Sacramento, CA to Seattle, WA Road Trip
 

Hello everyone,

I'm going on a roadtrip in mid August from Sacramento to Seattle. My friends and I are planning to rent a one-way car and drive all the way from Sac to Sea in a day. We've done many long drives, but never have really enjoyed or stopped to enjoy sites in between. While we're in Washington, we stay for a week and explore the state. We may even head up to Canada.
Does anyone have advice or suggestions as to the must-see, must-eat, must-know, how-to-save for this adventure? Any advice will help!

what is it you want to know about? Why not just fly into Sesttle and avoid an 800 mile drive?

Is that like a 17 or 24 hour drive?

I agree with bbqboy, if you aren't stopping along the way to appreciate the drive, why not just fly round trip?

I only know about Portland Or and a tiny bit of the Coast..
What I can tell you is that the coastal part of Oregon , at least the north coast, has 2 night minimums on hotels , if there were any reservations left in Aug..
But if you are driving non stop to Wa... and flying back, is Oregon really a part of this question?

Have fun whatever you do , I like road trips ( with stops at night) and I love Oregon and Washington .. ( well, Seattle) ... it will no doubt be cooler than Sacto :)

Have you priced a one-way rental? I would fly from Sac to Sea and rent the car in Seattle and return it there. It probably will save you money and time. Spend the money you save on the Herb Farm (http://www.theherbfarm.com/).

The drive takes around 12-13 hours more or less. I'd try to leave Sacto as early in the morning as possible so that you're out of the central valley and ideally out of the Rogue valley (Medford/Grants Pass) before the heat of the day.

As for highlights, they'll be passing swiftly outside the car windows - Mt. Shasta and some okay scenery in the Siskiyous being the main events, along with the Columbia River at Portland.

Yes, do yourselves a favor and spend at least three days for the drive up. Must sees include Crater Lake National Park, the Columbia Gorge, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier National Park.

Spend one night in Bend and the second along the Columbia or in Portland. Near Bend is the Newberry National Volcanic Monument with some interesting sites to visit. Also worth visiting in Bend is the High Desert Museum.

Along the Columbia, take a dam tour and visit a fish hatchery and then take the scenic drive by all the wonderful waterfalls.

On day three, you can visit the visitor centers at Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier on your way to Seattle. Maybe you will find these parks interesting enough to come back later and explore in more depth.

The one-way car rental may cost more than the airfares.

Driving up in a day makes no sense to me - at all. It won't save much, if any, money, will be exhausting, and you won't have time to see anything.

So - I'd either budget the time/money to take 3 days to drive and stay two nights enroute -- or fly and pick up/drop off a car in Seattle.

Hello chaisaelee, I live more or less in the same area as you do I have made many road trips to Seattle. Personally it would be too long of a drive in one day for me. You all can take turns driving I imagine but do check with the rental car company to see if there are extra charges for each additional driver. Also, not all rental car companies allow their vehicles to be driven outside of the US. If your rental car company does allow your rental vehicle to be driven into Canada you will have to get insurance for Canada through them I believe. At least that use to be true. So check out all the details carefully before renting.

Personally the drive from where you are to Seattle has so many lovely places I would want, as janisj stated, to make it a three day car trip. Otherwise I would fly from Sacramento to Seattle and rent the car in Seattle. Just saying what would work for me. Best regards.

Thank so much for the advice you all. We're definitely planning to stop and enjoy the sites, so we are considering over a day of driving. I'll take all these suggestions into consideration.