volcanogirl

Hi, everyone - for people who are familiar with the San Juan Islands, what is the best way to go from Friday Harbor to Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park. We're landing in Seattle and taking the Clipper to Friday Harbor and won't have a car. I want to get from there to Lake Crescent and am finding it very confusing trying to figure out the ferry combos to take and which city to go to, etc. Can someone please help? Thanks for any guidance you can give me. At some point we'll have to pick up a car to have in the national park.

Patty

How long are you staying in Friday Harbor and how do you plan to get around San Juan Island?

I think you can travel one way from Friday Harbor to Port Townsend but don't know if you can rent a car there https://www.pugetsoundexpress.com/to...watching-tour/

Patty

You might have to go back to Seattle to rent a car. My preference would be to start the trip with a car so you have a car to explore the island with unless your stay is very short or you have other activities on the island planned.

volcanogirl

We're staying in Friday Harbor for three days. We're staying right on the harbor so just enjoying the walkable areas, going whale watching, dining, etc. We've already booked the Clipper, and it's a passenger only ferry. Friends of ours who just went said you don't really need a car there if you stay close to the water. But now I can't figure out how to get where I need to go lol. We're mostly just going sailing, whale watching, etc. so I don't think we would use the car.

volcanogirl

My friend said we would have to go to Anacortes, drive down Whidbey Island, then take a ferry from Coupeville down to Port Townsend, then drive from Port Townsend to Lake Crescent - seems so complicated. Someone else told me ferry to Canada and then take a bus to Victoria, and then another ferry, etc.

One way from Friday Harbor to Port Townsend would be amazing. I'll look into that.

Patty

You'll miss out on the scenery around the island but if you have a lot of water activities planned then maybe you don't have that much extra time any way. Friday Harbor isn't a big town.

Yes those would be the other ferry options. It's really not terribly complicated and the drive down Whidbey is very nice. If you find yourself in Coupeville and need a meal, we had a great lunch at the Oystercatcher.

From Victoria you'd ferry to Port Angeles where you could pick up a rental car but it would require a ferry/bus/ferry.

Gardyloo

Your problem is that there are very few places with rental car agencies in that area. Here's the best I could come up with:

Take the Clipper to Friday Harbor. When you're finished with the island, take the WA ferry to Anacortes, where there's an Enterprise rental car office. You'll probably have to take a taxi from the ferry terminal to the Enterprise office.

With the car, drive over Deception Pass (worth a long stop - gorgeous) and down Whidbey to the Coupeville - Port Townsend ferry. You'd be well advised to get reservations for the car on this run - the boats are small and the sailings infrequent.

From Port Townsend it's around a 90 minute drive (maybe a bit less) to Lake Crescent.

When you're done, I'd just drive the car back to Seattle via the Bainbridge ferry and drop it at the airport. Returning the car back in Anacortes would be a major pain, because public transit from Anacortes to Seattle is anything but easy.

Honestly, though, you could just drive the whole way. I completely disagree that a car us unnecessary on San Juan Island; some of the best places to visit - Lime Kiln State Park (whale viewing) or American Camp or Roche Harbor are all terrific destinations on the island that are hard bordering on impossible to reach from Friday Harbor without a car. The only issue is booking car space on the Anacortes boats to/from Friday Harbor, but there are plenty of daily sailings year round.

Kathie

As much as I enjoy traveling without a car, I think Gardyloo is right. You will have to cancel the Clipper, and get reservations to/From Friday Harbor on the Washington State Ferry. But I think that is the best way to cover this itinerary. I know it looks on a map like there should be an easier way to do this, but there isn't.

volcanogirl

Thanks for the input, guys. I'll chat with my husband, and we'll reconsider taking a car.

volcanogirl

Thanks for the help - we've decided to rent a car so we can explore more of the island. Now I'm looking at whale watching trips - do you guys have any companies you've had good experiences with? We would be leaving from Friday Harbor.

What about restaurants on San Juan Island? We'd love recs for both casual spots and maybe for one nice special occasion restaurant. Any favorites?

Patty

We liked the pizzas and other items at Bakery San Juan. Our lunch at the waterfront Cask & Schooner wasn't bad. Overall I thought Orcas had more interesting eateries. Friday Harbor felt more touristy but perhaps we didn't explore enough. We tried to spot whales from shore several times but didn't see any (whales were sighted from shore the day we left). Didn't go on a boat as we have frequent sightings of different whales species where we live. We enjoyed our visits to the American and British camps. Roche Harbor is very picturesque and there's a nice sculpture garden there. The ferry rides themselves are great and like a sightseeing trip.

volcanogirl

Thanks, Patty - the pizza at Bakery San Juan sounds perfect. I was looking at Cask and Schooner, seems to get pretty good but mixed reviews. I think we'll go with Maya's Legacy, have heard good things about them. May also consider adding a sailing trip or going to Orcas for the day. What did you do at the American and British camps - is that hiking? I'd definitely like to see Roche Harbor - looks very picturesque.

Patty

Yes, we hiked. American camp is open and exposed and British camp is a protected cove so they're very different. We saw a bald eagle and other raptors soaring overhead from American camp and harbor seals from British camp. There are red foxes on the island too but we didn't see any.

If you go to Orcas for the day, the view from Mt Constitution is very nice. You can drive or hike up. We also enjoyed the hike at Turtleback Mountain. Watch out for deer on the island when driving around. We saw a piebald deer which we've never seen anywhere else. I thought it was a goat and my husband thought it was a dog until we got closer. The little village of Eastsound is cute and there's a really good bakery called Brown Bear (get there early), a chocolatier and an ice creamery. Roses Bakery is a bakery/deli/cafe and good lunch spot (again get there early, there weren't a lot of lunch options so a long line had formed by the time we left).

volcanogirl

I would love to see an eagle or a fox; a piebald deer would be fun too! Thanks for all the details.

volcanogirl

Regarding the ferries, do they just scan your reservation, and you get to keep your printout? I have several ferries booked, but they only emailed me one bar code for all of them. Can I just print it one time and keep it, or do I need to print out for each portion of the trip? Also curious if they could just scan from my phone if I pull the bar code up?

Patty

I never printed out any reservations. They just scanned my phone.

volcanogirl

Perfect - thanks.