Summer is a great time to do a road trip, especially in the great North West. For a 4 day July long weekend, we did a road trip to Victoria and Vancouver. It is an amazing road trip to drive through the mountains and getting your car onto the ferry is a quite an interesting first time experience.
The route of this road trip is making a loop on the Pacific Northwest and stop by Victoria, then to Vancouver, and back to Portland. This route will pass through Port Angeles, which is where you will take the ferry, and also passes through Seattle. You can also make the choice of staying few nights at Port Angeles and Seattle if you choose to. Due to time constraint, we just drive through Port Angeles and Seattle. Besides, Seattle and Port Angeles are only 3 hours away from Portland, we can always do a weekend getaway there.
When planning for this, make sure you make reservations for the ferry online. Most of the time, they will charge $15 for making reservation, but it is worth it. If you don't make reservation, you may not be able to get onto the ferry if there are too many people. To get to Victoria, first you need to drive for 4 hours to go to Port Angeles in Washington state to take the Black Ball Ferry to Victoria. While you are on the road to Port Angeles, one of the worth mentioning attraction that you will see on the way is Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. There is a museum and a gift shop there giving you history about this native American tribe. It is also a good pit stop to take a break and rest.
After you pass by Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, you are just about an hour away from Port Angeles. Make sure you plan to arrive at Port Angeles 1.5 hour before the departure time to line up for the ferry. We got there around 70 minutes early and there are already so many cars lining up at the gate. Especially if you didn't make reservation for your ticket, you may or may not be able to get on to the ferry. There are only 2 to 3 ferry rides each day, so you definitely don't want to miss the ferry! If you have extra time after arriving at the Port Angeles ferry terminal, you can take a walk around Port Angeles water front and pay a visit to farmer's market. The Black Ball Ferry terminal does offer free WIFI for its guests; however, once you are on the ferry and the ferry is in the sea, you will start to lose WIFI connection. The ferry ride is about 1.5 hour long and it will arrive at the inner Victoria Harbor. You can read more about the experience at Victoria here.
Getting to Vancouver require you to go to a different ferry terminal at the opposite end of Vancouver Island. You will need to drive to the end of Highway 17 to Swartz Bay and take BC Ferries. The BC Ferries offer ferry ride almost every hour. So even if you missed your ferry ride, you don't have to panic! The next ferry ride is coming right up! This ferry terminal is much larger than the previous one you took and the ferry is much bigger. There are even buses and RVs going onto the ferry! The ferry terminal also have gift shops and restaurants to provide you snacks. Similar to the ferry you took earlier, make sure you make reservation online and arrive early if you don't want to miss the ferry. This ferry ride takes about 2 hours. The best thing is that there is a buffer restaurant on the ferry! Can you believe that? You can enjoy your food while enjoying your view of the sea! The downside is that you must leave your lovely and adorable pet in the car. You cannot bring them to the seating area. About 2 hours later, the ferry will arrive at Tsawwassen terminal and takes about 30 minutes to drive to Vancouver. You can read more about the experience at Vancouver here.
Driving back to Portland is much easier and you can leave whenever you like. The closest border entry is at Peace Arch. At times, there will be a lot of people who want to cross the border and head back to US. So be prepared to spend an hour at the border waiting to get to US. Once you have passed Peach Arch border, it will take approximately 3 more hours to get back to Portland.
Note: Since you are going to Canada, remember that the speed limit sign you see is in KM! Not Miles! Also, make sure you bring your passport with you!
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