San francisco to Vancouver

[iltdu]

Hi. I would welcome ideas/tips for a family with teens who want to do a road trip from SF to Vancouver.

Is it doable by car?
Or are you better to fly to Vancouver and rent a car when there?
What are the best places to visit after you have done the city bit?
Are there "must do/see" places before you arrive in Vancouver?

We love the outdoors and teen girls have just watched Netflix Virgin River and want to visit places that you stay in cabins etc.

Any good tips on accomodation too would be great.

Thank you!

We’ve done it the other way (actually went even further south).
We flew to Vancouver and did Grouse Mountain, Capiliano suspension bridge, Granville Island, whale watching and FlyOver Canada.
Then took the train to Seattle and did Pike Place Market, Chihuly Garden, Boeing Future of Flight, a guided tour of Amazon HQ and watched a baseball match.
We then picked up a car and stayed over night in Portland then a few nights at Crater Lake for some hiking and then one long epic drive (about 8 hours) to San Francisco. We did Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, the cable car trolley things, Twin Peaks and a Walt Disney museum.

It's totally doable and it's a wonderful trip along the coast - beautiful redwoods in northern California and coastline in Oregon. You might want to do what PP suggested and leave your rental car in Seattle and then rent again in Vancouver - sometimes crossing the border with a car can make it more expensive. The area where Virgin River is filmed is in and around Squamish and Pemberton - it's perfectly nice and you can eat in that cafe, but probably not bucket list? Easy 45 minute drive from Vancouver for a day trip. You could go on to Whistler, or if you want a real cabin experience, check out Vancouver Island or the Sunshine Coast, both a ferry ride away.

Thank you so much this sounds brilliant and just the start I needed to get organised. We know SF very well but have never ventured past Yosemite/Lake Tahoe. So this would be a first for us to roadtrip longer than 5 hours and stop for overnighters along the way. Plus Canada is def on the bucket list. Thanks again we def will try and do the cafe stopover - I might just surprise my two and say nothing until we get there. Thank you both again!

I admire the ambition but if you only have say two weeks holiday I would not drive between these two cities. You will only see the road and steering wheel.

Its just shy of 950 miles between these two cities (that’s from London to Southern Spain) so you’d be better off flying if you do not have weeks to spare. There is also the issue about collecting the car in the US and dropping it off in Canada, some hire car companies may not allow you to do that.

Do visit both Whistler and Victoria if you go to Vancouver.

We did this drive - SF up to Vancouver a number of years ago and its a gorgeous, interesting drive, but will take some time. We checked out the Olympic National Forest in Washington and took the ferry via Victoria from I think Port Angeles. We then returned to the US after five days in Vancouver and drove back down via Seattle and I5. So many neat beaches and stuff in Oregon - check out Cannon Beach State Park. Some of the Oregon State Parks have cabins you can rent (cheap!) although we stayed in a yurt overnight at Cannon Beach. Toilet/shower facilities are shared but clean:

stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=reserve.cabins-yurts

On the Vancouver sightseeing - Nanaimo on Vancouver Island is pretty neat town, or anywhere on the Island, but be aware that the ferry situation can wreck havoc on best laid plans. Good area to see wildlife like whales and seals, or do things like sea kayaking tours.

Here is Jack's Bar - sibling had the loaded Caesar (cocktail) recently. It's Brackendale (not Pemberton which I said before):

Jack's Bar (The Watershed)

It is a long way as Attilla says, but doable if some days are more driving than others. It depends really what else you want to do and how much time you want in cities and such. You could fly into Portland or Seattle maybe if you've already done SF? I live in Vancouver so feel free to PM me if you need any more detailed info.

I've done Vancouver to San Francisco. I'd definitely recommend Olympic National Park. Utterly stunning and one of my favourite places on earth. We got the train from Vancouver to Seattle, lovely journey with beautiful views and broke up the driving.

Haven’t been to Vancouver yet but we did do a Seattle to LA trip a few years back. We got the train from Seattle to Portland & picked up a car in Portland on our last day.

Seattle - Pike Place Market to see the fish throwing, Gum Wall, Space Needle, Amazon HQ tour (and see all the dogs in the offices!), Kerry Park

Portland - if your teens are into Twilight there are some filming locations around Portland (Cullen house & the diner), Voodoo donuts, Powells Books, Columbia river gorge, food trucks

Oregon coast - Thors Well, Devils Churn, sea lion caves, lots of pretty lighthouses to see, the most stunning scenery, quad biking over the dunes

North Cal - Jedediah Smith state park for giant redwood trees, can’t recall the name but we drove though a giant redwood tree - Chandelier tree maybe??

We didn’t have time to visit the northern Oregon beaches but Tillamook looks lovely all the way up to Cannon beach.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to post. Great suggestions and advise.
I am looking forward to getting organised now over the next few weeks. We were in SF this summer and wanted a weekend away in Yosemite but the fires played havoc to that and lots of places especially the lovely cabins etc are booked way in advance. I do know long trips take organising and booking so many many thanks again for the great tips.

Thank you also to @Nandocushion for kind offer!

Shout if anyone needs any tips on SF side of the world as we live there for a few months every year. Although SF is not as safe and glamourous as it once was but certain areas and trips outside the city are great!

Thanks again everyone!

P.S. I have made a list of all your suggestions into the obligatory excel sheet for our family trips. Tx😀