suites, Holiday Inn express and Hampton Inn on Del Paso rd. They are surrounded by eateries including In N Out. If you get to the HIlton early enough, go over the bridge to Old sacramento for dinner. they have a shop that sells disney prints (can't remember the name) but Old sac also has a great candy shop with great looking/tasting carmel or chocolate apples.

 

[c&m]

I think we're going to go with SeaTAC, its the farthest I think we could go before gettting really tired.

I've been sifting through all the hotels on Tripadvisor.com but Im wondering if anyone has any personal experience with hotels near SeaTAC that they would like to share.

We need a room for 3 adults and 1 child.

I mentioned in my previous post that we use Priceline. We look for a 3* hotel and always get the Doubletree Seatac. We love it as the rooms are clean and large. Last time we stayed there, we got it for $45. However, be prepared to pay $18 for parking. But still better than paying rack rates. It's also close to Southcenter where we like to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Also, go to the Canadian forums. There have been threads about Seatac hotels in the past that you can search for. One Canadian Diser likes to stay at a Marriott next to Southcenter Mall.

 

[tanyaewa]

Whenever we do a road trip into the States we make our first night at Burlington - about 1hr over the border. It's got lots of great hotels - Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn and lots of restaurants. We come down from Whistler so it's nice to get a few hours under our belt and start off on the I5 early in the am after a free hotel breakfast. Bellingham is OK - but not as easy on/off as Burlington/Mount Vernon area.
Then we use Redding as our overnight on the way to DL.

 

[PrincessIM]

We've stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Southcentre and enjoyed our stayed there. You can sometimes find a special including breakfast. There are also a few Holiday Inn Express along I-5 if you don't want to drive as far as SEA-TAC.....Lynnwood, Marysville, Everett.

Thanks for posting this question. We're driving from Richmond to Anaheim in July and found all the comments very helpful.

 

[raftislander]

I think that your idea of taking the ferry to Vancouver and getting across the border on Thusday night is a good plan. If you can make it as far south as Seatac it has the further advantage that then you are south of Seattle for the Friday morning commute times. If you stay north of Seattle you may hit heavy commute trafficinto Seattle, which is a hard way to start a long travel day. Assuming no accidents, the commute traffic through Tacoma and Olympia is not problematic. The work commute should be over by the time you hit Portland.

 

[SeansMom]

I wonder if it would be any faster to take the ferry to Port Angeles. Then you wouldn't have to wait for customs on I-5.

I don't know the schedule, so not sure if there is an early boat or not. Also haven't checked the price.

Once at Port Angeles you could drive down and end up on I-5 around Olympia. That's a scenic drive, too. And you'd skip the Seattle traffic.

Just a thought.

If you go that route, keep in mind it's a pretty slow drive from Port Angeles to Olympia and I-5.

Thanks everyone! I love to drive and have done some long haul driving before. I think we will stick with Redding, I was mostly concerned about driving through the mountains and it being snowy but if thats not the case then we'll haul butt the first day and take it easy the 2nd.

Any comments or suggestions on places to stay in Redding for under $100??

Any suggestions for stops from Vancouver to Redding?? Gas stops?? Food??

We're about half way between Seattle and Portland in a little town called Centralia. It might be good timing to get food/rest stop and gas although you'll probably not need a full tank yet.

When we made that drive we stopped at Sacremento where there was some kind of maze that was fun, a fish hatchery near Mt. Shasta, and took the long way around to see Crater Lake on the way home. Another time we hit the coastal highway and saw the redwoods, the sea lion caves, and other sites, but winter may not be the best time for those activities.

Keep in mind you may need extra time to compensate for wet roads and slower traffic.

I think that your idea of taking the ferry to Vancouver and getting across the border on Thusday night is a good plan. If you can make it as far south as Seatac it has the further advantage that then you are south of Seattle for the Friday morning commute times. If you stay north of Seattle you may hit heavy commute trafficinto Seattle, which is a hard way to start a long travel day. Assuming no accidents, the commute traffic through Tacoma and Olympia is not problematic. The work commute should be over by the time you hit Portland.

To give you an idea of that hellish commute, I live about 90 miles from the University of Washington which is in north seattle. I'm in a program that requires me to be up there a few times a month. It has taken me as much as 5 hours to get home, with my record time being 2 hours. So I would plan your trip to avoid traffic rush hours at all cost, and expect slow downs anyway.

Having lived in Portland, I'd say the traffic there is more predictable; heavy morning and evening, but evening traffic starts buidling around 3:00, so for your trip home keep that in mind (as I'm assuming you'll be through Portland long before that as long as Seattle traffic allows).

 

[TheZue]

We've done the drive many many times now We usually stop in Grants Pass or Medford and end up in Disney around dinner on the second day. The area in Northern California just past the Oregon border is beautiful. We are in Nanaimo so we always take the earliest Twassen ferry, I find the border isn't bad first thing in the morning on weekdays. I hate to say it, but we really enjoy all the American fast food chains we don't have here so that's what we eat on the way down....although this time we got a plug in cooler for the car and got groceries on the way down so we had a lot of cheese and crackers, fruit, veggies etc. which made me feel a little better about the crappy food

Speaking of driving down, last time we did the 101 on the way down and took our time. It was GREAT; although I'd recomend doing it on the way back if you have kids because we kept asking our son if he wanted to stop at any of the tourist traps and he'd say "no, just Disneyland".

 

[nottellin']

I'm glad we're not the only crazy Canadians to drive. It seems like there are a lot of us

 

[pinner33]

were heading down end of april from the okanagan and this will be the third time but we never make plan just drive till we feel like stoping.Never had a problem finding a place to stay at a resonable price.

 

[tanyaewa]

Hey Seansmom! Have you been to Great Wolf Lodge?
We went last year with the whole family in Oct and LOVED it!
Total blast. Do you have any locals tips for good eals & times to go??

 

[Dobie]

There are a gazillion Holiday Inn Express/Fairfield Inn/Comfort Inn type places along the I-5 freeway from Mount Vernon to California. You could always just drive until you are tired and then look for a place.