Seattle to Victoria
 

I'll be in Seattle soon for a few days with family. I'd like to go over to Victoria, B.C., but I'd like to take the car along for transportation. The last time I took the Victoria Clipper, but that's people-only. Any suggestions from you folks more familiar with the Great Northwest?

I think either driving up the eastern side of the Olympic peninsula to Port Angeles or up I-5 to Tsawassen and across by BC Ferries are the only 2 ways with car.

I'll check out those options. Thanks!

You can also take the WSF through the San Juan Islands. One option is to go up one way and back another.

Thanks, Tango. Offhand, do you know where cars and passengers load onto the WSF?

Depending on your time-money tradeoffs, I'd look into leaving your car on the mainland and renting in Victoria. You could save enough time to justify the expense, especially when you consider the car's ferry tickets.

Slightly off-topic story from a few years back: I was flying from Victoria to SEA. Pilot said we were going to make an unscheduled stop in Bellingham, Wash. Reason: Victoria didn't have US customs facilities to pre-clear passengers, so we'd have to clear in Seattle. If we did that, we'd be in line behind three packed 747s just in from Asia. This way, we landed in Bellingham, woke up the customs guy, did our thing in two minutes, and arrived in SEA as domestic!

Here is the link for the Ferry info from Anacortes.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/other-svcs/

I thought there used to be summer car ferry service from downtown SEA to Victoria but I could find no mention of it anywhere.

-dan

The summer car ferry from Seattle to Victoria, the Princess Marguerite, has been dropped. The voyage was four or five hours each way and with just the one round trip daily, they couldn't make a go of it financially.

The Washington State Ferry trip through the San Juans over to Sidney is beautiful but very oversubscribed in the summer! If you can't get to Anacortes hours ahead of time and cool your heels, the best bet is to drive up I-5, cross into Canada at Blaine, and take the BC Ferries trip from Tsawassen. More frequent trips, more reasonably priced.

The Victoria Clipper, the high-speed, no-cars ferry from Seattle to Victoria, is good fun... but if the sea is choppy it's really an E-coupon ride. Sometimes people stumble off there looking positively green.

Ouch, Bear, you're making me remember my trip on the Victoria Clipper. I was one of those green passengers! The trip back was smooth and uneventful, but I'll never forget all that tossing and rolling from Seattle to Victoria!