Washington State Travel Forum

Hello fellow V'ters.
I am in the beginning stages of planning a trip this Sept. to the PNW again.
Here'e one idea I have. Arrive in SEA on 8/30/08 or 9/6/08 about 11am.
Get a direct ferry to Friday Harbor w/o my car and spent the night.
The next day (Sunday) catch the Ferry to Sidney, B.C. Is there bus service
or taxi to Victoria from Sidney? I want to spend 2 nights in Victoria
close to the Inner Harbor where everything is w/in walking distance or taxi.
Then can I catch a direct ferry back to Seattle, pick-up my car and resume
my planned vacation, perhaps to Mt. Rainier for 3 days. The idea is I can save
some money by walking on the ferries instead of paying to drive on. What
do you (the professionals) think? Thank you very much for any ideas.

Hello, I can't answer all your questions, but I can help with some. You will DEFINITELY save a lot of money not bringing a car on the ferry. I live in Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula and we get over to Victoria through Port Angeles. (Not so practical a route for you without a car.) We pay about $8 to walk on and around $50 for a car.

I believe you might be able to find a direct boat from Friday Harbor to Victoria, which would be better than going through Sidney. I imagine there is probably a bus between Sidney and Victoria which would be your most economical route, though.

Once in Victoria you can certainly do without a car. Good bus system, but if you are near to downtown you can just walk everywhere, too. If you've never been to Victoria I highly recommend one of the open-air bus tours to get your bearings around the city.

And yes, you will be able to get a boat directly back to Seattle from Victoria.

Have a great time!

In order to get to Friday Harbor you are going to have to take the ferry from Anacortes which is a good 60-70 miles north of Seattle. So if you drive up to Anacortes and leave your car there, you would not be able to take a ferry directly back to Seattle because your car would be in Anacortes. The added expense for taking your car on the Anacortes to Friday Harbor ferry is about $27. When I went to Friday Harbor, I was glad to have a car.

Of course, you could do the trip in reverse. Take a ferry from Seattle to Victoria. Then do Sidney to Friday Harbor and then Friday Harbor back to Sidney and then Victoria to Seattle.

I recall there were many taxis queued at Sidney to take walkons into into Victoria.

The hydrofoil from Seattle to Victoria puts you right in the Victoria Harbor. The trip is a lot of fun (although I must admit I did that one 20 years ago).

Its easy to check the prices online just google Washington State ferries.

There is a bus that connects Sidney to Victoria. It'll cost you $3.00 in exact change - Canadian coins only. I took that bus last week, but I picked it up from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal. The bus is a double decker and it's a bit of a "donkey express" weaving its way through the farmland and suburbs before arriving in downtown Victoria about an hour later.

Of course, there's also the taxi. But if you're going to spend money on taking a taxi, then you might as well bring your car in my opinion. Sure, it costs money to bring a car on the ferry, but it's really not that much more. The money you save on not bringing your car, you'll end up spending on the Victoria Clipper - the catamaran that connects Victoria to Seattle.

However, if it has nothing to do with money (which it sounds like), then you could do this. The only issue is what was previously mentioned - getting from Seattle to Anacortes and leaving your car in Anacortes. You'll have to find your way back to Anacortes from Seattle to pick up your car, which is a bit of a hassle.

Another idea is to take your car all the way and instead of taking the direct ferry from Victoria to Seattle, you can take your car on the Coho ferry which connects downtown Victoria with Port Angeles. The drive from Port Angeles back to Seattle is several hours, however, and the Coho is not a frequent ferry, although in all reality, all these ferries you plan on using have very limited schedules.

Sounds like a good plan.

You can catch the Clipper from downtown Seattle direct to Friday Harbour on San Juan Island.

From there you can catch Washington State Ferries to Sidney (summer only, 1 boat per day I believe)
see website: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/schedules/current/
From Sidney I'm sure there is good bus service to downtown Victoria.
Or
there is a passenger-only ferry direct from Friday Harbour to downtown Victoria ... fairly new, be sure to check if its running when you want to go
http://www.victoriaexpress.com/schedules.html

From Victoria you can catch the Clipper from downtown Victoria to downtown Seattle.

The Clippers are high speed passenger-only ferries. Their website is: http://www.clippervacations.com/
You need advance reservations for them ... in summer they are sometimes sold out.