Is going to Point Roberts worth it?

Have you ever been to a peninsula of the United States that’s only accessible by land through Canada? Like almost every single American, neither did I until recently.

Point Roberts is a pene-exclave of the United States located just south of Vancouver. Politically, it is part of Whatcom County in Washington. This geographic quirk apparently exists because surveyors neglected to carve this part out to Canada. When they divided the U.S. and Canada by the 49th parallel, Vancouver Island was accounted for, as it was completely ceded to Canada. (In fact, today, its provincial capital, Victoria, is on Vancouver Island and is situated below the 49th parallel!) Point Roberts just so happened to fall under the 49th parallel, but it was small enough to be disregarded during boundary treaty discussions.

I live in Seattle, so Point Roberts is accessible by a 2.5 hour drive (each way) for me. The complication with going to Point Roberts is my need to cross the border into Canada and then back into the United States. To get from mainland Washington to Point Roberts and back, I’d need to cross the border 4 times. This makes the crossing potentially arduous, as waiting to cross the border can be quite the hassle depending on when and where you cross.

The inconvenience associated with visiting Point Roberts is enough to discourage most Americans from visiting this part of their country. I was originally deterred because of the multiple border crossings I’d have to make. I was also originally planning on visiting Point Roberts after I got NEXUS. However, I got impatient and curiosity got the best of me. I went to visit Point Roberts (without NEXUS) in June 2023. Here’s how it went.

Border crossing

When crossing the U.S.–Canada border, each side treats you differently when you enter it, depending on your citizenship and what your intentions are. Any citizen has the right to re-enter their own country and cannot be questioned as to why they want to enter their own country. However, when they are visiting another country, they most certainly can be questioned about their intentions for their visit, as well as how long they will be visiting for.

As an American, I have the right to enter Point Roberts and cannot be denied entry into it. Crossing the border into Point Roberts is perhaps the easiest part of it all. The problem is with crossing the border back into Canada in order to drive back to the mainland U.S. because Canada has no obligation to allow me into their country. If I’m in Point Roberts, the CBSA could deny me entry into Canada, which would essentially render me stuck in Point Roberts. That would not be good at all, considering there are no hotels in Point Roberts, only Airbnbs and Vrbos, and there are also no regularly scheduled ferry services between Point Roberts and the continental U.S.

If you go to Point Roberts from the U.S., keep in mind that the Canadian border guards are most interested in understanding why you want to go to Point Roberts, what you will be doing there, and how long it takes for you to transit from the mainland border to Point Roberts. If you spend more time than necessary transiting between the two border crossings, they will get suspicious.

To avoid any trouble, you should have a good reason. Canadians will usually have an easier time getting access into Point Roberts because a lot of the Point’s economy revolves around two services for Canadians: cheaper gas and U.S. mail/parcel/package receiving. Telling this to both sides’ border guards will not raise any eyebrows. But if an American wants to go to Point Roberts to check it out, it will cause suspicion—mainly from the Canadian side, but also from the American side when you reenter the mainland U.S.

My experience visiting Point Roberts went like this:

When I used the NEXUS lane to enter Point Roberts, the border guard only asked me whether I had anything to declare; I said “not really, I have some poutine and—“ and then he cut me off and said “see ya, bye!” Literally took 5 seconds to cross the border.

When I returned to Canada from Point Roberts, the CBSA officer at the Tsawwassen port of entry (that’s the Canadian city next to Point Roberts) was like “you just came to Point Roberts because you felt like it?” and asked me a lot more questions than I have been asked ever since I started making regular day trips/weekend trips to Vancouver in August 2022. I was very concerned I’d be denied entry to Canada… which meant I’d be stranded in Point Roberts.

Thankfully, I was not referred to secondary. (The CBSA officer asked me what I do for a living and I responded very naturally and confidently. That is a way for him to ascertain whether I have been telling the truth about everything thus far.)

Later, I returned to the mainland U.S. at the Peace Arch border crossing. Even while using the NEXUS lane there, I still got asked why I went to Point Roberts… sigh.

I haven’t been back to Canada since, but I fear entering Canada is going to get more complicated for me. For my past 5 visits to Canada (excluding this time), I have had little trouble with crossing the border into Canada. They see my travel history into and out of Canada. They see I always leave Canada within a day or two of entering. As a result, the border guards typically don’t ask that many questions to me, other than basic questions such as “what is the purpose of entering Canada?” and “how long will you be staying here?” If they see my Point Roberts visit, they may start asking if I have any interest in going there again.

Points of interest

Point Roberts is a very quiet place with just one grocery store, zero hotels, and a lack of a whole lot of other things.

One thing that Point Roberts has a lot of are gas stations, along the main street of Point Roberts, called Tyre Drive. The gas prices are quoted in liters in both U.S. and Canadian dollars in order to pander to a Canadian clientele. Many Canadians will take advantage of the cheap gas prices. The border guards on both sides are well aware of this, so there’s no problem with anyone doing this.

When I visited on a Saturday afternoon in June, I went to a park at the southwestern tip of the peninsula, maintained by Whatcom County Parks. (Point Roberts is technically part of Whatcom County, WA.) It’s called Lighthouse Marine Park Lookout. Here, I could see the Strait of Georgia. This gave me gorgeous views of the islands between the Vancouver area and Vancouver Island. I could also see the Tsawwassen ferry terminal from here.

https://goo.gl/maps/fAX5QPu2qgh8bbdc7

Would I visit again?

Point Roberts is very peaceful and gives me a great view of the Strait of Georgia. It’s peaceful because it’s out of the way for most people to visit. However, I don’t think I’ll go back, only because of the amount of flak I got from both the CBSA and CBP for visiting it.