Amtrak Cascades to Vancouver in Photos (PNW Trip Report Part 3)
Amtrak Cascades is a great option between Seattle and Vancouver
Seattle proved to exceed out expectations and we were excited to finish our time there and head over to Vancouver our third evening on the Amtrak Cascades service from King Street Station.
I’d agonized way too much on taking Amtrak over other options, but it turned out be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Particularly since it’s what everyone close to me suggested we do, and it was in fact a smooth, scenic, and seamless experience.
Since this was a great visual journey, which I definitely couldn’t have enjoyed or captured if I was driving, I’ll let the photos I took do more of the talking:
The King Street Station was magnificent, if only a emptier than it’s heyday decades when trains were more of a thing. The Amtrak staff there were phenomenally professional.
The surrounding area was wonderfully integrated into Seattle’s urban fabric just south of downtown.
I wish more sports stadiums were as well connected to transit AND the urban core as Lumen Field is. For those not familiar with American football, this is where the Seattle Seahawks play.
My absolute favorite thing about that station’s location is that it’s immediately adjacent to Seattle’s Chinatown/International District. I used our spare time before our train departure to stroll over with my younger son and indulge in some boba tea with him at the wonderfully named Seattle Best Tea. I also bought some Filipino sweet goodies from Hood Famous Bakeshop, made with ube. I went a little nuts with cookies and cheesecake.
Boarding the train was simple and straightforward. Although I believe there was a baggage check service, for whatever reason we ended up just bringing the bags on ourselves. We had to do a bit of hunting between a couple cars to find enough rack space, but it worked out.
We got assigned to a specific car, but not any particular seats. It didn’t really matter as the seats, space, and storage room was much more than a typical airline coach class cabin. It almost felt like business class, even though it was Amtrak coach.
The food service wasn’t too bad, considering airlines now only give small snack packs and drinks on domestic flights in coach. We did have to pay of course, and make a visit up to the dining car, but it was well worth it. The food itself was ok - more comfort food and snacks more than anything else - but the experience was actually kind of nice - at least my younger son seemed to enjoy it.
I can’t recall how long we were in the Seattle area but once we started looking out the window, we were definitely out of the city and suburbs. Most of the views were some combination of rugged, wooded coastlines, dark waters, small middle- and working-class homes, industrial infrastructure, lumber materials, construction equipment, and distance mountain ranges. It was definitely a more “traditional”, blue collar side of the region, but also closer to its natural beauty.
I’m not sure if “traditional” is the right word, but the heritage of the region is definitely logging, and that feels older and more established than newer, glitzier high-rises in Seattle and the tech industry there. It was a big contrast with the Amazon Spheres and Belltown area we were in just the day before.
One of the industrial anchors in the region we did not get to see was Boeing in and around Seattle. We just didn’t have the time and that was more my interest than the rest of the family’s. But it is part of the area’s legacy and heritage, between the logging and the software/Internet industry eras.
As we crossed into Canada and it got darker, we basically relaxed inside the train. You could hear nice conversations between strangers that wouldn’t happen on a plane or even an inter-city bus, which I thought was a nice benefit of taking an inter-city train.
The route after the border and into Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station was slow and convoluted, which probably is a big reason why it takes about a full 4 hours for the trip, like driving up there. But it was nice to leisurely roll into the station late at night, and debark with a relatively brief customs and immigration checkpoint before entering the station lobby. Most importantly, we arrived on time!
Our only frustration was having our Lyft cancel on us but we ended up with a nice Tesla Model Y and a good driver. Our hotel (the Blue Horizon) was a relatively short drive and a great location to start exploring the next day.