Point Roberts

Understand

Point Roberts looks at first glance to be a topographical error; a small peninsula which should otherwise be in Delta, a populous Vancouver suburb, is severed by the 49th parallel to form a geographic dead-end where a US community is only accessible overland from Canada.

As a US near-exclave, Point Roberts is effectively a gated community guarded by the US Department of Homeland Security. Sometimes visitors to Canada making a day trip to Point Roberts, but lacking a multiple entry visa to Canada, get stuck in Point Roberts. U.S. law enforcement has used the Point, perceived as almost part of Canada, to trap US fugitives hiding in Canada. Once lured onto US soil on a false pretense, the Feds swoop in on the hapless crook who now has nowhere to run except into the ocean or back to the border and into the arms of US Border Patrol.

The point's unusual border status attracted more than a few smugglers during the Prohibition era. In the 1950s and 1960s, a handful of well-known musicians performed live here to circumvent British Columbia's then-strict "blue laws", which restricted the sale of alcohol on Sunday. (The law was repealed in time for Expo '86.)

Before the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York City (and the US crackdowns on the border which followed) locals tended to take the ability to cross freely for granted. That has all changed; much property on the point is still owned by Vancouverites as cottage sites ― likely because Canadian land prices in the area have long been among the most prohibitive in the nation ― but border access has grown progressively more awkward.

With fewer than 1,200 people (2020), Point Roberts has close ties with its neighbor to the north, serving as a border-hop destination for Canadians in Greater Vancouver. It has an elementary school but no middle or high school; after third grade, students have to cross an international border four times a day to go to school in the United States. (Canadian students can go to school in Delta.)

The border was closed in March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and after a year and a half, reopened. Despite this, many who left during the pandemic have yet to return, although there are hopeful signs. Record-setting gas prices on the other side of the border have made the local gas stations the first to economically recover. Many cottages are also now finally being seen to by their owners as crossing the border becomes easier. Point Roberts did not become a ghost town this time, but it came uncomfortably close.

Visitor information

Get in

By car

Point Roberts is only accessible by car through a single border crossing:

For details, see the Get in — By car section of the Northwest Washington region article.

By public transit

While no buses cross the border, a few TransLink public bus routes serve Diefenbaker Park in Delta, just a few blocks from the border crossing. From Bridgeport Skytrain station, Routes 601 and 602 run all day and drop off on the far side of the park, roughly a 10-minute walk away. Follow the edge of the park until you reach the washrooms; the checkpoint will be visible from there.

Routes 603 and 604 also depart from Bridgeport on weekday afternoons starting around 3PM, dropping you off across from the washrooms, on the side of the park closest to the border crossing. The checkpoint will be visible just a couple hundred meters down the road. Buses 603 and 604 only go all the way back to Bridgeport on weekday mornings until 8:15AM; during the rest of the day these buses only go as far as South Delta Exchange, where you will have to get off and wait for a 601 bus.

By plane

By water

Get around

• Point Roberts Cab Company, 1800 Benson Road, +1 360-945-2757. The only local taxi service in Point Roberts.
• Uber is also now an option on the Point, with one driver available on a semi-regular basis. If the app shows no availability, the driver can be contacted at +1-604-900-0120. The driver is able to cross the border and take passengers to some destinations in metro Vancouver, and to Bellingham (for approximately $100).

Eat and drink

Go next

• Immediately north of the international border is Delta.
• Angle Inlet in Minnesota is America's other tiny exclave.