p.1 #1 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
I will be visting canada (british columbia) this summer with my grandparents and we are considering spending two days in seattle whilst we are there. I think seeing seattle would be quite cool, but my grandparents are less sure. What we would be giving up would probably be a bit of time in vancouver and a bit of time in bella coola. the trip would be slightly more stressful if we visited seattle. What do you guys think? (im posting this in a photography forum because ill be taking tons of photos on the trip and i had nowhere better to ask)
Slightly on the side: Does anyone know how a 19 year old (me) would be allowed to drive a rental car in canada (i have a licence and my grandparents would do the actual renting anyways)
p.1 #2 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
Hey Foges,
You would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't come to visit Seattle. I love BC, especially Vancouver, but Seattle at night, just amazing.
If you do end up here, bring a tripod and visit Gasworks park after dark, and don't forget to go to the top of the space needle.
The only issue is crossing the border. If you come on a weekend, the border crossing will suck (especially with non-us passports).
As you probably know Seattle (and Washington in General) has a pretty big Scandinavian population, so maybe you can use that to con your grandparents into visiting (go shopping at IKEA )
Make sure when youre in BC, you see the Capliano Bridge, and if possible go to Victoria and see how great it is. Buchart Gardens IS A MUST!
p.1 #3 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
I definitely think you should come here to Vancouver!
Stanley Park, UBC, Granville Island and Victoria are definite musts
From what I understand you won't be able to drive at 19 here in BC with a rental car. Although, if your grandparents are tired, etc. and they need someone that's responsible to drive, I personally don't see a problem with it.
I haven't been able to shoot everything around here and I live here. So make sure you narrow it down to a few key places to visit.
p.1 #4 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
According to the BC licensing site below, tourists with a valid out of province driver's license are legally allowed to drive using that license.
Now whether the rental agency is cool with that is likely up to them but I wouldn't imagine them going against the provincial regulations as long as you're registered with them as one of the co-drivers on the rental agreement.
Enjoy your trip. BC is beautiful. I've only been there once long ago so can't recommend anything.
p.1 #5 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
@HinduG: Thanks for the advice, yeah i can also imagine that seattle is prety cool, i especially want to see the space needle. I dont know if IKEA would be such a convincing argument, we have enough of them over here in europe.
@Keegan Bursaw: Ill deffenetally be visiting vancouver, thanks for those tourist tips, ill check them out online. Regarding the car rental, its not that my grandparents have a problem with it, it has to do with insurance, ie. if the insurance were to cover if anything were to happen.
@LotsToLearn: I think the problem is that any car rental company probably wouldnt allow me to register as a co-driver. ill check out the website, thanks.
p.1 #6 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
The trip through the Cascades and/or along the coast of Washington State is well worth it, even if you don't go all the way to Seattle. I second the vote try to make it to Victoria, too. If you do head south, swing by White Rock (BC) on the way down or the way back.
An equally pleasant alternative to going south would be to head east into the Okanagan Valley. There's no place like it in all of Canada. Grandpa and Grandma would love it.
Regarding driving; If you get pulled over for some minor infraction, the Police will surely be nice about it when they hear that you are visiting from Norway. Just make sure Grandpa and Grandma hide the bong quickly (otherwise they'll take all your pot and shake their fingers at you)
About the car insurance, you might be best to simply make some calls to a few rental places and inquire. Just be upfront and honest and see what they say. It's not like you have to commit to renting with them during that call.
p.1 #7 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
Ill probably visit victoria, i have some distant relatives living in nanaimo (or whatever its called).
Regarding the insurance, i did e-mail a couple of companies like Herz and other local ones, but they all said their minimum age was 21 even if my grandparents rent the car. My distant relatives called Budget and they said that if i could provide my own insurance it wouldnt be a problem. I have however never heared of this before and budget does not have any phone number for calls from norway or an email address
But nothing I found on "under-age" looks helpful, that and it was all US based info.
Since I from the Los Angeles area, the Pacific Northwest and BC are pretty much different from what I'm used to. Certainly Seattle is an interesting place to visit, the Space Needle is interesting (never went up in it on my trips) but I'm a little less sure I'd take time from Vancouver or especially Vancouver Island/Victoria to visit. I really liked Vancouver and especially Victoria and the nearby portions of the island. Butchart Gardens but just the Victoria inner harbor area was worth more time than we had. Veddy British. Well, except for the totem poles.
p.1 #9 · Help me plan my Canada / North america trip
You really should visit Victoria and the far side of Vancouver Island (Sooke to Port Renfrew) if you get a chance. Botanical Bay in Sooke is amazing.
I'm from Vancouver, and that's where we go to get away from things over here.
Seattle's a neat place. If you can visit for a day or two, you should. Personally, I used to like going there a lot before the US border went all "paranoid". Now it's just too much of a pain for me to bother going down.
The Pacific Northwest is such beautiful country, you really cant miss seeing anything, in either Canada or the US.
If you like skiing, you might want to take a trip up to Whistler while you are in Vancouver (where all of the 2010 Olympic skiing will be). It's beautiful even in the summer, and you can still ski the back side of the mountain. All of the other places people have mentioned, like Stanley Park, UBC, Butchart Gardens, Capilano Bridge, etc, are well worth the stop.
Another thing you might want to look into is the gondola ride up Grouse Mountain. You can have a very nice dinner up at the Grouse Nest Restaurant, and it overlooks the whole Lower Mainland (since it's at the top of yet another ski hill we have in town).
As far as renting a car goes, I thought the minimum age was 25. Hopefully that has changed.
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