I am going to be on the West Coast for business in the middle of the month. I’m extending my stay over the weekend to visit my grandmother in Chilliwack, BC. On the Monday, I need to get from Chilliwack to our Newton, BC office (neither her or her husband are able to drive that far). What is my cheapest option? I know there is a shuttle I can take to YVR, but then how much would a cab from there to Newton be?
I’m afraid I can’t answer your question, but I did wanna give a shout-out to Chilliwack, the band.
“Gone, Gone Gone, she’s been gone so long…”
It looks like you should be able to take a Greyhound bus. For some reason, they show Chilliwack in their online booking app, but they have nothing for Newton or Surrey, though there must be a station in there somewhere. A ticket to Vancouver appears to run $12-20, so it should be slightly less to Newton, assuming there is actually a bus station somewhere in town.
A cab from the airport to Newton (Surrey) is going to run $50-100 depending on traffic. You can take the skytrain between these two points (Surrey station @ King George and roughly 100th, iirc) for about $5.
I could have sworn there was a greyhound in Surrey as well.
If you go to the airport you’re going from east of Surrey to southwest of Vancouver just so you can go east to Surrey again. Or do you mean you’re flying from Chilliwack to YVR? If you’re flying in, you’ll have to take a Skytrain line to downtown Vancouver and then switch to the other line and take it as far as it goes east. This is quite a diversion north but it will take you pretty much to where you need to be.
I have not traveled extensively in that area but I know Vancouver transit is excellent and cheap. I would suggest getting from Chilliwack to Langley or Surrey by Greyhound and just taking local buses from there. Or just drive. It’s 83km and you can do it all on highways:
Some additional information:
I fly in to Abbotsford. I’m staying the weekend with my grandmother, who lives in Chilliwack. Monday morning, I will be working in our Newton office, so need to get there by around 10 am. I will have luggage with me and no vehicle (one way rental is very expensive).
I am staying at the airport Fairmont, so getting my luggage there in the morn would be nice, but isn’t necessary, as I can bring it with me and leave it in the office.
I checked the Greyhound website but it looked like it was a long trip - four hours or something. Maybe I was looking at the wrong thing?
Thanks for the help!
Going from Chilliwack across the entirety of Metro Vancouver on a Monday morning is what would take 4 hours. That’s the complicated part. Your destinations are widely separated and while both are served well by transit, it’s not a nice straight line between them. So any which way you go is going to involve some back tracking.
Greyhound from Chilliwack to Vancouver takes 2 hours and will deposit you at the bus depot right near the Science World Skytrain station. Beware when crossing the grass between the two stations- you will encounter many transients begging for change. That Skytrain line (heading east) will take you to Surrey. When coming from Surrey to the hotel you’ll have to take the same line back and switch to the other line (the new one they built for the Olympics) at Granville St Station to get to YVR. IIRC there is a bit of a walk involved in this and you’ll end up going through some underground mall concourses on your way. There’s lots of maps and signs around though so it’s easy to find your way once you’re there. You get a little bit of a detour into downtown Vancouver but that’s where the Skytrain lines intersect so you pretty much have to do it that way unless you want to do a bunch of city bus hopping.
Alternately, forget everything I just said and plug your destinations into the Translink trip planner, which will give you a variety of options. I plugged in Newton exchange to YVR and was given at least four options which will set you back only $2.50. Their search engine includes city bus routes so it would be your best bet for avoiding a downtown detour.
Wow, thanks for the link! Awesome!