Seattle-Vancouver-Banff-Jasper-Seattle

Hi
We are flying from the UK to Seattle in may for 2 weeks. The plan was a
holiday completely in Canada, but more favourable prices to fly into the US
& an AA 2 for 1 offer, means we land in Seattle. The plan is 2 full days in
Seattle staying downtown, pick up the rental car & head on up to Vancouver,
where we can stay with a friend. Will not spend long in Vancouver as we have
already been there. From there it will be on to Banff, with an overnight
stop en route. The bulk of the holiday will be spent in the Banff/Lake
Louise/Jasper area, before heading back to Seattle for the flight home
(overnight stop again en route). A lot of driving I know, which is why we'll
be overnighting on the long drives.

So, what I'm after is:

Recommendations for a cheapish downtown Seattle Hotel. Does anyone have
experience of the Best Western Loyal Inn? All I've found of any interest
about it is that 2 people were found dead in a room a few years back, & a
terrorist arrested with bomb making material had a reservation there!

Good places for overnight stops Vancouver - Banff & Jasper - Seattle. We
stayed in Kamloops when doing the Rocky Mountaineer a few years back, which
we found a bit suspect, but in fairness we only saw a small part very
briefly.

Recommendations for lodging in Banff/Jasper/Lake Louise. Is prebooking
recommended late May early June or could we find somewhere when we get
there? Or can you pick up voucher books in Denny's? I am tempted to treat
myself to a stay at the Banff Springs....

TIA

CD

CD wrote:

Hi
We are flying from the UK to Seattle in may for 2 weeks. The plan was a
holiday completely in Canada, but more favourable prices to fly into the US
& an AA 2 for 1 offer, means we land in Seattle.

How much cheaper is the flight to Seattle than Vancouver? Most prices in Canada
are about the same as in Canada, but paying in Canadian dollars instead of US
makes it 25-30% cheaper. Between the car rental, hotel and meals, you might
find it cheaper on the long run to fly directly to Vancouver and save the extra
driving time to spend in your ultimate destination.

In article , "CD"
wrote:

Hi
We are flying from the UK to Seattle in may for 2 weeks. The plan was a
holiday completely in Canada, but more favourable prices to fly into the US
& an AA 2 for 1 offer, means we land in Seattle. The plan is 2 full days in
Seattle staying downtown, pick up the rental car & head on up to Vancouver,

check your rates and where pick up is. You do not want to rent from
anywhere near the airport. Car rental taxes and fees run up to the 30%
range there

So, what I'm after is:

Recommendations for a cheapish downtown Seattle Hotel. Does anyone have
experience of the Best Western Loyal Inn? All I've found of any interest
about it is that 2 people were found dead in a room a few years back, & a
terrorist arrested with bomb making material had a reservation there!

Try priceline. see biddingfortravel.com

"Dave Smith" wrote in message
...
CD wrote:

Hi
We are flying from the UK to Seattle in may for 2 weeks. The plan was a
holiday completely in Canada, but more favourable prices to fly into the
US
& an AA 2 for 1 offer, means we land in Seattle.

How much cheaper is the flight to Seattle than Vancouver?


Probably quite a lot, when I made a similar trip last year the difference
was a couple of hundred pounds each, as we intended to visit
Washington State anyway it made the decision easy.

Keith

"Dave Smith" wrote in message
...
CD wrote:


How much cheaper is the flight to Seattle than Vancouver? Most prices in
Canada
are about the same as in Canada, but paying in Canadian dollars instead of
US
makes it 25-30% cheaper. Between the car rental, hotel and meals, you
might
find it cheaper on the long run to fly directly to Vancouver and save the
extra
driving time to spend in your ultimate destination.

It was about GBP100 cheaper per ticket, at the time of booking. Due to the
weak USD I think. I've just done a quick check now on Expedia.co.uk for my
dates. Cheapest fares:

LHR-YVR = GBP461 each, Air Canada
LHR-SEA = GBP391 each, Air Canada connecting in YVR!?! Why is that? Must be
a tax thing.
I've been looking at doing this trip for the last couple of years & SEA has
always been cheaper than YVR, from the UK.

CD

"Not the Karl Orff" wrote in message
...
In article , "CD"
wrote:

check your rates and where pick up is. You do not want to rent from
anywhere near the airport. Car rental taxes and fees run up to the 30%
range there

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this. I haven't yet booked my car, but I have done
a check on www.opodo.co.uk which gives the same rates for Hertz SeaTac
Airport & for Hertz Seattle Amtrak station. These rates include all taxes,
so they say...

CD

In article ,
"CD" wrote:

"Dave Smith" wrote in message
...
CD wrote:


How much cheaper is the flight to Seattle than Vancouver? Most prices in
Canada
are about the same as in Canada, but paying in Canadian dollars instead of
US
makes it 25-30% cheaper. Between the car rental, hotel and meals, you
might
find it cheaper on the long run to fly directly to Vancouver and save the
extra
driving time to spend in your ultimate destination.

It was about GBP100 cheaper per ticket, at the time of booking. Due to the
weak USD I think. I've just done a quick check now on Expedia.co.uk for my
dates. Cheapest fares:

LHR-YVR = GBP461 each, Air Canada
LHR-SEA = GBP391 each, Air Canada connecting in YVR!?! Why is that? Must be
a tax thing.

less competition, I think.

CD wrote:

" How much cheaper is the flight to Seattle than Vancouver? Most prices in
Canada
are about the same as in Canada, but paying in Canadian dollars instead of
US
makes it 25-30% cheaper. Between the car rental, hotel and meals, you
might
find it cheaper on the long run to fly directly to Vancouver and save the
extra
driving time to spend in your ultimate destination.

It was about GBP100 cheaper per ticket, at the time of booking. Due to the
weak USD I think. I've just done a quick check now on Expedia.co.uk for my
dates. Cheapest fares:

LHR-YVR = GBP461 each, Air Canada
LHR-SEA = GBP391 each, Air Canada connecting in YVR!?! Why is that? Must be
a tax thing.
I've been looking at doing this trip for the last couple of years & SEA has
always been cheaper than YVR, from the UK.

Currently, the US dollar is about .55 GBP while the Canadian dollar is .42
GBP.Most retail items in stores have the same sticker price. On my last trip to
the US I found hotels and restaurant meals to be slightly more expensive. I was
facing an even greater exchange rate at the time, but even now you are looking
at more than 20% difference in exchange rates, so by the time you tack that on
to your two nights of hotels, meals in Seattle and the car rental (for entire
trip), it gets a lot more expensive.

Air fares can be a false indicator for savings. I have made two trips to Denmark
in the last four years. It was roughly the same to fly to Copenhagen as it was
to Hamburg. The car rental was the big difference. The car was $1,000 Cdn. for
two weeks from Hamburg, but $3600 for the same car picked up in Denmark. It was
obviously well worth the extra travel time and ferry expenses to get the car in
Germany.

"CD" wrote in message ...
Recommendations for lodging in Banff/Jasper/Lake Louise. Is prebooking
recommended late May early June or could we find somewhere when we get
there? Or can you pick up voucher books in Denny's? I am tempted to treat
myself to a stay at the Banff Springs....

Late May/Early June should be a pretty slow time up there. We didn't
even
have any problems in Late June last year. I highly recommend the
hostels.
The Lake Louise one especially. These are very nice and very clean,
and
a very good value. We had a private room in both Banff and LL and a
private bath in LL. We stayed in a nice cabin in Jasper, at the
Tekarra Lodge. Was very quaint old cabin with a nice fireplace for
like $80US a night, IIRC. I have a picture of the lodge/restaurant
with some cabins in the background at my pbase gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/rboles/canadian_rockies

I'd check into crossing the border in a rental. It may be worth your
while to take some sort of public transport (ferry?) from Seatle to
Vancouver
and rent there.

Rodney Boles writes:
I'd check into crossing the border [from the US to Canada] in a rental.

Not a problem provided that (1) you're not a Canadian resident [it's a
customs thing] and (2) the rental company gives permission -- the major
ones do, but discount ones may not. In other words, check with the
specific company you want to rent from.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "No victor believes in chance."
-- Nietzsche (trans. Kaufmann)