Going to be doing the drive at the end of June, any updates? Will be driving on a weekdau so I am assuming the border wait time will be minimal.

Which direction? N=>S? Midweek should be o.k. after 9am but go before noon.

I went down south on a Thursday in early April and the line was ~30-40 minutes at the truck crossing, and about the same last Friday at noon.

We recent headed south across the truck crossing around 6pm the Thursday before Good Friday and the regular line was slightly quicker than NEXUS. Both were about a 20 minute wait.
Northbound on the Easter Sunday at Peace Arch around 9pm was about a 90 minute wait while NEXUS was no wait (after 15 minutes to get around the non-NEXUS cars).

Just a reminder that Canada Day falls on a Friday this year.

WSDOT has a useful page of graphs: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Congestion/b...avelDelays.htm

Another observation to add: I noticed this past weekend that the majority of WA-plated cars were being driven at or just above the speed limit. Previously, it would seem that going 10 over was obstructing traffic. Not sure if this is a function of strict speed limit enforcement (saw vehicles being stopped presumably for speeding but not a noticeable amount) or fuel at USD4+/gallon.

For that reason, I'd budget 2:15 to drive from the border to Seattle if it's not during rush hour.

Delays at the Blaine, WA border are mostly when Canadians travel to buy things. During the weekends, Canadians might drive on Saturday morning and come back Sunday evening. Southbound border waits are longer on Saturday morning and northbound waits are longer on Sunday evening.

The opposite direction, what Americans would do, isn't very long. Sometimes southbound on Sunday evening is a bit of a wait but always shorter than the opposite. That's because more Canadians come to look and shop while Americans know that Canadian things are expensive so only lookers come, not shoppers.

I need to be at Boeing around noon on Friday July 22. Fares to YVR ex DTW are atrociously low, so I thought I'll fly to YVR arriving the night of Jul 21, drive with a rental across to Everett in the morning of friday, do my thing and drive back in the late afternoon/evening to fly east in the night.

Questions:

- drive to Everett on friday morning ex an YVR airport hotel: 2-3h?
- US/canadian border: do you expect any weird questions to a German with a US visa? I know the Detroit-Windsor crossing well and never had any issues there, is the Vancouver border equally relaxed?

We met a British couple (Canadian permanent residents) on our cruise from YVR.. They drove down to SEA to catch the plane to Florida, and were quite upset with the way US customs treated them in Blaine.

Since you're only going as far as Everett 3 hours should be ample, but the earlier you leave the better.

Regarding the border, it's an unknown. It depends entirley on which agent you get and what mood he/she is in that day. While generally the Blaine CBP staff have become more obnoxious in the past few years, I still get waved through in seconds sometimes. With a "foreign" passport it's likely you'll have to go inside to be cleared :( , hence my advice to leave early.

One other point if you are pulled over - there are no restroom facilities at the post and you can be stuck there for up to an hour, so take appropriate precautions. There's a restroom in the duty-free shop on the Canadian side.

Same in DET, if you don't have the white I-94 in your passport you have to head over 'inside'. If you have the I-94 in the passport, they just swipe the passport check the database if all is in order.

See this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/canad...seattle-3.html

Should come as no surprise to anyone but end of a U.S. long weekend will result in heavy southbound traffic. Apparently quite heavy traffic northbound Wednesday (day before U.S. thanksgiving) bound for Whistler so heavy traffic expected southbound on Sunday.


Also, Nexus lane southbound at Peace Arch around noon Saturday 12 November (middle of Rememberance/Veterans Day long weekend) was horrible - line backed up all the way to the CBSA offices/duty free. I think about 20-30 minutes which was as slow as, if not slower than, the regular lanes (keeping track of cars at the end of the regular lines wen we got to the border). Skipped over to regular lanes about 20-30 cars away from the booths.

Southbound today (Thu-US Thanksgiving) at 9:45am'ish: Boards were showing 5m waits. Truck Crossing had 1-2 car waits with multiple lanes open. 0 car wait in Nexus.
Buddy just messaged me; crossing southbound now (4:30pm) and the boards were also showing 5m southbound and he's in a 10 car wait.

Faster at Sumas?

Yes, but then you're in Abbotsford, an hour or more from Vancouver.