Help Plan A Trip to Vancouver/Seattle

[darklord700]

I'm planning a week trip to Vancouver/Seattle in March this year. I'll probably stay a night or two in Seattle and then the rest will be in Vancouver.

My questions are:

Where to stay in Vancouver (Richmond, Downtown or Stanley Park)?
Has anyone booked thru hotels.com or hotwire.ca?

Where to stay in Seattle? Last time I was there was like 20 years ago so I don't remember anything about Seattle.

Any sightseeing recommendations in these two places when it rains are most welcome. Thanks.

[STeeLy]

Are you driving or flying?

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Are you driving or flying?

Flying to Vancouver but will rent a car to drive down to Seattle.

[bc-chris]

where to stay in vancouver - not sure... every time my wife and i go to the coast we stay with relatives/friends, so we never get a hotel.

in seattle... my wife and i went to seattle two summers ago and had a blast. we found a place to stay using hotwire that was maybe a 25 minute bus ride outside of seattle for something like $45/night (queen bed, bathroom, tv, complimentary breakfast) - a screaming deal!!

you do NOT want to park in seattle - it's ridiculously expensive!!

we bought a thing called a 'city pass' while in seattle - it was a great deal. http://www.citypass.com/seattle

i think it was around $65 each when did it and it got us into....
- the space needle twice
- the aquarium
- a science center (the butterfly exhibit was really cool!)
- a music museum
- a harbor tour
- and a choice of either the zoo or the museum of flight... we chose the zoo

have fun!!!

[HELPNEEDED]

Seattle:

Eat at mike's chile parlour and voula's offshore cafe. At voula's get a scramble, you'll thank me later.

[Resolute 14]

http://www.citypass.com/seattle

There is also the Freemont Troll, which is an amusing little side-of-the-road stop.

Where to stay will depend on how high class a place you want to stay in. Myself, when I was last in Seattle, I simply wanted a bed to sleep in at night, so a Motel 6 in SeaTac was fine for me. Easy access from there into any part of Seattle

[Rhettzky]

The Underground Tour was the best $16 I spent in Seattle.
http://www.undergroundtour.com/

Also check out Cowgirls, don't recommend going with your GF or wife though.

[Deelow]

Was just in Seattle last month. We stayed at The Silver Cloud Hotel, right between Safeco and CenturyLink. It's a nice hotel and you can good rates provided there's no baseball, football or soccer going on. It's also less than a 10 dollar cab ride to the heart of downtown if you'd rather not drive.

The Experience Music Project was a must for me. There's amazing Nirvana and Hendrix exhibits showing there now. It's located next to the Space Needle (quick monorail ride from downtown). There are all sorts of bars/restaurants and live music venues downtown. Lots to do for sure.

[Winsor_Pilates]

For Vancouver, you want to stay downtown.
Most of the places you'll want to check out are downtown or easily accessible from DT.
Stanley Park is DT, so you don't need to worry about staying there in order to visit there.
All of DT is easily walk able, so being almost anywhere DT will do the trick(minus East Hastings of course).

And when it rains get an umbrella or rain jacket.
Both cities are fully operational when wet, don't let that change your to do list.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Downtown is the only place to stay in Vancouver, in my opinion. I could never live there, as it's not my style, but if I were visiting and wanting to stay close to everything including access to rapid transit, downtown is the only way to go.

[troutman]

What replaced The Rocket, in Seattle?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocket_%28newspaper%29

[STeeLy]

If aviation is your thing... There's the Future of Aviation/Boeing Factory tour in Everett (along the way to Seattle), there's also the museum of flight in Seattle.

The City pass is definitely worth getting.

Also, outlet malls along the way to get stuff is never a bad idea.

[Anduril]

To do list:

Horde and bring Chromebooks into Canada.

For Vancouver, downtown is really the only place to go when staying there. Easy to get around as well as a lot of where you want to be visiting is there already.

Scribbled with the Note II

[peter12]

Do people have any imagination? Go on Yelp, find out where the locals go, and go there. Avoid these silly City Pass tourist traps.

EMP is okay in Seattle, but nothing else mentioned is worth wasting your time over.

In Seattle, get a private room here:
http://www.hostelseattle.com/

[TheGrimm]

I go to Seattle at least once a year, lots to see and do there for sure.

Pike Place is the typical place to see, you can do a pilgrimage to the original Starbucks and see the fish markets where they throw fish around. Right near there is "The Crab Pot" which in my opinion has the best crab cakes anywhere. My wife hates crab but loves them. There was an episode about this place on Man vs. Food a while back. There is quite a bit of shopping nearby on Pike St. and Pine St.

The Ballard locks are pretty cool. Being a prairie boy I had never seen how shiplocks work so that was worth a visit. There is also a giant troll under a bridge holding a VW, I think it's under Fremont Ave in Fremont. Actually that whole area is pretty cool to check out as well, lots of shops and pubs.

If you can get out of town, Mt. Rainier is pretty cool to hike in the summer. It's a couple hours out of town though.

I am sure more will come to me later.

[afc wimbledon]

seattle has a great zoo, if you have kids its a must visit

give yourself time to divert off the I 5 to follow chuck a nut drive from bellingham to mt vernon, old bellingham is a nice place for a break from the drive as well.

[AR_Six]

You can't stay in Stanley Park. It's a park. It's trees. You would need a tent.

Staying downtown is close to everything, but probably pretty expensive. If you stay in Richmond and you happen to be close to the Canada Line, it's 20 minutes to downtown. There are hotels a few blocks away. Basically you're 30 minutes from being close to everything. Assess whether that's worth the price difference.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

You can't stay in Stanley Park. It's a park. It's trees. You would need a tent.

Staying downtown is close to everything, but probably pretty expensive. If you stay in Richmond and you happen to be close to the Canada Line, it's 20 minutes to downtown. There are hotels a few blocks away. Basically you're 30 minutes from being close to everything. Assess whether that's worth the price difference.

Bollocks, plenty of people stay in Stanley Park, and with all the new freinds you make there you will soon be able to score all the ginseng wine and meth you need for a decent holiday.

[Northendzone]

personally, i'd look into a tour of the boeing plant. outlet mall is always a great place to save money.

while in vancouver, if you find yourself with a few free minutes, go and visit the vancouver canucks stanley cup museum.

take a rain coat though.

oh yeah, i thought you could not take a rental car across teh border?

[Bean]

We flew to Vancouver and drove a rental car to Seattle (stopping at an American Walmart and the Outlets on the way)

The best place to rent is Enterprise, they will shuttle you from the airport to their office not too far from Richmond and all of the staff were excellent. They don't bother with extra fees and surcharges like the other renal companies.

The only problem with the trip was the American border guard's understanding of why a Calgarian would fly to Vancouver just to drive to Seattle. For us, it was a vacation spent between two cities - much like what you might be doing.