Hi all. I am looking for a little advice on an upcoming trip. My boyfriend and I are travelling to the US from the UK from Oct 31 – Nov 11. Our ultimate destination is the Pacific NW/Vancouver area, but we have a night in Philadelphia on the way out and a night in Toronto on our way home (the penalty for using miles to book flights!).

Our trip is very much on a low budget as we’re unexpectedly moving house a few weeks before we go (we were going to cancel the trip, but we’ve got great flights and we don’t want to lose them). So, I’m looking for some tips on how to make our stay as budget-friendly as possible.

We’re looking at spending our time in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, though we haven’t got a definite route/itinerary.

We’d like to do the Boeing factory tour and to visit the museum of flight in Seattle, drink beer in Portland and that’s essentially it for ‘must do’ things! We’ll be in the US on election night, so a fun spot to watch the results is also on the list. We like transport and industrial history, craft beer and cheap & cheerful food (street food, diners, etc, rather than high-end restaurants). I’ve been reading the Lewis & Clark diaries, so I’m interested in sights they mention too.

My first question – car rental is fairly cheap, picking up from YVR and returning there (we fly in to and out of Vancouver). Are there hotels in the suburbs of Seattle/Portland that are on public transport routes into the city? We’re hoping to save money by staying out of town where parking is cheaper and riding the bus or train ‘downtown’ for sightseeing, etc. Is this a feasible plan for a couple of days in each place? Obviously we’d use the car for Boeing and the museum of flight (unless the public transport to these places is excellent), and we definitely wouldn’t use the car after trying beer! Any tips for locations that would work well for this (so, close to a bus or train route, perhaps some restaurants within walking distance, cheap/free parking) would be greatly appreciated. Of course, if this plan is stupid (public transport costing a fortune, it not running past 8pm, etc), please let me know!

Secondly – are there any smaller towns/cities which are worth a visit, based on our interests given above? Spokane and Eugene are the two that spring to mind, but given that Washington is electing its governor, would Olympia be an interesting place to visit around the election? Alternatively, are any of the coastal towns that would be nice for a night?

Lastly, for now, we will probably be on the road at about 5pm once we’ve collected our car in Vancouver. Is this a terrible time to attempt to cross the border? Google maps says it’s about a 40 minute drive from the airport to the crossing, but how realistic is that at this time? Would killing a couple of hours at a mall or something be better than battling traffic?

Thanks in advance for your help.