Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Travel Tips

Travel Tips for Visitors Traveling From or To the U.S.A.

This page is most important for visitors who will be travelling to or from the US as part of their trip to the Vancouver area.

Changes in Travel Documentation Requirements to Cross the Canada-US Border.

US citizens may be able to enter Canada and return to the US by land or sea without a passport, however it is wise to check with the US government website to find out what the travel document requirements are likely to be at the time of your trip. For these important details, please see http://www.travel.state.gov.

US and Canadian citizens now need a passport to travel between Canada and the US by air.

Non-residents of the US, should check to find out what documentation they will require and make sure they bring it with them.

If you are travelling with others to Canada, especially by car, make sure all the people with you have all the documentation they will need to get back into the US before you set out, otherwise there is the risk that all of you could be either delayed at the border crossing or denied entry into Canada.

Information for entering the United States
On the Internet: http://www.travel.state.gov (select links to Citizenship and Immigration, Customs, or Passport)
By Telephone: 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636)

Information for entering Canada
On the Internet: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca
By Telephone: 1-800-O-CANADA (1-800-622-6232)

Our Advice for Documentation:

• If you have a passport, be sure to bring it, even if you are entering and returning from Canada by road
• Find out how long it will take to get a passport. If there is a risk you cannot get it in time for your trip, then fly to Seattle and drive to Vancouver, to avoid the need for a passport.
• If your trip to Canada is several months away and you are sure you can get a passport in time, then we suggest you get one, whether you are travelling by air or ground.

Although not yet necessary for surface travel, having a passport with you certainly makes crossing the border easier. The border guards understand passports and have scanners to read and check them instantly - but birth certificates and driver's licenses etc require more scrutiny and have to be dealt with manually ( i.e. keying the info into the computer with one-finger typing) , which takes much longer.

How to Get to Vancouver from the United States

• Drive from anywhere in the US
• Fly directly to Vancouver
• Fly to Seattle and drive to Vancouver
• Fly to Bellingham or Blaine and drive to Vancouver
• Fly to Seattle and take the train to Vancouver
• Fly to Seattle, drive to Port Angeles, take the Ferry to visit Victoria, then take the Ferry to Vancouver
• Take the train (Amtrack) from anywhere between Vancouver and San Diego to Vancouver ( inexpensive and very scenic)

Unless you are from the northern part of Washington State, the quickest and most convenient way to get to Vancouver is to fly directly into Vancouver International Airport. There are reasonably good connections to fly to Vancouver from all major airports in the US.

However, there may be two or three advantages for you to fly into Seattle (SEATAC) airport from both other places in the US and from overseas and then travel by rental car, bus or train to Vancouver.

You should also check out the possibility of flying to either Bellingham or Blaine, which are in Washington state, much closer to the Canadian Border. This can save you a couple of hours of driving all the way from Seattle.

Flying into Seattle may have the following advantages

1. It may cost less. The airfare to Seattle from many US destinations plus the cost of driving a rental car to Vancouver and back might still be significantly lower than the airfare for flying directly into Vancouver.
2. More flights available. There are more flights available from more airports in the US to Seattle than to Vancouver.

The main disadvantage of driving from Seattle Airport to Vancouver is the driving time plus the time it takes to get through the border.

If all goes well, you can reach the Canadian Border in about 3 hours from SEATAC airport and get through the border in a couple of minutes. It will then take about one hour to get from the border to Lockehaven in North Vancouver. However, because SEATAC is south of downtown Seattle and the traffic on all the highways through Seattle slows to a crawl during rush-hour times, it can take significantly longer. Also, it can take up to an hour, or perhaps even more, to get through the border, depending on the traffic or occasional extra concerns about security.

Our Advice for Driving from Seattle:

• Try to schedule your drive through Seattle at off-peak traffic hours
• Avoid the heavy traffic at the beginnings and ends of weekends when crossing the border in either direction.
• Enter Canada through the Pacific Highway (Truck) Border Crossing, which is typically much less congested than the Peace Arch Crossing. To utilize the Pacific Highway Crossing, exit the I5 to Highway 543 before Blaine. This turns into Highway 15 in BC, which you then take north to head West on the Highway One freeway. Highway One takes you directly to North Vancouver and very close to Lockehaven. With this route you also bypass the traffic congestion of downtown Vancouver, which does not have any freeways. For more details and maps, see the Contact/Findus page of this website.