Vancouver/Victoria, BC 5er travel

If you are only going to visit Vancouver and Victoria, leave your unit in Wash State and drive your truck or toad over, a lot cheaper. You don't want to tow anyware near Vancouver. Trust me. If you are going to cross into Canada with your unit and travel north, use the 176 st Truck Crossing at Blaine Wa.
Do not use highway #99 at the Peace Arch crossing, that will take you into Vancouver. Stay on 176st at the Truck Crossing, and you will end up at highway #1, head east from there. That will take you north or east depending where you want to go. And remember No Handguns in Canada. Enjoy your trip.

Northbound
Soutbound

Click on the cameras to get a real time view of the lineups.


All the crossings can be bad at times. These are the two sites we use.

If you want to avoid Seattle, take 101 up the Hood Canal and make a stop at Fort Worden in Port Townsend. It is a beautiful drive and they are well worth the visit. From there you can either take a ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria or across to Whidbey Island, From there, either take the ferry from Anacortes to Sidney or pick up the I-5 again at Burlington.

Just a side note--we avoided Vancouver crossing and went a bit further inland to Sumas, WA./B.C. to cross the border. Were thru in 30 minutes. Vancouver can be hours crossing. Our trip took us the northern B.C.--Muncho Lake/Liard Hot Springs, etc. Lars

I've not done it by RV, but I was coming up from visiting my cousin in Eugene OR, so we did the closest, which was Port Angeles. Depending on where you're coming from, balance the distance between the terminals, as it does take a while to get from one to another, given all the winding waterways. Also the Port Angeles ferry is the =shortest= route. We made a mistake and ended up taking the one back to Tsawwassen, then the DW changed her mind about going to Vancouver, so we turned S on I-5 instead of N. We =had= lost a brother-in-law the previous week, so she was anxious to get home to see her sister. Can't complain too much about the reason.

Lyle

MrD wrote:
Pangaea,

I never heard of that before, where did you get the info on 50% off?

Thanks
Mike

Mike

I just checked with the WSF, and that opportunity is no longer available, although it was last year, and was for about the last 8-10 years. They used to do that to better compete with the BC Ferries, but they no longer feel the need to do that.

When they originally started the 50% off rate, we got free passage on the first run of the season (twice), if they could use our RV in their advertising campaign to promote the route and rate. It was fun arriving in Sydney to bagpipes, Mounties saluting, and cheering crowds, with 3-4 other RV's and several hundred volunteers from the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce.

We use the Anacortes ferry as much as possible when towing the 5'er. It is about half the price of the BC Ferries.

Pangaea,

I never heard of that before, where did you get the info on 50% off?

Thanks
Mike

It is expensive, but the WA State Ferries offer a 50% discount for RV's.

Be advised, not one of the routes is "cheap" for a large rig

Your options are:

Anacortes, WA to Sydney (Victoria), BC

WA State Ferries

Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC

Black Ball Ferries

Vancouver (Tsawwassen), BC to Victoria (Swartz Bay), BC

BC Ferries