Originally Posted by
inyourvillages
I don't know what date you're looking at, which would help. But the only connection from the Coast STarlight (only train that runs between Santa Barbara and Seattle direct) is a bus that gets you into vancouver after midnight. I assume that's what you found for $106?
That wouldn't let you do any stopovers, which you were talking about. Also, the train ride from Seattle to Vancouver is one of the best in the country, so it would be a shame to sit on a bus for that.
Do you have any amtrak points? If so, the pdx-sea and sea-vac routes are great place to use them, as it's only 1000 points to redeem a coach (one-way) ticket on that route. If you're looking at this summer, there may be enough time to sign up for the Amtrak Chase credit card and earn some points you can redeem that way (I don't know what the current sign-up bonus is -- it was 10K when I did it a while back).
Unless you want to bus to Vancouver, you'll need to overnight in SEattle, as the only train to VAC leaves at 7-something in the morning.
Taking the advice of the above poster, I priced out a ticket from SBA-PDX (2 nights PDX), PDX-SEA (2 nights SEA), SEA-VAC for $153 in a coach seat, which seems like a good deal to me.
That sounds like a great plan. Thank you very much not only on the fair option, but informing me on the beautiful train ride between Seattle and Vancouver. I certainly do not want to miss that.
I apologize for not including all the details. It's a tentative plan right now, but I was thinking of leaving late July such as 26th or 27th. How many days would you guys recommend staying in each city? Would you recommend 2 nights for Portland and Seattle and then 3 in Vancouver? I'm actually under 21 (20) and I've heard that quite a few things in Portland are 21+.
So say I left the 26th of July from Santa Barbara. Would I plan to leave from Portland to Seattle on the 29th and Seattle to Vancouver on the 31st? Have any of you made a similar travel down on the west coast? Are there certain days of the week that it's cheaper that I can plan to travel on?
Oh, and I plan on trying to use Couchsurfer and stay in hostel's to help save money on places to stay.
Thank you for the credit card idea, but I'm actually trying to steer clear of those. At least till I have a steady, reliable job.
I appreciate all the feedback folks. Thanks a million. Your advice is invaluable.