Travel Forum / Destinations / USA and Canada / August 2005

x-no-archive: yes

There is no direct ferry from Seattle to Victoria, I don't think.  You
can rent a car in Seattle and drive to Anacortes to catch the ferry to
Vancouver Island.  Or, I think you can take a bus to the ferry terminal
to catch the Vancouver Island ferry.

Get an international driver license (a translation of your Korean
license into English) and you should have no problem renting a car in
either Seattle or Vancouver.

You realize that Victoria and Vancouver are two different cities?
Victoria is on Vancouver Island; Vancouver is on the mainland.
If you are going to both places, you must take a ferry between the
island and the mainland.  (The shortest route is the car ferry between
Sidney and Tsawassen.)

Tourists visiting Canada certainly can use their driver's license from
home.  If it's only in Korean, then you should also bring a so-called
International Driving Permit, also called an International Driving
License (IDP or IDL).  This is not really a license, but a translation
of your license into different languages.

Or at least, that's the way people normally answer this question.
I have no special personal knowledge on the subject.

First of all, you really don't need a car in Victoria.  Pretty much
anything worth seeing is accessible on foot.  The exception is Butchart
Gardens, but plenty of tourist buses go there from downtown.

Secondly, you can't take cars on the ferry that goes directly from
Seattle to Victoria; it's for foot passengers only.   If you insist on
having a car you'll need to take one of the car ferries like the
Anacortes-Sidney one, or the Port Angeles-Victoria one.

But if you really want to have a car in Victoria (which again, I don't
recommend) it will be much cheaper to rent one in Victoria after you
arrive, than trying to take one there from Seattle.

If you are going from Victoria to Vancouver, try the PCL (Pacific Coach
Lines) bus service.  Much cheaper than renting a car and paying to take
it onto the ferry.

As others recommended, get the international driving permit in Korea, to
minimize any potential problems with car rentals.

K.