WarrenWST

Hi. Hope you may help us plan a 7 night upcoming July, 2017 vacation. My wife and I, both from the Boston area, are in our late 50's/early 60's and like to take easy to moderate hikes, love local restaurants with regional fresh offerings, (I love local craft beer), and beautiful scenery. Don't mind driving. We have been trying to choose between Seattle, North Cascades, and Olympic National Park (ONP) or for this particular forum, Portland, ONP, and Seattle. We went to Seattle last August and stayed 2 nights in Mt. Rainier (stayed right at the MT Ranier Lodge and went on a great hike called the Skyline Trail which is about a 5 mile loop), 2 nights in Port Townsend (stayed at a fantastic B&B and went on a fabulous whale watch) took the ferry and spent 3 nights in Seattle (stayed at The Inn at the Market) visiting one of our children. I mention this just to give you an idea of what we like. Although we went to Seattle last year, we don't mind going again especially to hook up with our child.
Anyway, my thoughts were to fly into Portland, stay 2 nights, drive to ONP, stay 3 nights (want to see Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh rainforest, and naturally hike, and then drive to Seattle, stay 2 nights (would want to stay at the Inn at the Market again) and then fly home from Seattle. However, looking for your opinions in terms of length of stays, places to stay, driving routes, must see's, and anything else that you would advise. We have has such great luck over the years using these forums. Please advise if I should be posting this in a different forum ,e.g., Washington. Thank you!

tomfuller

You seem to have double posted.
Have you considered doing some hiking on the Oregon side of the Columbia River? You've already seen some of the best that Washington has to offer but Oregon is also great.
I think you should fly home from whichever airport you fly into to avoid a drop fee on the rental car.
PDX and SEA airports are not all that far apart.
You might also want to drive out to see Mt. St. Helens.
Transportation between Portland and Seattle is quite easy on one of several Amtrak Cascades trains.

Kathie

I think your plan is a good one. There are endless places to hike in with Washington and Oregon. You've been here before, so I expect you will be back to see other places. The Hoh Rainforest and Hurricane Ridge are excellent places to visit.

Check about whether the car rental agency will charge you a drop-off fee or not. Unless the drop-off fee was large, I wouldn't follow Tom's advise to fly in and out of the same city. For me, my time when traveling is precious, and adding in a 3+ hour drive to take a rental car back would not be my choice of how to spend my vacation. Also, I'd get rid of the rental car before your Seattle stay. I don't know which company you plan to rent from, but you may be able to drop it off in downtown Seattle. If you hang onto the car, expect to pay $25-50 a night to park it in the city.

Enjoy your trip!

Michael

Take U.S. 101 up the Washington coast, which will give you access to the western side of OPN with its rain forest. Neah Bay has an interesting Native American museum, and the walk to Cape Flattery is worthwhile.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7622991196341/

WarrenWST

Thanks everybody. I agree that the time to drive back to Portland would infringe on the vacation time but really appreciate the suggestion. After talking to others, I'm now thinking only 1 night in Portland and 4 in ONP and then 2 in Seattle because I didn't realize how big ONP was. Sounds like another Yellowstone in terms of size where we stayed 2 nights in 2 different parts of the park. Based on the fact that we really want to enjoy some hiking in ONP and spend some time at both the HOH Rainforest and Hurricane Ridge, I have been advised to drive from Portland, spend 2 nights at the Lake Quinault Lodge and then 2 nights at the Lake Crescent Lodge. Does this make sense? Any opinions?

Bobmrg

That plan does make sense. You do need two bases to cover ONP. Get your reservations NOW. Here are some useful links:

www.kaleberg.com

www.visitonp.com

https://goo.gl/maps/3rkDT8FSDt82

tomfuller

The problem with Olympic NP as I see it is that there are no "through" roads. If you drive to the end of one of the parks interior roads, you have to return on the same road to get to another road into the park.
It's 165 miles from PDX to SEA (less than 3 hours) which you could do after dark if you fear missing a great view.

FaceInTheCrowd

I wondering why, if you only end up spending a night, you'd still include Portland. It's a great little city and has everything you say you're looking for, and more, so it really deserves more time than this trip will allow. And heck, you'd save on the one way car rental.

tomfuller

Agree with FaceInTheCrowd. Fly to SEA and see what you want in Washington. Return the car and take the train to Portland.
Fly home from PDX.