Victoria/Vancouver area? Where to stay after cruise into Seattle?

Taking and Alaskan cruise in August 2015. We would love to extend a week or so and go to a TS in the Victoria/Vancouver area. Looking for information and suggestions! Can you rent a car in Seattle and drive it into Canada?

Thank so much for any info!

Worldmark has both Victoria and Vancouver locations. Victoria is near the waterfront and has large units. Vancouver is in an urban location and therefore in a high rise with small units. I believe Vancouver is attached to a Sheraton hotel.

If I was going to do that, I'd just take a cruise that terminates in Vancouver. There are many that do. Then you can get a car there and commence the TS part of th holiday. There is also very convenient bus service between Canada Place (cruise terminal) and Seattle Center and SeaTac airport- or reverse.

Jim

Both of these worldmark locations are awesome. Vancouver has a more urban feel and is a great city to just walk or bike around. The location in Victoria can't be beat. Oceanfront bordering fisherman's wharf. The beauty of worldmark is that you can split your week (or however many days) into 2 locations by only paying one extra cleaning fee. Next summer I booked 4 nights in Vancouver followed by 3 nights in Victoria. I got to book 13 months ahead since it was a minimum 7 day booking so my rooms should be great as they assign the best rooms based on how much in advance the reservation was booked.

Joan

Renting a car in Seattle to drive back over the border can turn out to be expensive. Your better options are to:
End the cruise in Vancouver. You can then take public transportation to a downtown Vancouver timeshare or there is also good bus service that takes you across the ferry (through the Gulf Islands so very scenic) to Victoria. The latter stops right in front of the Worldmark so pretty darn convenient. At that point, you can then decide if you want to rent a car for a day trip.
If you end the cruise in Seattle, you could take the Victoria Clipper from Seattle to Victoria where it's a short walk or taxi to the various timeshares. OR take the train up to Vancouver which goes along the water and is also very pretty and then a taxi into town. You really don't need a car in Vancouver and parking/traffic can be an issue so working the non-car options makes a lot of sense.

Another option is Nanoose Bay north of Nanaimo. Take the ferry from Vancouver and then rent a car in Nanaimo (there's a thread here someplace on your options for that resort).

In August, I would look at Victoria or Nanoose Bay. Vancouver could be pretty warm. Maybe add a couple of nights in town and then over to Vancouver Island. Nanoose Bay trades through RCI and provides a good base for a day trip over to Tofino and Pacific Rim National Park.

Sue

Hi Dixie,

Just a heads up in case you aren't aware of the rules -

You will need either a Passport or an Enhanced Driver's License to return to the U.S. from Canada, regardless of which mode of transportation you take.

Have a good trip.

Richard

The Vancouver TS that is on the top of the Sheraton is the Club Intrawest, not the Worldmark. It's a fabulous location and view (https://picasaweb.google.com/vinolover78/VancouverClubIntrawestVancouverStudioUnit2855Sept2008). The Worldmark is very near there but without the view.

abbekit said:

The Vancouver TS that is on the top of the Sheraton is the Club Intrawest, not the Worldmark. It's a fabulous location and view (https://picasaweb.google.com/vinolover78/VancouverClubIntrawestVancouverStudioUnit2855Sept2008). The Worldmark is very near there but without the view.

Click to expand...

Worldmark at Vancouver is opposite the Sheraton (The Wall) and has access to Sheraton's gym and pool at no additional charge. I just got back after 4 days at Vancouver and 3 days at Victoria, both at Worldmark properties. The rooms at Victoria are much larger and very comfortable. As a city, love Victoria, but not so much for Vancouver.

Thinking of disembarking in Victoria (1 day early) and renting a place for a week

Thinking of disembarking in Victoria (1 day early) and renting a place for a week. Any suggestions on places to stay or rent?

Loving all of your information! Thanks!

Seven years ago in August, we took the Victoria Clipper from Seattle and rented a car in Canada for a week driving to Pacific Shores in Nanoose Bay. The weather was wonderful there in late August. We returned our car in Victoria, took the ferry back to Seattle, and boarded our Norwegian Cruise to Alaska. The docks for both were very close to each other in Seattle and quite convenient.
P.S. This way we were able to spend a whole day at the beautiful Buchart Gardens near Victoria.

I would strongly recommend renting Worldmark Victoria from an owner if you do not own Worldmark. It should be relatively inexpensive. It is in a great location. After just having left Vancouver and Victoria, I went ahead and booked a week at Victoria for summer 2015 and skipping Vancouver as I really have no desire to return to the latter - if you want to know why you can PM me. There should still be available rooms in August so you may want to post on a wish list/rental request on TUG very soon before availability runs out.

In regards to renting, a site I had luck with for posting for rentals is the WorldMark owners forum

http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=69

I used this back in 2010 to get a rental to add an extra week to my timeshare stay on Vancouver Island (turned out to be a TUG member who saw this post and rented to me so it worked out nicely)

Greg