Purdey

Thinking of doing a 2-4-1 early next summer LHR to SFO and returning from YVR to LHR.
Is this a good idea?
Can you take a US rental car to Canada and leave it in Vancouver or would it be better to fly?
Any advice welcomed.

portland67

I live in Portland so I definitely live in between those 2 cities. Do you want to stop off in Seattle or Portland and take a leisurely trip? If you do Amtrak might not be a bad option. If you want to get between SFO and YVR faster then you should probably take either UA or AS.

onaswan

IME one way hire across the border is expensive. Try one way hire to SEA and then hop across the border (amtrak as has been mentioned) before doing likewise the other side.

kirky

It might be, but it seems to be quite common.

I've been given Washington State-plated Avis cars on three occasions from YVR on YVR-YVR car hires.

The only annoying thing is the amount of Washington State yanks who flash you thinking that you are 'one of them'!

DYKWIA

We're doing a similar itinery starting today

We considered Amtrak, but the train times were horrible.

So, we're renting a car in Seattle, and dropping in Vancouver. Cost about $150 for a day including the one way fee. So, not too bad.

We tried to get the car all the way from LAS to YVR, but it wouldn't price up on Avis.com.

Cheers,
Rick

pennineuk

When heading north after Portland, head north west to the Olympic National Park, via the fabuolous coast and round to Port Angeles. Take the ferry across to Victoria on Vancouver Island and after some time there, the ferry from Swartz Bay across to Vancouver itself (great ferry crossing through the Gulf islands). Then headed on down (via the Boeing factory) to Seattle. that way your car ends up in the USA and you have a great trip.

Purdey

Thanks for all the info guys.

Hi Rick - lucky bu**er! Have a great trip and let me know how it was, oh, and avoid the Guinness....

DYKWIA

Will do.... Not been a good start. flight from MAN lands at 10:40. Wait 30 minutes for gate. No gate appears, so eventually end up at remote stand. No busses. Busses turn up, but no one to drive the steps.

So, don't get into the lounge until an hour after landing

Galahad5389

I'm doing those flights in a month on a 2-4-1 award ticket, in between we are going to Alaska, so flying internally.....

I found flight availability was quite good for award travel to/from those cities, I booked in November for August travel.

Swiss Tony

You might find it significantly cheaper to rent one car in SFO and take to SEA, then switch and rent again for the cross-border element. What's more, public transport in Seattle is good and parking is expensive, so you might win even more on this count.

I picked up a car in YVR for SEA a few years back and it actually had Washington plates on it anyway. Because they presumably wanted to get it 'home' I recall we got a decent upgrade out of it too!



As an aside, I believe there's some weird restriction about Canadians not being able to drive US plated cars back into Canada (or something like that).

Purdey

Well, thanks for the advice - all booked up!
Now awaiting hotel and car rental sales - early next year I guess.

NB Seems First to SFO has 4 award seats available per flight at the time I'm going - I'm quite surprised at this - is it normal or ?

Gardyloo

Whenever possible, rent at in-city as opposed to airport locations, in order to avoid extortionate airport fees and add-on taxes. Dropping at airports typically doesn't incur those costs. This goes for SFO, SEA, and YVR.

Yes, residents of Canada (not just citizens) cannot take US-registered cars over the border into Canada, on penalty of horrendous tax consequences. UK and other foreign residents have no such difficulties.