Seattle trip (shopping and sightseeing)
 

The girlfriend and I want to wander across the border, probably spend the night there as well.
We want to go to the outlet mall because we hear good things, as well as any other great malls and sight seeing.

Where is the best place to go for this, as well as the best route? I am completely unfamiliar with this area.

I would preferably like to take the car.

We would be coming from Vancouver Island. There is a ferry (walk on) from Victoria, or we could ferry to Van. and drive.

- Hop off the ferry and drive to Peace Arch
- Take I5 all the way down until you hit Seattle Premium Outlets (you can't miss it...HUGE outlet mall to your right) - ~1-1.5 hour drive depending on traffic and how fast you drive
- Outlet is probably good for a 3-4 hour shopping spree depending on how busy it is and what kind of shoppers you are
- Hop back onto the I5 and head south for another 1-1.5 hours and you'll hit downtown Seattle.
- Park at Pacific Place (or your hotel) and start your walk along Pine St from Pacific Place all the way down to Pike Place Market (if time permits)
- crash at hotel
- wake up and repeat 2 steps up or head home : depends how much you got done the day before
- drive back to peace arch
- hop on ferry
- back to the island
- ???
- profit!

Thanks!
That sounds like a great timeline. We plan to spend day 2 for most of the sightseeing, but will do some on the night of day 1.
Im thinking that I would rather get a hotel in Seattle, rather than by the outlet mall.

Where on the island are you? There is a ferry from Victoria that you can drive onto that will land on the US side of the border. TBH, CH28's numbers are high. I've been to the Premium outlets too many times and there is only a few stores I bother hitting up.

I assume you will want to stop at the Burlington Outlets (exit 230) and hit up Nike and Coach.

Exit 200/202 has the Premium outlets.

There is a bunch of other malls like North Gate and a few other similar malls.

Do check out Nordstrom Rack.

There is also a Nike clearance center that might interest you.

Haven just done a weekend trip to Seattle, plan for parking and walking around DT Seattle. Parking cost an arm and a leg during day time and most spots get picked up pretty quickly at 6 pm when it is free parking.

We stayed at some hotel that had pay parking and paid for the all day park with in and out privillages.

1. Priceline your hotel in Seattle
2. Take ferry from Victoria to Seattle. See if it's cheaper to ferry then rent a car, or just take your car with you.
3. Exit 202 - cheap outlet
4. Downtown Seattle - good places for eats, shopping = medicore
5. Bellueve - richer side of town, shopping = great, hotels = awesome
6. Don't bother going south to Tacoma and Olympia, it's ghetto.

Parking in Seattle cost quite a bit, similar to downtown Vanvouver. $15-30 depending on location. There's not much sightseeing in Seattle... Have fun!
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I was not aware there were different outlet areas? I thought they were all in one area.
I was looking at this:
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet...rism.asp?id=71

The hotel Im looking at has in and out free parking so that is a bonus.

We will be leaving from Nanaimo. I think taking the car is the best option…itll give us flexibility, and also it is actually cheaper to travel with with our group.

I want to do some clothes shopping, and so does my gf and her friend. So we want to go to the best place for that.

Only real attatractions to see in Seattle would be the downtown underground tour which would probably be best done in the summer, and Pikes Market (very similar to Granville Island) and the first Starbucks.

Bellvue was pretty nice and free parking.

Go onto Seatlle Groupon and other similar sites and buy coupons for restaurants you would like to try.

We did some Mexican restaurant and some lounge. Both were very good and both allowed us to eat over $30 for $15.

What type of clothes do you like? What about the girls?

I assume they want to hit up Forever 21 or something similar to that?

Make sure you hit up Nordstrom Rack. You could probably spend a good hour or 2 in there because of all the shoes and clothes that you have to dig for.

You can get Adidas and Pumas for $30-$40. The same pair costs about 90-120 up here. Same with Underarmour. I picked up a whole bunch for $12USD while Sportchek sells them for $40-50

There really isn't a whole lot in terms of sight seeing for Seattle. You have Pike Place Market, underground tour (which I heard sucks), Space Needle, Seattle's downtown library has a really funky design if you're into architecture.

Make sure you eat at Serious Pie (best pizzas I've ever had), Crab Pot (they give you a wooden block + mallet and you go to town on the crabs), and Paseo's. Be warned though...the lines at Crab Pot and Paseo can get long so try to go before the dinner rush.

I would like to check out Nordstrom Rack. The girls like the usual early adult stuff (guess, and whatever else). I dont mind some guess stuff either.

Looks like Dec 11 is the day we are going. I looked on groupon earlier today acutally, and there is a gourmet restaurant there $25 for $50 of food, we might get 2 of those. We might just stay by hte outlet mall due to the fact that it seems like we are going to be spending all of the first day shopping, and i dont want to navigate the city at night

This threads been pretty convenient for myself as well as my girlfriend and I have also been planning a trip down this month...

Any recommendations for times in terms of traffic and border crossings for the return trip? Would most likely be in the evening...
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^ return trip I usually go to belluve for cheesecake factory around 830 ish, by the time I'm done, its 10. Then drive back, u'll be @ the border around midnight = no lineup + sometimes they let u thru without taxing u.. I went down once, got 350-400.. Declared full amount, showed him receipts, he waved me thru.

Premium outlet is good, as well as burlington
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Since it is Dec, just before Christmas might be a bit of a mad rush in terms of border wait time. Since you have to catch the ferry, there really isn't much choice for you. Either Peace Arch or Truck crossing. But to make the last ferry back to the island, you need to be at the border by 7-8ish in case there is a huge lineup.

Did you look into the ferry from Victoria to the US? Is that an option for you? I believe you said you were in Nanimo right?

some other good stores to hit up are Ross, Kohls, TJ Maxx

its kinda like winners but they have really nice stuff for cheap. i bought diesel shoes for $40 and when i came back to canada, the same shoes were selling for $330!

Ya i heard good things about Ross.

I dont want to take the ferry from vic to seattle, because we will be limited to what we can do and what we can take back with us. also, it is about $75 more expensive to take the ferry for all of us, round trip.

BUT that being said, anyone know if you get taxed on that ferry? Like is there a customs thing you have to go through? Cause that may be a factor…I plan on spending around $400 just myself. (our car declared value will probably be over $1000)

Went to seattle this weekend for a night.
We had a GPS so it made driving harmless, and a breeze.
We stopped at the Premium Outlets, and a Ross before the outlet mall. Also the Northgate mall with the Nordstrom, Macy's and JC Penny. THat place was my favourite, and had reasonable prices, but nothing to get tooo excited about. Mind you if you were to go on black friday or another day with good sales I could see me going back.
Went up to the Space Needle as well and the view there was nice, it was a fun little stop.
Unfortunately didnt get to do much sightseeing, but I would like to go back and see more some other time

Ross was wicked, it was just like Winners but even cheaper…what amazed me was the same belts and ties at winners were at Ross but at half off.

where should I park if I'm going to DT seattle for shopping? which malls are worth checking out?

i went there couple of weekends ago. they have this city pass where for $60 you can check out this booklet of sightseeing places like the needle, aquarium, museum of flight etc. was pretty awesome. also parking downtown is insane...its like vancouver parking rates.lol. hope this helps.