I need some ideas on getting to Vancouver, BC by land from Seattle Tacoma Airport. I know one option is to travel by train. Where exactly is the Amtrak station that is closest to the airport and is there a shuttle service that gets you there? What are taxi fares like?

I've also had someone tell me that there is a direct bus service from the airport to downtown Vancouver that will cost twice as much as the train ride. What is this bus service like? Are advanced reservations required? Approximately, how long is the journey?

Any information, ideas, suggestions etc are much appreciated!

This is from the SEATAC site:
Taxi
$275.00

On Call Limo
$300.00 - $325.00

Quick Shuttle Campbell River Store in Surrey, YVR Airport, Downtown Vancouver
Sandman Inn - 180 W. Georgia St., Cruise Ship Dock, Ballantyne Pier & hotels
Adult $36.00, R/T $65.00; Senior $33.00, R/T $59.00; Child (5-12) $17.00, R/T $31.00

Greyhound Greyhound Depot in Delta, Richmond, New Westminster, and Vancouver
From downtown Seattle:
Monday-Thursday, $22.23; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, $24.24

Think I'd for for the Quick Shuttle which departs right outside luggage claim. Hopefully their schedule will work for you:
http://www.quickcoach.com/

I did a quick check of the AMTRAK site and got a $31 one way fare. If you have a AAA card you do get a discount there.

AMTRAK is downtown, not far from Pioneer Square. You can easily get there with the 174 or 194 bus in 30-45 mins.

http://www.amtrak.com
http://transit.metrokc.gov/

There's only one train from Seattle to Vancouver. And it leaves something like 8 in the morning. I think a bus is your best bet.

Edit: What I had to say was already posted.

[This message has been edited by WillTravel (edited 06-17-2003).]

Nobody mentioned renting a car. It often costs less than $65 (the bus fare). Car rental is probably the cheapest if you go to Vancouver for less than 24 hours or if there are 2 people travelling together.

This is FT! Nobody mentioned about flying Horizon (Alaska Airlines) (ok, the post did ask "by land")

[This message has been edited by seat 50J (edited 06-17-2003).]

Hmmm....I did not consider flying over Seat 50J but that is an interesting idea. How much does Horizon charge from SEA to YVR?

Horizon and AC fly to YVR....

I will tell you a story; I was flying back from YVR to EWR via SEA. I was on a CO ticket where the YVR-SEA leg was on QX (Horizon).

Well there was a blizzard that day in EWR and all flights were cancelled. Well QX let me board and FLY to SEA (not knowing the flight was cancelled) and when I got there I found out I was stuck there until the next day. CO offered me hotel coupons that would give me a discount to about $50 a night.

I decided to spend the $50 on a rental car. I went into the President's Club, logged on to alamo.com and got a full size are for about $65 for the day. I then drove up to YVR (2.5 hours) spent the night with my girlfriend at the time and then drove back the next day to SEA for my flight back to EWR.

So, renting a car to me is the best and cheapest way to get to YVR. However, if you are doing one way rental, there may be an extra charge.

- HobokenFlyer

Hi,

I took a Greyhound bus from downtown Seattle to Vancouver with my wife a few years ago because I had Southwest free trips to use and the closest they go is SEA. Spent a few days in Seattle first so took a supershuttle type van from the airport to downtown hotel.

Trip up to Canada was very nice, clean bus,left and arrived on time.

Return trip was pesky because if anyone on the bus has trouble at US immigration/customs, the whole bus waits. Not sure on the Greyhound policy on how long they wait before leaving the person(s) behind but in my case we waited for 2 hours. This was pre- 9/11 .

Steve

Both QuickShuttle and Greyhound can have that waiting problem at that border in both directions. I'd be curious as to what they say their maximum wait is.

On a pre-9/11 trip, the QuickShuttle bus driver, when crossing the border into the US, tried to see if anyone had an airplane connection at SeaTac (or was willing to say they did) because apparently that could help speed customs along. I hope he wouldn't recommend that now.

The last trip I went on with Greyhound from Seattle involved a 1/2-hour wait crossing into Canada, when a student from Colombia was vigorously questioned.

Grayline shuttle from SeaTac to downtown Seattle + Greyhound to Vancouver can also work.

Should I assume the QuickShuttle and Greyhound provide similar levels of service at the same price? Where in Vancouver do you get off?

On a side note, how much is the Grayline shuttle from SeaTAC to downtown? Is that the best way to get downtown? I have with me 1 elderly parent and a meduim size suitcase.

Mrs Spencerism

Quick Shuttle is slightly more "upscale", to the extent that term has any meaning in respect to bus transportation . Quick Shuttle is nice because it goes straight from SeaTac (or straight from downtown Seattle) to Vancouver airport and various points downtown. In my experience, Quick Shuttle was cooperative about letting me off where I (or other passengers) wanted to be let off. Greyhound is rigid - it makes several stops in Washington state, a stop in New Westminster, and a final stop at the Vancouver bus station (near Main and Terminal).
The disadvantage of both Greyhound and Quick Shuttle is that they run only a few times per day.

I haven't taken the Grayline shuttle from downtown Seattle, but I've heard it's a good service and is good for transporting luggage. However, if you get Quick Shuttle from SeaTac, you obviously don't have to switch. Edit: Last I heard, Grayline shuttle to the airport from downtown Seattle was $8.50.

Greyhound is definitely cheaper than Quick Shuttle, at least without special deals.


[This message has been edited by WillTravel (edited 06-17-2003).]

Border can be very bad. Have waited up to 3 hrs northbound and 21/2 hrs on return. This was a weekday. Go early or late and stay away from weekends. Train is a beautiful ride on the new Talgo train. 1 AM train from King St Station to YVR. There is an afternoon train to Bellingham about 30 minutes from border. There are also 4 Amtrak Thruway busses each day, SEA-YVR in addition to the train.

should be 8am departure, not 1am.

alb222, do you mean the border was bad when you took a bus service, or bad when you were driving? It's true that if you are driving, the wait can sometimes be a couple hours or so (although I think it has improved since shortly after 9/11, and often there is little wait).

Buses are handled right away - the only problem is when there is a suspect passenger or two on board and customs has to investigate him or her.

[This message has been edited by WillTravel (edited 06-17-2003).]