Deciding where and how to go to Alaska was the hardest part of planning our fifty-state tour (thankfully we’ve already been to Hawaii). Alaska is far, remote, and almost impossible for my city brain to comprehend. We decided a cruise was the best option.
The cruise we ended up booking left out of Vancouver, BC, which is a city we absolutely love. After flying from Bozeman, MT, to Seattle, WA, we needed to get to Vancouver.
Since trains (when done right) are our preferred way to travel, we booked the Amtrak from Seattle’s King Street Station to Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station. At $176 for two coach seats, it was a reasonably priced way to easily cross the border.
Instead of arriving a few minutes before our train like a domestic trip, we arrived an hour before our 8:30 am departure. Since we were crossing borders, we had our passports checked and tickets stamped before boarding. There was one checkpoint station and the line was relatively long, but it went quickly. We had plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful architecture before the train arrived.
Seats were first come, first serve in the class of the ticket. Because of the usual layout of the coach class, I was worried about finding two seats together with room for our luggage. Fortunately, we quickly found seats with space right behind them for our suitcases. The seats were large and quite comfortable, with reclining backs and outlets. We settled in with our books and iPads for the four-hour ride to Vancouver.
The first half of the ride primarily runs along the coast, and the scenery was lovely. Instead of reading, I spent most of my time looking out the window.
Since passports had been checked prior to boarding, customs was very quick. The agent came on, looked at passports, and moved along. We’ve had crossing where everyone has to depart the train, go through customs, and reboard, and trips where the agent scans every single passport and it takes hours to cross. This was by far the easiest and fastest.
We arrived in Vancouver right on time, ready for two nights in Vancouver before boarding our cruise to Alaska.