North America Travel Forum

I am madly trying to convince my fiance that we need to head back to the USA and this time see a bit of Canada. We are arriving from Australia and neither of us are really confident enough to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. We plan to use planes to travel between a few different cities and we would like some suggestions of day trips from those cities to the rural areas nearby. For example we did a Grand Canyon tour from Las Vegas for the day.

The places we are considering visiting include Vancouver, Calgary, Seattle and Portland and maybe San Francisco (although I am happy to leave San Fran for another trip). We are not keen on a week long bus tour or anything like that. If there were some smaller places along the way that would be worth stopping over for a night I would welcome those tips as well. We are not super interested in big cities but more the rural side of things. We probably only have 1.5-2weeks to spare.

Thanks for any advice you have.

G'day there, we an Aussie couple travelling to Canada & USA in September. We have 3 days in Vancouver before embarking on a 7 day Glacier Bay cruise followed by 12 day Hawaiian cruise.

First up on the driving. You get freaked out at first driving on the right hand side of the road. But after about 5 mins it's all cool.

Our itinerary for the 3 days in Vancouver is as follows:

We arrive at Vancouver airport at 7am and pick up a hire car (just for the 1st day) and head to our hotel to check our luggage in and are heading straight up to Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge. Both very close on the northern side of the city.

http://www.capbridge.com/
http://www.grousemountain.com/Summer/

On day 2 we have arranged a day trip to Whistler. For the trip up we are going on The Whistler Mountaineer arriving at mid-day. We spend the afternoon having a look around and return via floatplane, landing in Vancouver Harbour around 6pm.

http://www.whistlermountaineer.com/

And for day 3 we are doing a trip to Victoria. To save on travel time we are catching a floatplane from Vancouver airport to Victoria Harbour and returning via the ferry.

Whilst we there we will be doing a whale watch cruise and a city tour including Butchart Gardens.

http://www.5starwhales.com/
http://www.graylinewest.com/
http://www.graylinewest.com/
http://www.pacificcoach.com/

And between cruises we have most of the day to check things like Granville Island and Gastown.

http://www.seegranvilleisland.com/
http://www.gastown.org/

Hope this may give you a few ideas. We cant wait.
Cheers
Col & Sue

Col and Sue have an excellent itinerary for the Vancouver-Victoria region, although note that some of it is not "rural," but city-oriented.

For the Seattle and Portland areas where you'd like to visit rural areas, may I attempt to change your mind? I'd highly recommend renting a car. I learned "wrong"-side driving in your country and in the UK, so I'm sure you can figure it out here. It's not that difficult! Since nearly all our rental cars are automatic transmission, you don't even have to worry about shifting gears. The only places I'd recommend *not* driving are in the big cities, which are confusing, faster-paced, and have plenty of easy public transport available, just like Sydney or Melbourne.

Save your driving for the rural roads, where you will really see something of North America, and this gorgeous Pacific Northwest. For Washington State, I'd recommend small towns like Snohomish, Leavenworth, the Methow Valley and North Cascades, drives to Mount Rainier and the active volcano of Mount St. Helens. Or, take your car on the cross-Puget-Sound ferry and drive the whole loop of Highway 101 around the Olympic Peninsula. Highlights here are artsy Port Townsend, Port Angeles (with a visit to Hurricane Ridge), continuing along the vast and nearly deserted Pacific beaches (inland rainforest walk along the Hoh River Valley), and down to the Long Beach area, with small resorts, and the history of Lewis & Clark along several spots bordering the Columbia River. And then there's gorgeous Oregon next .... too much to see!

If you decide to visit Portland, and if you like scenery, I suggest a day cruise on the Columbia River, or a jet-boat ride on the Willamette River. You can book either one right in downtown area or at most hotels/visitors centers. If you don't like boats, the Columbia Gorge is a short bus trip from downtown Portland: magnificent waterfalls and great hiking on good, but steep, trails).

Another great trip would require a long, but easy, drive: Crater Lake is a beautiful setting in southern Oregon. (Only open in the summer months because the lake is at the 7,000 foot level and the rim road around the crater is close to 8000 foot elevation.) I'll be there myself, with children and grandchildren, the last week in July.

Like the other responder, I have driven in Australia (and Ireland and Britain); The only time I've had a problem is emerging from car parks in cities - if I'm turning left I'm inclined to cross to the right-hand side of the street (of course if there is any traffic on the street, after a quick thought of "why is everyone else driving on the wrong side", I remember where I am.

Larry