Seattle/Vancouver/Vancouver Island with teens. Advice appreciated!

[CommeIlFaut]

This morning, We (me, DH, DS12 and DD15) decided we need an adventure and are wondering about Western Canada (it’s been on my bucket list since DM ticked it off her bucket list and showed me the photos.)

Our plan is to fly to Seattle and out of Vancouver.
3 nights Seattle
Train
3 nights nights Vancouver
Ferry and hire car
5 night Vancouver Island. No idea where.

DD loves cities, DH loves wilderness, DS loves the ideas of seeing bears, whales and adventure activities. I’m happy with any and all of the above. Decent budget, but definitely more 3/4star hotels and cabins than luxury accommodation.

That’s as far as I’ve got! Any tips, advice, recommendations etc. would be very gratefully received.

I went 20 years ago (so all info is way out of date) but I loved Tofino in north of Vancouver island. We went on a boat trip out to an island to see wildlife and massive trees. We camped and it had such a brilliant vibe. Stanley Park in Vancouver is amazing too, saw sea otters there. Seattle was fun, loved Pike Place market and did an awesome tour of the underground city (they raised the street levels at some point and you can still see some of the original shopfronts underground, it was amazing). The tour guides were all comedians by night so they were hilarious.

20 years ago it was a very chilled out friendly place to travel, we had about a month around British Columbia and loved it. Considering another trip with kids in tow in next couple of years so keen to see tips!

The seaplane between Vancouver and Nanaimo on Vancouver island was my highlight as a teen. You can cut costs by taking the ferry one way and flying the other.

I did a similar trip - LOVED IT. However, I don't think you need three nights in those cities. Probably 2 each instead.

Vancouver Island is PHENOMENAL and HUGE. I would weight more time there.

An alternative: take the Clipper from Seattle to Victoria and the ferry to Vancouver - cuts out the back and forth to Vancouver. Although the train is lovely!

You could also look at the more meandering ferries from Seattle to Vancouver island, but you may need a car to do that easily. The Clipper goes from downtown to downtown, the others are out a ways (but a lovely ride!).

The underground tour in Seattle is good fun. Don't bother with the Science Center (used to be great, but went downhill with COVID). If you like science museums, the one in Vancouver is brilliant.

The light rail in Seattle from Sea-Tac is very easy. Traffic can be very bad, so often faster.

FYI, homelessness in Seattle has got a lot worse over the last ten years or so. It is generally quite safe, but can be a bit unnerving at times (they would generally benefit from medication, but healthcare...).

Definitely do the suspension bridge in Capilano while you're in Vancouver!

And if you're doing the Space Needle, don't buy more than a day in advance! It's not worth it if it's raining.

Depending on your arrival time, I wouldn’t do 3 nights in Seattle. I thought PPM was ok - it’s an interesting mix of crafts, food and fish throwing! Lots of folks wandering around trying to find the first Starbucks.

The light rail is efficient for getting around. We stayed at a hotel by the airport as we had an overnight stop flying from Canada to SE Asia.

As a PP suggested, max out your time on the Island - Tofino, Ucluelet etc.

Thanks so much. These ideas are really helpful. I like the idea of the clipper from Seattle to Victoria.
I think we might base ourselves in Tofino. I wonder if there’ll be enough to keep us busy for 5 days (we will have a car) or will we want to base ourselves in 2 places?)

I’m sure your teens will want to see it, but don’t visit the Gum Wall if you have a delicate stomach!

Seattle is brilliant for a few days and if the Clipper Ferries are still running between the city and San Juan island you may see killer whales.

https://www.clippervacations.com/

Seattle is a great place for a city break with lots of indie bookshops and wool shops. Well, I went with knitters and we browsed and met up again when we’d bought enough yarn and books. Most of the bookshops have a friendly cat or two.

We loved Metropolitan Market for food shopping and all the local beer/wine. Please buy marionberry anything as it’s delicious.

@whatsagoodusername is right about the homelessness. We didn’t feel threatened, but some areas are best avoided after dark.

We didn’t go up the Space Needle and chose the Chihuly Garden instead. We preferred the photos of the space needle from the Chihuly exhibit and from the ferry looking back at the city. Tacoma may be worth a day trip if you’re interested in glass.

Better option is to fly into Vancouver, drive to Seattle, ferry to bambridge island, drive to port talbot on Olympic peninsula, ferry to Vancouver Island, then ferry to Vancouver.

If the car hire is still in the basement, top tip is to book night one in Vancouver at the sandman hotel as the flight gets in quite late and pick up the car in the morning, drive to Seattle, then after your adventures book the sandman again dropping off the car on arrival in Vancouver as you won't need it. But a car is helpful in Seattle if you want to visit the museum of flight for instance (highly recommend if planes are popular in your house) unfortunately the great little motel we used to use near the space needle has been a victim of gentrification.

The Klondike Gold Rush Museum is also a really good little museum. Bonus that it's free as it's technically a national park. www.nps.gov/klse/index.htm

The Seattle Fire Department next door also has a tiny little museum that's open on Thursdays for a couple of hours if you're there then! It's got lots of old fire engines and history. lastresortfd.org/museum.htm

Should add that flights in and out of different cities tend to be really expensive hence my recommendation (it's what we do)

Another tip is to get a family package for the baseball if they still do it, it was pretty reasonable and included a voucher for a hot dog and drink. Also money saving in Seattle is to be near a big supermarket as they all have amazing hot food buffets, you can save by getting food there rather than restaurants, that said there's always coupons to be had, make sure you download a few apps to choose from. I generally book somewhere including breakfast because I'm lazy.

This is amazing accommodation at Tofino www.crystalcove.ca/ but may well already be booked out for this summer.

You don't need 3 days and nights in Vancouver. It's a bog standard American city with limited culture and a lot of issues with homelessness and drugs. The Capilano bridge is ok but expensive, there is a a free shuttle that runs from Canada place. If you want to see wildlife the orca trips are good, worthwhile getting these from Steveston opposed to Vancouver as it's closer to where you need to be and a bit cheaper. Will make sense on a map.
You can see migrating gray whales from Tofino/Ucluelet from the beach depending on the season. Book well ahead with accommodation though as it gets very quickly booked up in the summer.

We did a similar trip last summer and had 3 nights in Seattle, drove to Port Angles and got the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Spent 4 nights on the island and then ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver. We had two nights in Vancouver and then headed home. To echo others two nights would have been better in Seattle.

It's got a huge drug / homeless problem that really put my kids on edge and it feels like the city has never recovered from Covid- so many empty shops and offices. Having said that we did enjoy our activities; Chihuly Glass Gardens was a surprising hit with the kids and our favourite was the Pacific Northwest Zoo. Space needle was good as was pike place. I wouldn't recommend the aquarium, it wasn't great.

Vancouver Island was amazing. We spent a day in Victoria, then drove up to lake Cowichan and spent the day tubing down the river, which was amazing. We spent out other days at the beach, swimming in lakes and did a whale watching tour which was the highlight of the trip.

Vancouver was good; not as much homeless / drugs as Seattle but still there. We spent a day in Stanley park on some hire bikes, went to Granville Island which was really good, did some shopping and went to the Capilano bridge which was really overpriced and I wouldn't recommend it.

You'll have a fab time!

Definitely do a trip to see orcas from either Vancouver island or Vancouver. We did that 10 years ago and it was just amazing seeing them. At least at that time there were a couple of resident pods so you’re pretty much guaranteed to see them. I’ll never support anywhere that keeps them in captivity now :(

Extra point on Capilano Bridge, there's another one that's almost as good iny view at Lynn Canyon which is free and you can just walk there. Easy parking.
The Orcas are mainly seasonal so you would see more from May-October. Theres also some companies that do snorkelling with seals which some friends of mine did and enjoyed, that's closer to West Vancouver though so depends on time if you want to get out there from downtown it is maybe 45 mins by bus depending on the time of day.

If you like slightly strange things, drive down to Delta from Vancouver and cross the border into the little US exclave called Point Roberts. There is an official crossing point, and the occasional smuggler's gap in a hedge or along the beach. The petrol is priced per litre because Canadians go there to fill up as it's cheaper. I've seen claims that up to 15% of the population is in the Witness Protection Program because it's hard for Big Vinnie to get there from Brooklyn to whack them.

On Vancouver Island, Victoria is lovely.

If time and budget permit, see if you can fit in a side trip up to Alaska. Two nights in Anchorage is perfect. We stayed at the Historic Anchorage Hotel which was wonderful, like an English country house in some ways.

You could consider carving out some time and head south to Mount St Helens. You could consider a baseball game if the Everette Aquasox are playing at home. Boeing used to offer (free?) tours of the factory if thats of interest.

Ferries (Washington State Ferries) join Whidbey Island to the mainland at Everett, and in the north of Whidbey the run from Anacortes to the San Juans (lovely) and Vancouver Island. You could stop at Deception Pass for some kayaking. A ferry also runs from Port Townsend (great 50s diner) on the Olympic Peninsular to Fort Casey on Whidbey. It might give you some options in route planning and reducing car rental costs if you do decide to fly into and out of one airport.

We lived in Whidbey 20 years ago so I may be out of date but flights to Seattle used to be cheaper than Vancouver, but the drriving as easy and Im sure you'd be able to rent a car that can go into Canada.

I would recommend Knight Inlet . It's a while since I went there but it was amazing. Flew on float plane from Vancouver island and saw bears and orcas and minke wales . Expensive but you can go for just one night

Great trip. Some recommendations for Seattle

The Boeing factory just outside Seattle is a great trip - you see aeroplanes being built in various stages

There's a great 'underground city' walk in Seattle that literally takes you into houses that existed before the main thoroughfares (they literally built on top of them)

And we also did a great little'food tasting ' walk round Seattle centre and through the market

Advisable to book in advance as they're popular

We did this trip some years ago, it was fabulous. Although, the homelessness issue was not such a problem.
One thing I would say is that driving from Vancouver to Seattle involved crossing the border at Port Douglas. Homeland Security was daunting and might be even stricter now. We had to leave the car, presumably to be searched and queue up in a small, hot room for about an hour.
However, the drive along the coast was great. We stopped in a cute seaside town called White Rock for a fish and chip lunch.

A couple more ideas from a past similar trip:

• drive from Vancouver to the Okanagan valley for a few days - it’s a desert & wine region.
• take a cruise up to Alaska - ours was fabulous.