2010 Olympics: Visiting Vancouver from Washington

With just a little over two weeks until the city of Vancouver kicks off the 2010 Winter Olympics and embarks on a two-week celebration of cold-weather sport, it's pretty clear that most tickets and hotel rooms are long gone. But impetuous or die-hard fans with a streak of chronic procrastination needn't lose all hope of checking out the sporting event of a lifetime.

With a little creativity and flexibility, travelers willing to keep their passports on hand and hop the border a few times can actually stage a fun Olympics trip out of Washington [1] instead of Canada.

Only about 50 miles from Bellingham [2] and 120 miles from Seattle [3], Vancouver [4] is within easy striking distance from many points within the state. Here are few tips for making it all happen.

Tickets
Even though the traditional ticket channels sold out of many event tickets long ago, winter sports fans can actually snag some decent tickets for events on the official fan-to-fan marketplace [5] set up by Vancouver Olympics promoters. Of course, what you see is what you get here, as the sales here are simply based on the grab-bag of events that long-time ticket-holders have decided to pass on at the last minute. Nevertheless, it is possible to pick up some choice offerings if you've got the dough to spare. While checking out the fan-to-fan marketplace, I saw tickets for all the fan favorites, including figure skating, ski jumping, ice hockey and more for prices anywhere between $150 up to $1500.

Transportation
If you're looking to avoid lines at the borders and perhaps even read a book on the drive, Amtrak [6] offers two daily round-trip trains between Seattle and Vancouver, for about $114 round trip.

Another car-free alternative is via the company QuickShuttle [7], which offers service to Vancouver from SeaTac, downtown Seattle, the Tulalip outlets near Marysville and the Bellingham airport. QuickShuttle offers five northbound and five southbound buses per day, with roundtrip fares ranging between $50 to $100.

Once you reach Vancouver [4], if you have a ticket to events that doubles as a free ride on all public transit to events. Vancouver and outer reaches such as Whistler have made extreme efforts to bolster transit in anticipation of the games, and you'll be unable to drive your car to events even if you do bring it. My recommendation is to take transit the whole way.

Lodging
Most hotels in the Vancouver area have been booked solid for the games over a year now. If you manage to snag more than a daytrip's worth of tickets, you'll likely want to stay closer to Vancouver than Seattle. That leaves Bellingham and Blaine as ideal base camps for last-minute Olympic travelers. A couple of good bets in the area:

Hotel Bellwether [8]
One of Bellingham's nicest hotels, Hotel Bellwether is set right on Bellingham Bay with spacious rooms, balconies, Italian furnishings, gas fireplaces, marble baths with jetted tubs, and a lavish breakfast buffet for just a little extra every day. The hotel is also offering shuttles to Vancouver for Olympics attendees. It is also donating $10 of each night's stay during the games to the Special Olympics.

Semiahmoo Resort [9]
Located in Blaine, Semiahmoo Resort at is practically as close as you're going to get to Canada without actually showing your passport. An 800-acre development endowed with a 300-slip marina, athletic club, indoor/outdoor pool, hot tub, racquetball and tennis courts, full European spa, a movie theater, two championship golf courses, including one designed by Arnold Palmer, restaurants, lounges, and plenty of Puget Sound beachfront, Semiahmoo is currently running a special for the Olympics.