Pacific NW trip advice please

Something doesn’t make sense in your itinerary and it is the San Juan / Whistler/ Port Angeles/Seattle order. Lots of backtracking involved. It is a great deal of driving but that may be your travel style, so okay.

Flying into Seattle, picking up a rental car and making it to the San Juans on the same day will be a long day. Depending on your arrival time, it could be a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from the Rental Car facility to Anacortes, with no stops. Then you need to be there about 45 minutes before your reservation time for the ferry. Make sure you make a reservation. Two nights gives you one full day on San Juan and then you are taking the ferry back to Anacortes.

Only you know your personal priorities, but if you were to cut Whistler, you could add that time to your other 3 locations and the trip path would begin to make more sense.

Whistler will involve driving North, a border crossing ( can be quick or can be backed up) and more driving North for a few hours)

If you were to go to Port Angeles next, from Anacortes you would drive South on Whidbey Island to Coupeville (less than 1 hour) and catch the ferry to Port Townsend. Reserve this ferry as well. Explore Port Townsend and then you have about 1.5 hours drive to Port Angeles.

Spend a bit more time in Olympic National Park and then swing back on the Southern Route to Seattle for your nights there.

I would take those 3 Whistler nights and give one to each of your other locations. However, Whistler may be a “must do” for you.

Congratulations.

As noted above, your order of travel is not logical. Better would be to head to Whistler first, then Anacortes for the San Juan’s, then drive down Whidbey to Coupeville for the ferry to Port Townsend, an hour’s drive from Port Angeles.

You need reservations for the ferries from Anacortes to the San Juan’s and back, as well as for the port Townsend ferry.

Is this trip next month? You may have trouble finding accommodations in the San Juan’s and in Port Angeles or anywhere near Olympic National Park. Whistler has so many condos and hotels it should not be a problem.

You do have a lot of moving around, so eliminating one stop would be a good idea. If Whistler is a must (which I can understand; we love it there in summertime), then skip Olympic National Park. With just 2 nights there, especially based in Port Angeles, you will not have time to see the beaches and rain forest. Also the alpine area of Hurricane Ridge is very difficult to access now, due to limitations on entry. And it would be kind of redundant after Whistler.

This way you can spend your arrival night in Seattle, then drive north the following day. Then spend a second night in Seattle before your flight home, with time to see what you missed the first time.

Ferry info here -- https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/washington-state-ferries

If you do take a US rental car to BC be sure you buy the full LDW.
BC has a true 'no fault' law. ( i.e., you can be stopped at a red light, get hit and you canNOT recover from the other party. )

If you don’t have lodging for San Juan Island booked I strongly recommend doing that soon, especially if this is over a weekend. There’s not many places to stay and this year has been very busy pretty much everywhere around Seattle.

Summer hotel rates have been very high and availability has been quite limited. September is often quite nice around here so it is still a busy time for travel.

Yes--the geography of what you are planning needs to be taken into account.

San Juans--That's an hour and half drive from Seattle up to Anacortes. Then you may need to make ferry reservations. That is a very popular ferry route and at least during the summer reservations are needed. Perhaps still in Sept as well would be a good idea. Are you planning on San Juan Island itself? or one of the other islands? If San Juan Island specifically, were you planning on Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, or at a lodging somewhere in between?

Whistler--that's about a close to three hour drive up to Vancouver from Seattle (depending on the wait at the border, and actually driving into downtown Vancouver) and then about two hour drive from Vancouver up to Whistler.

Olympic National Park--this covers a large area. Which side of the park? are you camping or staying in a lodge or hotel? From Port Angeles? the main ranger station/visitor center is there. Do you want ocean, or forest, or rain forest, or mountain peaks? There is a great variety of possible ONP experiences. It is my favorite Washington national park, but where in the park you want to go, and what access point, and what activity has a lot to do with it.

Is your plan to leave Whistler and get to Port Angeles? Hmmm. That would mean driving back down the mountain from Whistler, head south of Vancouver to take the Tsawwassen ferry over to Victoria, then taking the Black Ball ferry over to Port Angeles. Or getting back down to Seattle, getting across Puget Sound, and driving up the peninsula to Port Angeles. Or you could go back down toward Anacortes, but turn off onto Whidbey Island and then to Coupeville to take the ferry over to Port Townsend (also reservation needed) and then on to Port Angeles. Ambitious.

Before you abandon Whistler in favor of Olympic National,Park, I suggest you find suitable (honeymoon-worthy) lodging there. Port Angeles is not a good base for visiting the beaches and rain forest, and offers little in the way of nice accommodations. Plus, as I mentioned above, access to Hurricane Ridge, the closest park entrance to PA, is very limited, due to a fire that burned down the visitor center. And now trails and campground in that area are closed, due to a cougar attack on a child that occurred a week ago. Fortunately the child survived, with only minor injuries. But they may not Re-open the area until the cougar is found and euthanized.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/cougar-attack-child-olympia-national-park/281-102e0158-a488-48ac-aea0-54a5578d0a36

For the Olympic beaches, rain forest, and lakes and waterfalls to the west of Port Angeles, the recommended accommodations are:

Lake Crescent Lodge on lovely Lake Crescent, or one of the other National Park lodges which are reserved on the same website (Lake Quinault Lodge, Log Cabin Resort, and Sol Duc Hot Springs resort.

https://www.olympicnationalparks.com/lodging/lake-crescent-lodge/

If those are all full, my next recommendation would be the very nice tribal-owned complex on the beach at La Push:

https://quileuteoceanside.com/

For something closer to the Hoh Rain forest, but not on the ocean, try the Quillayute Riverside Resort:

https://qriverresort.com/

There are some small inns and b and b’s near Forks, but none I would recommend. Also, dining options are extremely limited in that area. Best to have a self-catering cabin rented on VRBO or AirBnB and cook your own meals (buy food in Port Angeles on your way).

And whatever you choose, be prepared to do a lot of driving there and back, and around the area to see the beaches and the rainforest. And note that lines to enter the park at the Hoh entrance can be an hour or more ( the park website says 30-45 minutes, but the Destination Expert on TripAdvisor says it is more like an hour).

Read the alerts and warnings on the park website here:

https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/visiting-in-summer.htm#:~:text=The%20long%20lines%20at%20the,single%20lane%20entrance%20station%20only.

And remember that September is still “summer” there, with lots of visitors even adter schools open everywhere.

I'm in B.C. right now, and there's likely to be only one car ferry a day from the US to BC, roughly $75. It might be 8AM (I didn't use it) and it might go someplace like Victoria, rather than the mainland ?? Reservation and 45- minute early line-up essential.

What ferry are you referring to? There was a suggestion above to go from Whistler to Port Angeles using the Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo BC ferry to reach Vancouver Island, and the another ferry from Vancouver Island (Victoria) directly to Port Angeles. But others (including me) said just drive from Whistler south on the main highway to the US border, continuing on I-5 tonHighway 20, then down Whidbey Island to the Coupeville/Keystone ferry to Port Townsend.

Should they wish to take the 2-ferry route I outlined above, there are 8 sailings a day from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, and 4 from Victoria to Port Angeles on the Black Ball Ferry, M/V Coho.

https://www.cohoferry.com/schedule-fares

Since each ferry crossing involves extra time to line up early, board, and disembark, plus the time to drive through customs/immigration with the. Lack Ball international ferry, Inwould not advice that route unless they wanted to spend time in Victoria for an overnight or two.

I'll just add a couple of lodging suggestions for the ONP/Port Angeles area. Kalaloch Lodge, https://www.thekalalochlodge.com/, which is on the ocean and just outside of the ONP and the John Wayne Resort, http://www.johnwaynewaterfrontresort.com/, which is along Sequim Bay and about 90 minutes to Port A and 60 minutes to the Hurricane Ridge entrance to ONP.

Thank you ALL! So grateful you have clarified how we can avoid too much travel time by being more efficient with our itinerary.
I understand now that if we want to do ONP, we should approach that from Seattle first, then move north to San Juan. I hear you that perhaps going into North Cascade National park is a better choice than Whistler, which is just much farther north. I understand forest fires are making access to North Cascades more difficult right now. If its accessible, not filled with smoke AND we can find some nice lodging, I would like to do that. I also appreciated the person who referenced "honeymoon worthy" lodging-- as it's not just a trip-- it is our honeymoon and we really do want to stay in some special places. It sounds like we need to decide if we want Whislter or ONP. And we also need to decide if North Cascades should be included. What do you all think of these trade-offs? (Whistler v. ONP v. NCNP). I really don't want to do a ton of driving and spending our time getting from here to there, but I do want to see and do lots of beautiful outdoorsy things, stay in nice/charming places and eat delicious food/wine. Thank you again for all your help!!

Very little honeymoon worthy lodging in Olympic National Park and even less that will be available this late in the game.

The best hotel in Port Angeles is The Olympic Lodge and it is off the highway as part of a strip mall development. https://www.olympiclodge.com/
Don’t get fooled by the great location of The Red Lion. The hotel itself is below standard.

Also, if you do chose to go to Port Angeles from the airport, don’t take a ferry. Do what locals do. They drive south to Tacoma, then north on 16 to Bremerton, continuing on to the Hood Canal Bridge and then across to Port Angeles. You can have the “ferry experience “ on route to your next locations, but driving through Tacoma will save you a great deal of time.

A bit about the North Cascades:

The national park itself has very little in the way of traditional national park infrastructure; it is mainly a wilderness park with no road access other than the long gravel Cascade River Road, which ends at a parking lot for a popular trail ( Cascade Pass). The NorthnCascades Highway, HWY 20, passes between the two separated sections of the park, but the park boundaries are set well back from the highway. There is a visitor center at Newhalem, and a single lodge inside the park at Stehekin on Lake Chelan,, accessed by boat up the lake, or by trail from Cascade Pass.

You can view a good map of the park and the adjacent areas here:

https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/0bce42a6-7aca-4193-8c8a-617f898da42a/ProxyHiRes

This is the website for The North Cascades Lodge at Stehekin. It is pretty rustic, not what I would generally consider honeymoon worthy, but the location on the lake is very scenic. The hiking there amounts to lakeside strolls or steep climbs out of the valley, neither of which would be my choice. They are probably booked up.

There are two very nice, luxury-type lodges outside the park on the east side of the mountain crest in the Methow Valley. One is near the western-themed town of Winthrop; the other is in the community of Mazama, at the base of Washington Pass. This one (the Freestone Inn) is closer to the beautiful hiking near Washington Pass, and the drive up and back down the pass is very scenic. The area around the pass is often compared to the Swiss Alps in scenic value.

https://lodgeatstehekin.com/

https://freestoneinn.com/

https://www.sunmountainlodge.com/

We have stayed at Sun Mountain Lodge and it was very nice, including the restaurant. I have only dined at Freestone Inn, not stayed there. It seems they may be short-staffed in the restaurant this summer, but the property still draws rave reviews on TripAdvisor. The town of Winthrop also offers some nice, more casual restaurants.

A couple of my favorite hikes up near Washington Pass:

https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/cutthroat-pass-via-pacific-crest-trail

https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/maple-pass

Note that in September the larches at Cutthroat Pass will not have turned to gold; that occurs in October. Maple Pass Loop is the more difficult of the two. It has become an Instagram hit and the parking lot can fill up.

For an easier hike, there is nearby Blue Lake.

https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/blue-lake

For more to do in the area ( mountain biking, fishing, scenic drives, etc.) explore the Winthrop tourism website:

https://winthropwashington.com/adventure/

I doubt there will be rafting going on in September, but you can check.

Smoke can be a concern, but right now the air quality in the Methow Valley and surrounding areas is rated as excellent, so the fire burning near Diablo Lake is apparently not having an impact. The highway has been re-opened.

Good advice so far from our Washington experts. I'll just add that late September is a pretty popular time around the PNW so get moving asap on hotel reservations if you're wanting something high quality. Absolutely no way to know what the fire or smoke situation will be six weeks from now, but here are links to help you closer to your travel dates:

Forest fire information: https://gacc.nifc.gov/nwcc/firemap.php

Air quality information: https://enviwa.ecology.wa.gov/home/map

ONP has more lodging and services around its perimeter. It gets a lot of people to a few popular sites (Hurricane Ridge, Hoh Rain Forest, Ruby Beach), but much fewer in the backcountry. You would need to decide which areas you want to see--Olympic Coast beaches? rain forest? mountains and old growth forest? NCNP is much more do it yourself. It is one of the least visited national parks, but totally spectacular--but you need to plan where you enter the wilderness and what trail. It doesn't have the "must go to" sites that other national parks have--the focus is wilderness travel. Of course right now the forest fire off Hwy 20 is making access difficult to the most accessible "public" area. Possible to go further north or south in the park from Hwy 20, but you would need to check with the park for advisories.

Have you booked your flights into and out of Seattle? And what is your main goal on this trip? It's your honeymoon. Food and wine don' t necessarily equate with what you've posted and ferries are slow with the lining up, etc.

Coastal areas are less likely to affected with smoke. Right now smoke in Oregon is limited to east of the Cascades and southern Oregon.

I hope my Seattle friends would agree that traffic congestion around Sea-Tac can be pretty bad along with Joint Base Lewis McChord in Tacoma..

I’ll chime in about Whistler. You should be able to get a ‘honeymoon’ worthy hotel stay there and great food and wine. Late September is shoulder season and with school back in session, it shouldn’t be too too busy. Great walks and hikes and the scenery there isn’t bad:) There is some wildfire activity north of Whistler but hopefully by late September it will be settled. We aren’t having air quality issues in Vancouver right now and I haven’t heard of any in Whistler but someone else may have more info.

You might consider going to Victoria BC for honeymoon unique. It's been many years since I was there, but the Fairmont Empress Hotel could provide a honeymoon experience in addition to afternoon tea.

Since the WA State Ferry isn't going all the way to Vancouver Island now, you'd have to do a RT to Friday Harbor from Anacortes on the WA State Ferry, like you said.

To get to the Olympic Peninsula, you'd need to take Hwy 20 south on Whidbey Island and cross from Coupeville to Port Townsend. Then turn right on Hwy 101 to go to Port Angeles. Click on the Route Map (PDF 501 KB) on the WA State Ferry link to see how that would work. We took that route backwards in 2021 after a wedding in Sequim.

From Port Angeles, you could take the Black Ball Ferry RT from Port Angeles to Vancouver Island.

Or you could spend all your time in WA and enjoy a much more rustic and Pacific NW option by visiting the Hoh Rainforest There are a few lodging options close to Olympic National Park . I've stayed at Kalaloch (on the Pacific) and Lake Quinault (built in 1926). Either one would be unique, but not exactly honeymoon fancy.

Having driven all the way to Whistler and back many years ago, like others I can verify that it's a long trip and I think it's an outlier. I don’t think you have enough time to include it, San Juan, the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle. BTW, if you take the rustic option, there are plenty of honeymoon fancy hotels to choose from in Seattle.

Just my point of view—-we often used to drive up to Whistler for a long weekend of skiing or mountain biking. It is 5-hour drive at midday, assuming no long line a the border. We use the “ truck customs” to the east of the Blaine Peace Arch crossing, and head up Highway 15 to Canada 1, to avoid going through Vancouver on city streets.

For comparison, from Seattle to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island will take as long or longer,—-2.5 hours to Anacortes, plus ferry wait time (one should arrive one hour before the sailing time even with a reservation), loading and unloading time, and the journey itself ( 1 hour 20 minutes). Longer if the ferry is running late or is canceled, which is not unusual these days.

Seattle to Winthrop in the Methow Valley, 4.5 hours for us, with no stops. But we usually like to stop for a short hike along the way.

Seattle to one of the Olympic lodges ( giving Port Angeles a pass)—- 4 hours to Lake Crescent Lodge or 5 to La Push, by the “no ferry” route, assuming no slow RVs ahead of you on the 2-lane roads, and no Hood Canal bridge closure. The ferry route could be more, or less, depending crowds and ferry schedules. The ferries are definitely our preferred route, far more pleasant than driving down to Tacoma in the traffic.

In terms of logistics, driving time, and the nicest lodging opportunities, I think the best combination, if they want 3 locations and maximum scenery, would be Methow Valley, San Juan’s, and Whistler. But all may come down to what lodging they can find available, and how that fire in the North Cascades behaves.

I don't know much about your interests, but I personally find San Juan Island to be a bit on the boring side. More of a place to go to get away from it all and do nothing rather than a place filled with activities. That may be what you are looking for but given the more complicated logistics of getting there and back and the fact that you want to see other places, I'd personally skip it.

I love Whistler and is definitely the best honeymoon destination out of all the places that you are considering. It's a great combination of nature but also great hotels and places to eat and drink. As others have mentioned though, despite how close it looks to Seattle on a map it does take quite a bit of time to get up there given traffic and border wait times. Don't believe what Google Maps tells you. Vancouver is a fun city (cleaner, safer, more cosmopolitan than Seattle), so you may want to consider spending a night there just to break up the drive.

As others have mentioned, North Cascades NP is really geared towards long hikes and overnight backpacking. It's not really a day trip or drive-through type of park. On the other hand, I'm surprised that you are not considering Mt. Rainier NP, which has always been my favourite national park in Washington. There's just something that much more dramatic about one huge mountain instead of a series of mountains.

It may not be the best time to visit Olympic given the recent fire at their visitor centre and also the fact that all of the nice park lodging is probably all booked up by now. As others have said, there's not much in the way of nice hotels in Port Angeles.

If you haven't already bought flights, and you want to include Whistler -- which I'd recommend you keep as having the most honeymoon-appropriate lodging -- maybe you fly into Vancouver and fly out of Seattle? That would save you a lot of time, possibly money.

I've never taken a car rental across the border, though, so that may be inadvisable or expensive. However, I've got an idea for that.

If Friday Harbor is booked up, instead of heading there from Whistler, I concur with an alternative noted above which is to take the Tsawwassen ferry (just off the freeway north of the border) over to Vancouver Island and stay in Victoria. The Empress Hotel is honeymoon-worthy as is the town with lots of good food options, and I'm sure there are other nice places to stay. Plenty to do there for a few days too. Then, you leave the car in Victoria and take the Victoria Clipper directly from the harbor in front of the Empress to downtown Seattle and stay there for a night or two before catching your flight out.

If Victoria isn't directly of interest, you could still take the ferry from Horseshoe Bay (it's along the way from Whistler to Vancouver) to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and stay elsewhere on the island. Tofino is small and can be popular, but a bit of a twisty drive to get to. Others may have good ideas there. Anyway, among other things you could see the Butchart Gardens and eventually head to Victoria to, again, leave the car and catch the Clipper to Seattle.

Thank you everyone so very much! I think we have decided we are going to spend two nights in the San Juan’s, three nights in Whistler and four nights in Seattle. My husband has already booked hotels in Whistler and Seattle that are nonrefundable and frankly I’m thrilled to go there. We will do a day trip from Seattle to Mount Rainier— thank you very much for that suggestion! We will come back some other time and do the Olympic peninsula and North Cascades, which both sound wonderful. One remaining question I have is about ferrying to San Juan or Orcas Island. We will spend two nights on one of those islands. I understand we need a car on Orcas Island and we might not need one on San Juan if we stay in Friday Harbor and rent bikes to get around the island? If we want to take the ferry with our car we have to make a reservation, and they are full, but will re-open 1/3 of all reservations two weeks prior to departure date. Can we count on there being availability if we book that day? The alternative is we could simply just park your car in Anacortes and spend our two nights without a car on San Juan Island if that is just an easier way to go about this. Thank you again — this is such a tremendously helpful travel forum!!

I'll chime in as sometimes additional questions low in the thread go unseen. You'll definitely need a car for Orcas.

For San Juan Island, depending on how you'd spend your time, I would be inclined to suggest that you shouldn't take your car if you're staying right in Friday Harbor for two nights (one full day). It may just be a burden and a hassle to handle ferry reservations. In Friday Harbor, it's an enjoyable little town and most everything you'd want to do is within a few blocks of the ferry dock. Like you said, bike rentals can help with getting beyond the town (to Roche Harbor or to just do a loop through the countryside). I haven't bicycled that myself to report on the terrain, but I recall that it's mostly light hills, maybe a little bit of steepness near the harbor. Someone else may be able to speak to that better. And there is some public transportation to get you to other parts of the island. I don't think Uber is much of a thing there.

Sounds like your PNW trip planning is coming together! Be aware that Seattle to Mt Rainier (Tahoma) is usually about 2 1/2 hour drive. My record is 1 hour 45 minutes, but on average I get down there in a little over 2. Also depends on traffic, construction and detours on the back roads, and the wait at the entrance gate (MRNP is moving to a reservation system like other national parks in 2024). Then depends where in the park you want to go--Paradise, Sunrise, Longmire are the lodges with services. Then depends on what you want to do for hiking or viewing. Going on a weekday would help too.

https://www.nps.gov/mora/index.htm

Be sure to check in advance if your car rental company allows you to take a car across the Border and back.

Try not to be driving through Vancouver during rush hour.
There is plenty to stop and look at once you get out of West Vancouver and onto the Sea to Sky highway to Whistler...it's quite a beautiful drive.

One remaining question I have is about ferrying to San Juan or Orcas Island. We will spend two nights on one of those islands. I understand we need a car on Orcas Island and we might not need one on San Juan if we stay in Friday Harbor and rent bikes to get around the island? If we want to take the ferry with our car we have to make a reservation, and they are full, but will re-open 1/3 of all reservations two weeks prior to departure date. Can we count on there being availability if we book that day? The alternative is we could simply just park your car in Anacortes and spend our two nights without a car on San Juan Island if that is just an easier way to go about this.

Reservations open at 7am Pacific time; if you’re on the site ready to go with a credit card to hold the reservation you have a good chance of getting one. 1/3 of reservations is ~35-40 cars, just to give you an idea - it isn’t like you’re competing for 5 spots. If you don’t get one, you can keep checking - people cancel reservations all the time and one may open up.

Touring San Juan Island with just bikes is possible but I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you’re an avid cyclist. There’s enough hills to be tiring and you’d be riding on some main roads with cars traveling much faster. E-bikes would make it easier on the hills but still dealing with car traffic wouldn’t be my preference.

Yes, definitely make sure you are authorized to take the rental car into Canada. And be prepared for extra scrutiny by the border agent. I don’t know if it is still the case, but a few years back rental cars were often the vehicle of choice for smuggling drugs from Canada into the US.

For a daytrip to Rainier, be sure to choose as weekday to minimize lines at the entrance. In late September I would recommend Paradise over Sunrise. Many of the low shrubs around Paradise turn red or gold by that time, and it is spectacular. Sunrise is drier and more barren. But the view of Rainier from there is more “in your face”, if that is what you are seeking.

Most of the photos on this page are from the Paradise area, including Reflection Lakes and nearby Bench and Snow Lakes.

https://visitrainier.com/fall-color-displays/

The ferry is a challenge. As above be ready at 7:00 am. The slots go fast. Last week or 2 my partner tried and it was full in less than 5 minutes. We have had better luck getting the 5:55 am ferry to Orcas. That means line up at 5:00 am. The ferry was about half full. No cars on the upper decks & room on the lower decks. And keep checking back. If we get the early ferry we stay in Anacortes overnight. That means getting up at 4:30 am. My partner is good at checking & finding mid day reservations after cancellations. And ferries are late a fair amount of time. Lodging....hard to get on Orcas. She stayed in a van last week for 2 nights.