Transportation

You want to come and visit us or help out with our projects and now you wonder how to get to Hazelton and TCUP?

Here are the options for you:

  1. By Car
  2. By Airplane
  3. By Train
  4. By Bus

1. By Car

If you have a car or traveling with one you can follow Highway 16 to Hazelton, BC. It’s about 4 hours from Prince George and Prince Rupert as we are right in the middle between the two. If you are coming up from Vancouver it’s about 15h to get here including a few stops.
You leave Vancouver and can take highway 1 through Hope to Cash Creek and continue on Highway 97 to Prince George where you turn onto highway 16 direction Prince Rupert until you reach Hazelton.

2. By Airplane

Probably the easiest if you don’t have a car. You can fly from Vancouver to either Terrace or Smithers. West Jet and Air Canada are two airlines flying those routes. Sometimes flying is even cheaper than driving depending on the time of year and when you buy your ticket. It is ideal if you plan ahead. We can arrange to pick you up from either airports but prefer if you can make your way to Hazelton by bus. Terrace is a 1.5h drive away and Smithers is 1h drive away. Terrace has the better flight availability and rates, it is also more reliable when it comes to planes being able to land due to weather circumstances. The bus brings you pretty much right to our driveway from Smithers and Terrace but is limited to just a few days of service. You can plan ahead and book your flights on those days.

You can find the bus schedules from Terrace here and for the bus from Smithers here.
There is a bus from the Terrace airport to downtown Terrace but unfortunately doesn’t line up with the bus to Hazelton, see schedule here. There is no public transport from Smithers Airport. Best is to get a ride or taxi to Smithers downtown (Roi Theatre) and Terrace downtown (Skeena Mall) and then take bus from there.

3. By Train

It is an option but takes the longest. VIA Rail is the operator of the passenger train. You need to get to either Prince George, Jasper or Prince Rupert to get on the train. The trip from Rupert to Hazelton is quite beautiful and you can make a very beautiful coast adventure trip if you take the ferry from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert and then take the train. Be advised that the passenger train has to yield to the freight trains which can cause quite the delay in travel time.

You can check out VIA Rail’s homepage for ticket prices and train schedules. If you come from Jasper please note that “The Jasper-Prince Rupert train makes an overnight stop in Prince George. Don’t forget to book a hotel room in Prince George!”

To come from Vancouver by train you have to take VIA Rail 4 towards Edmonton and then change in Jasper to train to Prince Rupert which overnights in Prince George. This would take at least two days.

4. By Bus

Unfortunately Greyhound stopped all their services in Western Canada. You can still come by bus but it’s a bit more complicated than it used to be.

You can take a bus with Adventure Charters from Surrey to Prince George. You can find more info and the schedule here. It only runs twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.

From Prince George (PG) you have to take 3 BC Transit Buses, one from PG to Burns Lake, another from Burns Lake to Smithers and then Smithers to Hazelton.

Prince George to Burns Lake
Bus 161 (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

Burns Lake to Smithers
Bus 162 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

Smithers to Hazelton (ask to get off at Ice Arena)
Bus 163 (Monday, Wendesday, Friday)