Driving from Seattle to Nanaimo and back

I had a great time last week in Nanaimo at the REW conference.  Many thanks to Morgan & Company for all the kind hospitality and effort that went into making it such a valuable experience.  I hope it becomes an annual event because I would love to continue to have a tax-deductible reason to go to Beautiful British Columbia. 

Instead of taking the more expensive but expediant flight directly to Nanaimo via Vancouver, I opted to fly into Seattle.  I had a couple extra days and thought it might be fun to drive across the border and up the coast of Vancouver Island.  While it wasn't an unpleasant experience,  I would have had a lot more fun had I spent a little time researching the trip.  Also, you won't save any money by the time you factor in ferries, gas, car rental and extra hotel time.  But if you decide you want to do it for the experience, here are my tips for anyone planning to do the Seattle - Nanaimo - Vancouver - Seattle drive in the future:

1.  Always, ALWAYS book a reservation on a car ferry.  I left Seattle last Monday morning to catch the 12:45 Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, and arrived an hour ahead of time.  The cheery attendant asked if I had a reservation, I said "no" and his smile dropped as he said "well you're stand-by car #16... you have a 50/50 chance."  I don't typically win with odds like that, so I missed the ferry which meant I got to spend four hours in Port Angeles.   It turns out the there are some Olympic Peninsula Wineries, so I managed to kill some time wine tasting with the friendly folks at Harbinger.   I headed back downtown where I found a great little used book shop and some pretty good Pho soup at  a little Asian spot called SoHo Bistro.  They had WiFi so they let me hang out and get some work done after the soup.  At 5:15 I was on the ferry headed to Victoria.  Just a note here too... if you ever take that ferry be sure to take everything you need out of your car because they don't let you go back once you're underway.  Charge your laptop ahead of time too because there are no outlets.  And the fare is $50!  I had no idea it would be so much.

2.  Plan to spend time in Victoria.  What a charming town!  I couldn't believe I sat in Port Angeles for so long when I could've been walking around Victoria with a little better planning.  Sadly by the time I got off the ferry it was already getting dark so I headed up to Nanaimo.  I could spend a lot of time talking about Nanaimo, but I really just wanted to keep this post about the drive so check out Nanaimo Information for tips on what to do during your stay.

3.   If you're going back through Vancouver and have time,  take the Horshoe Bay Ferry so that you can drive across the Lions Gate Bridge.  Very cool, except there is no median and the other people are coming at you pretty fast with little room for error.  Thankfully Canadians don't seem to text message while they're driving as much as LA drivers do.  On the ferry you get a great view of the Sound aboard the nicest ferry boat I've ever seen.  It's almost like a mini-cruise, sans the fat guys in speedos standing at the chocolate buffet.  The ferry is pricey though... $70 with a reservation! 

4.  Don't let hotels bully you into a fake room because you used Priceline.  I checked into my room at the Hyatt Vancouver and found there was no bed.  That's right... no bed.  So I called the front desk and asked why I had no bed and she said, in a very heavy Asian accent: "That because you use the Priceline!  Couch fold out for you."  So I called Priceline's customer service which routed me to India, I got past that person who routed me to someone in the States, who then called the front desk and got me a real room.  It turns out they had broken up a suite and put me in the living room.  Unbelieveable.  Kudos to Priceline though for fixing it.

5.  It takes 6 hours to drive from Vancouver to Seattle, no matter what Google Maps says.  I know it's only 140 miles but Google doesn't take into account the 3 HOUR WAIT to get across the border into the US.  I'm not exaggerating... I arrived at the checkpoint line at 1:15pm and didn't get through until 4:07pm.  There were only two lanes open and apparently it was disgruntled angry worker day because nobody was in a hurry or in any mood for jokes.  After looking at the checkpoint I wasn't so sure I wanted to go home anyway... it looked like I was trying to get into Beirut.  The building hadn't been repaired or painted since the 1950s and the road was completely torn apart.  Meanwhile as I sat in my car I looked over at the Canadian site, where there were four open lanes, no waiting and beautiful flowers everywhere.  I bet the Candadian border patrol is able to do their job effectively and actually smile once in a while too.

6.  The latest Southwest flight out of Seattle to LAX is 6:30.  I know, I couldn't believe it either.  I'm so used to not caring about missing flights on Southwest because there's always another one leaving in like 12 minutes.  Not the case.  Instead of spending the night I decided to pay $250 one way fare on the 9:00 Alaska Air flight.  

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining... the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver Island are some of the most scenic parts of the world I've ever visited.  The drive was amazing and I spent a lot of time enjoying the friendly people, local wines, food and smells (the outdoor air smells better there than anywhere else).  I just want to be sure if you make the same trip you avoid some of the mistakes I made so you'll have an even better time.  Enjoy!

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