Riding Amtrack from Vancouver to Seattle, Portland and Vice Versa (Where to go and what to expect)

Everyone in my family has already been to Seattle EXCEPT ME (insert tears).

Seattle is near Vancouver so my parents decided to bring me to Seattle and since Seattle is near Portland they decided to visit to Portland as well.

We didn’t apply for a USA visa anymore since we currently have an existing one (we flew to SF, Las Vegas, LA back in 2011) so all we had to do was book train tickets to Seattle via Amtrack.

We directly booked from their website for our Vancouver>Seattle, Seattle>Portland, and Portland>Vancouver tickets ( https://www.amtrak.com/home). Do mind that you have to pay for insurance since you will be crossing Canada and United States border, and vice versa. No insurance needed from Seattle to Portland!

VANCOUVER > SEATTLE

Since travelling from Vancouver to Seattle takes up more than 4 hours, we wanted to arrive “early” in Seattle  to maximize our stay there since we decided to stay in Seattle for 4D3N.

We took the earliest schedule: 6:30 AM and we had to be at the station (Vancouver) around 5:45 AM.

Initially we didn’t know what station to go to for the Amtrack but after doing a little bit of research and asking some nice locals, we finally arrived at the destination:

Pacific Central

all photos taken using an iPhone

When you cross the USA border, there will be an officer who will enter the train to check your visas.

Since we weren’t able to eat breakfast at Vancouver, we just bought whatever the mini bar in the train was offering.

all photos taken using an iPhone

SEATTLE > PORTLAND

After our 4 days stay in Seattle, it was time to pack our bags and head over to Portland.

We were staying in Portland also for 4D3N, same as Seattle, and again to maximize our stay we chose the earliest possible schedule the train can leave.

We booked the 9:35 AM and so we had to be at the station by 8:50 AM. We arrived earlier and so we had to wait until they were letting people in.

The station that you should go to is the same one as the one where you arrived from Vancouver – King Street Station

 

PORTLAND > VANCOUVER

Sadly it was time to head back to Vancouver and to add to that sadness the total train back to Vancouver was about 8 hours.

We decided to take the last train going back to Vancouver which leaves Portland by 2:50 PM. It means we had to be at the station by 2:05 PM.

We finally arrived at Vancouver at 10:50 PM. No one took any more photos since everyone was tired from the long train ride.

I can’t wait to share with you where we ate and what we did in Seattle and Portland!😊

💚, R

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Read about my Vancouver, Seattle and Portland stories!