Getting to Prince Rupert
Discover Prince Rupert – Where BC’s North Coast Begins.
Prince Rupert sits at the western terminus of Highway 16, on Kaien Island, at the edge of BC’s North Coast — Northern BC’s most captivating port city, and a destination worth the journey.
Drive
The Highway 16 corridor is one of the most captivating drives in British Columbia — following the Skeena River, one of the world’s great salmon rivers and among the largest undammed river systems on the continent, through the Coast Mountain Ranges to the ocean at BC’s North Coast. Once you reach Prince Rupert, follow the highway to the harbour view on 1st Avenue, turn left, and the Crest Hotel is on the bluff overlooking the harbour.
Fly
Daily flights (https://ypr.ca/) connect Prince Rupert’s airport with Vancouver’s YVR. The airport is on Digby Island — a short ferry ride brings you to the downtown shuttle, four blocks from the Crest Hotel. Taxi services and car rentals are available.
BC Ferries
Prince Rupert is the northern terminus for BC Ferries (https://www.bcferries.com/), connecting Port Hardy, Haida Gwaii, and the Alaska Marine Highway. The Crest Hotel is a 10-minute taxi ride from the Ferries terminal.
Train
Via Rail (https://www.viarail.ca/en) connects Prince Rupert directly to Jasper and the rest of the national rail network. The station is located within the BC Ferries terminal — a short taxi ride to the Crest.
Why Visit Prince Rupert: the City of Rainbows?
Since time immemorial, rain has defined life on Kaien Island, now known as Prince Rupert. As the rainiest and cloudiest city in Canada, Prince Rupert is the perfect environment for rainbows—and the rainbow is an perfect metaphor for the city: a symbol of diversity and inclusion, a gateway, and a sign of calm after a storm.
Prince Rupert sits at the confluence of the Skeena and Nass Rivers within the Great Bear Rainforest — the only municipality in one of the largest intact temperate rainforests on earth.
The rain is what feeds the Great Bear Rainforest. It fills the rivers that bring the salmon that draw the grizzlies and the eagles. It gives the harbour its particular quality of light in the late afternoon — and it is why, more often than anywhere else in BC, you will look up and see a rainbow. The City of Rainbows is a name that is rightfully earned. With mild winters and summers without smoke, there is no bad season to come and see it for yourself.
The Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary — Canada’s only protected grizzly habitat – is approximately 45 kilometres away, and over 60 kilometres by boat from Prince Rupert Harbour. Humpback whales move through the harbour. Bald eagles circle above the waterfront. The Sm’algyax Speaking Peoples have called this territory home for over 10,000 years. The fishing and cannery industries built the port. The railway made it a continental gateway.
