Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Piggy backing on this thread (if it’s still active)…we are planning a similar trip 4 days in Seattle (including a day hiking Mt. Ranier), 2 days in Vancouver (to see a niece who will be out of town at the end of our trip)+2 days to play with. What seems like a natural 3rd stop that gets us back to an airport by day 8 or 9? (We were hoping for some time in the San Juan islands, but I’m not sure that works.) Thanks!

San Juan Islands would work well as your last stop on the way back from Vancouver. Easiest thing to do is stay on Fidalgo Island (Anacortes or nearby), as that's connected to the mainland by a bridge, so very easy in/out. Then use the ferries to island hop for a couple of days. If you have say the 2 PM Alaska flight to DCA out of SEA, it's very easy to get from Anacortes to SEA in about 2 hours mid-day, so you could leave at 10 AM and get to the rental car dropoff by noon. That's what I would do- Anacortes is only 25 minutes out of the way off of I-5 between Vancouver/Seattle.

Thanks - taking notes because we want to spend our vacation dollars in Canada.

Anonymous wrote:Piggy backing on this thread (if it’s still active)…we are planning a similar trip 4 days in Seattle (including a day hiking Mt. Ranier), 2 days in Vancouver (to see a niece who will be out of town at the end of our trip)+2 days to play with. What seems like a natural 3rd stop that gets us back to an airport by day 8 or 9? (We were hoping for some time in the San Juan islands, but I’m not sure that works.) Thanks!

San Juan Islands would work well as your last stop on the way back from Vancouver. Easiest thing to do is stay on Fidalgo Island (Anacortes or nearby), as that's connected to the mainland by a bridge, so very easy in/out. Then use the ferries to island hop for a couple of days. If you have say the 2 PM Alaska flight to DCA out of SEA, it's very easy to get from Anacortes to SEA in about 2 hours mid-day, so you could leave at 10 AM and get to the rental car dropoff by noon. That's what I would do- Anacortes is only 25 minutes out of the way off of I-5 between Vancouver/Seattle.

Piggy backing on this thread (if it’s still active)…we are planning a similar trip 4 days in Seattle (including a day hiking Mt. Ranier), 2 days in Vancouver (to see a niece who will be out of town at the end of our trip)+2 days to play with. What seems like a natural 3rd stop that gets us back to an airport by day 8 or 9? (We were hoping for some time in the San Juan islands, but I’m not sure that works.) Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:You could do two days in Victoria BC. Take the Clipper (2 hour fast ferry) from downtown Seattle, arrive at lunch. Do tea at the empress, explore on foot. Next morning do the gardens and/or museum, explore on foot after lunch, early evening ride back, in seattle by 8 pm.

Or +1 the idea to do whidbey, San Juans, etc. Lake Quinault Lodge in the Olympic National Park is also super fun. Or if you like to bike, swim, golf, Suncadia Resort in cle elum.

The Clipper is approx $200 per person just FYI

Anonymous wrote:Bringing this thread back up as my family is considering a similar trip. We will have a 3 year old and a 9 month old and were thinking to do Seattle > San Juan Islands or Whidbey > Vancouver over 10 days. We have been to Seattle before and will be staying with friends (point being we are looking to spend time with them as opposed to sight see). Is that insanely ambitious given the ages of our kids (this will be our first extended trip with both). Priority is nature so we can lob off Vancouver if what I'm thinking is not feasible.

Seattle 2-3 nights, Island 3-4 nights, Vancouver 2 nights?

We did a similar trip with much older kids, and did longer at each stay. I would skip Vancouver under these circumstances. Adds a lot of travel time each way, including the uncertainty of the border crossing. Also one more packing/unpacking process. With kids that young I don't think it's worth it. Also, when taking the ferries, remember you need to budget arriving at the ferry terminal around 45 minutes before sailing, and 10 minutes-ish to load up/drive off. So add an hour to the sailing time when thinking about your schedule.

Bump

Bringing this thread back up as my family is considering a similar trip. We will have a 3 year old and a 9 month old and were thinking to do Seattle > San Juan Islands or Whidbey > Vancouver over 10 days. We have been to Seattle before and will be staying with friends (point being we are looking to spend time with them as opposed to sight see). Is that insanely ambitious given the ages of our kids (this will be our first extended trip with both). Priority is nature so we can lob off Vancouver if what I'm thinking is not feasible.

Seattle 2-3 nights, Island 3-4 nights, Vancouver 2 nights?

Seattle recommendations:
- the Ballard Locks and Kerry Park in Queen Anne were my top 2 favorite things
- Waterfront by the Ferris wheel/Pike place market is fun
- downtown I liked exploring Chinatown and the baseball stadium is walkable and is near some bustling areas
- taking a ferry across the sound was great. We went to Bainbridge Island which was just ok but I enjoyed the ride
- downtown Fremont was cool
- drove up to Whidbey Island one day which was a nice side trip

We were there for 6 or 7 days and there were still things I wanted to see that we weren’t able to get to.

Seattle resident here.

I would book more time in Vancouver than Seattle. It has more things to experience close to the city than Seattle. Seattle is a smaller city and harder to take in as a tourist. You also have to drive or take ferries to really experience the breadth of Seattle’s natural beauty and its surroundings. You can experience beaches, forests, striking urban landscapes and mountain hikes/vistas in one day in Vancouver.

I would schedule 2 nights in Seattle and more nights in Vancouver or the San Juan islands and Victoria. If you’re headed to the islands be really careful about ferry planning because they require either long waits (2-3 hours) or reservations on weekends, and the reservations open up in the spring.

Seattle things to note:
1) hotels in Seattle are tough in the summer during cruise season
2) check the Mariners schedule and don’t try to come if the Blue Jays are in town
3) August forest fire smoke is a thing- we were lucky this year but it has ruined a few recent augusts
4) Seafair is great (airshow + boat races) but traffic comes to a halt and it’s not as fun if you don’t have a locals viewing spot to go to- avoid the first weekend of august
5) I would take a mediocre swimmer kayaking or canoeing out of Aqua Verde on Lake Union or the waterfront activities center at UW but absolutely nowhere else. Do not take non-swimmers into the Puget Sound!
6) don’t expect to casually stroll the city and stumble into cute places. You really need a car and also be willing to take transit plus have a plan and set destinations. There are a lot of areas that are nice and populated yet still require a level of alertness that make it unpleasant to be a pedestrian.

On the question of doing more outdoorsy stuff (all those experiences can be great - hiking in Cascades, side trips to San Juan’s or other islands) vs side trip to Vancouver (also great!), I think that really just depends on what your family likes to do on vacation. Also, it’s getting more and more common for wildfire smoke to be a factor for some outdoor experiences that time of year unfortunately.

If you decide to do the drive to Vancouver it can be as short as 2.5 hours from Seattle, but it depends on the lines at the border. Sometimes it’s a 10 minute wait and other times it can be more than an hour. Global entry can be a big time saver crossing back into the US.

I think 4 days Seattle, 4 days Vancouver could be ok. Amtrak train is 4 hours. Passport control was not long - agent gets on train and inspects passport. Maybe 20 minutes to complete. Not hours at the border.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We were not planning to get a rental car, but hearing all these comments, maybe we should do one. I did not know that seattle is known for nature. I am not sure how much nature exploration we will do because I never see DH doing/joining us hiking or kayaking here in dmv. One kid is 4, and the most they could do is 2 hr hiking. Can we do kayaking for 4 people if there are 3 people are non-swimmers? DH wants to do vancouver for food and different culture. He loves toronto, so he wants to go to vancouver. I thought it will be 4 hrs at most include custom clearance at the border if we take train.

We can't do 2 weeks. Traveling with kids are tiring, and 6 days are good for their ages.

You will have life jackets and sea kayaks are pretty stable but an adult non-swimmer plus two non-swimming kids might stray beyond my comfort level. You can rent canoes, though, on Lake Union and the Arboretum and I would probably be ok with that (as long as non-swimmers are wearing their life jackets, not just bringing them into the canoe).

The PNW in summer is all about the outdoors, in my opinion. I like food/culture/museums/bookstores, and it has all of that for a rainy winter visit, but I go to the PNW in the summer for hiking, camping, boats, cabins on an island, etc.

About the kayaking - no, don’t kayak with a 4 year old who doesn’t swim. Just take a ferry if you want to be on water. A 4 year old won’t even appreciate kayaking. Wait until they’re 8-10.

If I’m gonna go to Seattle and drive two hours I’m going to Mt Rainier, not Vancouver.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We were not planning to get a rental car, but hearing all these comments, maybe we should do one. I did not know that seattle is known for nature. I am not sure how much nature exploration we will do because I never see DH doing/joining us hiking or kayaking here in dmv. One kid is 4, and the most they could do is 2 hr hiking. Can we do kayaking for 4 people if there are 3 people are non-swimmers? DH wants to do vancouver for food and different culture. He loves toronto, so he wants to go to vancouver. I thought it will be 4 hrs at most include custom clearance at the border if we take train.

We can't do 2 weeks. Traveling with kids are tiring, and 6 days are good for their ages.

You will have life jackets and sea kayaks are pretty stable but an adult non-swimmer plus two non-swimming kids might stray beyond my comfort level. You can rent canoes, though, on Lake Union and the Arboretum and I would probably be ok with that (as long as non-swimmers are wearing their life jackets, not just bringing them into the canoe).

The PNW in summer is all about the outdoors, in my opinion. I like food/culture/museums/bookstores, and it has all of that for a rainy winter visit, but I go to the PNW in the summer for hiking, camping, boats, cabins on an island, etc.

Just wanted to say Seattle train station is in a great location. We love staying at the Embassy Suites which is a block away. They have a great pool and laundry.