Vancouver, 140 miles up the Pacific Cost from Seattle, is an enviable lifestyle city with a glittering harbor and vibrant ethnic neighborhoods. Vancouver has world-class museums and one of the best aquariums in North America.

British-accented Victoria, a short flight of boat ride from Vancouver or Seattle on Vancouver Island, has an abundance of historic sites and the world-famous Butchart Gardens. Adults will enjoy Victoria's pubs and high tea, and children will enjoy Miniature World and the marine mammals at Undersea Gardens.

All three cities have beautiful coastal scenery and opportunities for outdoor recreation. Best of all, the routes that connect the three make delightful sightseeing trips in themselves.

By Air
Regularly scheduled air service connects all three cities with conventional jet and propeller plane flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In addition, float-plane service from Seattle's Lake Union to Victoria's Inner Harbour and to Vancouver's Burrard Inlet provide low-altitude flights that give passengers a bird's-eye views of fishing boats and freighters plying Puget Sound, driftwood-strewn beaches and the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.

By Train
The new high-tech Spanish-built Talgo 200 train offers rail service between Seattle and Vancouver. Amtrak's Mt. Baker International offers daily round-trip service, with the train departing Seattle in the morning, arriving in Vancouver midday, and returning to Seattle in the early evening. Stops along the way include the towns of Edmonds, Everett, Mt. Vernon/Burlington and Bellingham.

By Sea
Victoria Clipper's three high-speed passenger-only catamarans make the trip between Seattle's waterfront and Victoria's Inner Harbour in just 2-1/2 hours. Sailings are offered year-round.

By Car
Motorists have several options for visiting the three cities, all of them scenically rewarding.

Mid-May through mid-September, the Victoria Line car ferry offers daily service between Seattle and Victoria. The sailing time is 4-1/2 hours. To drive the 140-mile trip from Seattle to Vancouver takes about 2-1/2 hours on Interstate 5. If you have some time to linger, consider stopping at Mount Vernon to view hundreds of acres of commercial bulb fields ablaze with color in the spring. The glistening snow-capped peaks of the Cascades punctuate the skyline east of I-5.

Detour via Burlington
A detour at Burlington will lead you over the North Cascades Highway and through North Cascades National Park. From Bellingham, detour 62 miles east if you want to drive up the shoulder of 10,778-foot Mt. Baker.

Detour via Whidbey Island
A detour via Whidbey Island provides a relaxing change of pace and doesn't take you very far from your northbound course. Whidbey is pastoral and indented with many coves and bays where you can camp or stop for a picnic lunch beside Puget Sound. The also has several first-class bed-and-breakfast inns with fine views.

From Seattle, drive north on I-5 and take the ferry from Mukilteo to the southern end of the island. Langley, an artists' community with neat, trim houses, a white-steepled church and a false-fronted main street overlooking Saratoga Passage, is a good place to browse for antiques and collectibles. At Fort Casey State Park, pause to explore the turn-of-the-century coastal defense fort complete with a vintage lighthouse and old artillery pieces. Take a walking tour of Coupeville, one of the oldest settlements in the state. The charming 18th-century town has been preserved and now houses shops and restaurants along its main street. Here, too, are the Island County Historical Museum and 1855 Alexander's Blockhouse.

Detour via Bellingham and the San Juan Islands
The waterfront community of Bellingham is another good stop, with its well-preserved 1890s historic buildings and the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, containing the works of turn-of-the-century photographer Darus Kinsey. From Bellingham, Victoria-San Juan Cruises offers passenger-only boat service to Victoria via the San Juan Islands (see below), late May to October. The cruise is narrated and includes a one-hour stop in Poche Harbor on San Juan Island.

San Juan Island Shuttle Express offers daily passenger-only service from Bellingham to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, late May through September. The narrated cruise makes a brief stop on Orcas Island and a 4-1/2 hour stop in Friday Harbor.

Detour via the San Juan Islands
One of the most sought-after trips in the Pacific Northwest is the ferry cruise through the San Juan Islands. It's a good alternate route from Seattle to Victoria. Count on spending a day en route.

The automobile ferries depart from Anacortes, 21 miles west of I-5 from Mount Vernon. Plan to arrive early for the often-crowded summer ferry sailings through the San Juans. For more information, call Washington State Ferries at 800-843- 3779.

The big green and white vessels thread their way through the islands, coming so close to conifer-clad bluffs in places you can almost reach out and touch them. You pass secluded coves, uninhabited islands and other ferries that suddenly spring into view around a rocky point.

The ferries stop at Lopez, Shaw, Orcas and San Juan Islands. Lopez, Orcas and San Juan have small resorts, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns where you can stop overnight. Accommodations are limited, so it's best to call ahead for reservations.

The three-hour voyage through the San Juans terminates at Sidney on Vancouver Island, a short drive to Victoria. British Columbia Ferries travel from Sidney to Tsawwassen (south of Vancouver).

Through the Olympic Peninsula
Schedule two days if you plan to reach Victoria from Seattle via the scenic and rugged Olympic Peninsula. You cross Puget Sound on automobile ferries from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, or from Edmonds to Kingston, on the Kitsap Peninsula. In either case, you're heading for Washington 104 and the floating bridge across Hood Canal. Next to the bridge is Port Gamble, a painstakingly restored lumber mill town of the 1880s.

On the Olympic Peninsula, be sure to spend some time in Port Townsend, the best collection of Victorian gingerbread architecture north of San Francisco. There are dozens of fancy old homes (some of them bed-and-breakfast inns) with turrets, bay windows, ornate woodwork and stained glass. It's a good place to shop for antiques as well. Nearby, Fort Warden, a turn-of-the-century fort that's now a state park, offers accommodations in the handsome refurbished officer's quarters.

Port Angeles is the departure point for the Black Ball Ferries' Coho that crosses the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria. But before you cross into Canada, take Heart O' The Hills Highway, just south of town for a view of Olympic National Park's rugged wilderness interior.

THE LOW-DOWN

Climate
In winter, temperatures range 6 or 7 degress on either side 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Rain is common, so bring your rain gear. Snow in winter is of short duration if at all at sea level, but the level changes with the topography. In fact, South coast ski resorts like to boast that you can ski, golf and take a swim in the ocean all on an early spring day. Summertime is sunny, warm and dry, with average highs in the 70s. However, evenings can be cool, so a sweater, even in July, is not at all out of place.

What To Do