Greenhill11

Hi all,

We fly into San Fran, stay for 5 days, then plan to drive to Seattle via Aberdeen (big Nirvana fan). Then Clipper to Victoria and stay with family in Sooke for a while before flying back from Vancouver. I need a bit of help/advice with any hidden treasures in SanFran and most importantly the road trip section from San Fran to Seattle.

My loose plan for the road trip is :-

San Francisco - Mendocino

Mendocino - Ferndale

Ferndale - Bandon - including Avenue of the Giants

Bandon - Lincoln City

Lincoln City - Portland

Portland – Mt St Helens - Longview

Longview – Aberdeen – Forks (kids are Twilight fans)

Forks – Seattle

We are a family of 5 (17,15 and 9 yr olds) anything I have missed or should think about doing would be great.

Many thanks

Gardyloo

Looks like your first post; welcome to Fodor's!

What month(s) will you be coming? And how many days do you have for this itinerary?

Some basic thoughts:

The Avenue of the Giants is between Leggett (CA 1/US 101 junction) and Ferndale/Eureka, not north of Ferndale.

Lincoln City is (IMO) basically a ghastly strip mall; I'd cut over to the Willamette Valley from Newport, and possibly approach Portland via the vineyard country near McMinnville.

If your trip is during the summer, many places on the northern California (e.g. Mendocino) and Oregon coast are requiring two-night stay minimums. Will that be a problem?

You've left out the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood. Or maybe you intend to go there but haven't listed it; again, how many days do you have? The Gorge, Hood River Valley and Mount Hood deserve two days on their own, minimum.

How many days have you allocated to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park?

Where's home? If you're coming from overseas, there may be car rental options that will help you avoid very high one-way rates or punishing drop-off charges.

I'd look at this as a possible alternative route - https://goo.gl/maps/TRNsFVLfsWp

This would follow your plan as far as the central Oregon coast, then would swing east through Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, then north through terrific "old west" country on the east side of the Cascade mountains in to Seattle from the east.

You'd then travel out to Aberdeen and up the Olympic National Park coast, visiting Lake Quinault, Ruby Beach, the "Twilight" beaches at La Push, and Hurricane Ridge near Port Angeles. You'd then take the car over to Victoria from PA, visit your friends, then end with the ferry to the BC mainland from Swartz Bay.

With a party of five keeping the car v. taking the Clipper (and then having to manage getting to Vancouver by bus or ferry) would be much easier, and - again, if you can live with the cost or use an (overseas) car rental agency that reduces one-way costs, it might even work out cheaper.

But again, when, how long, and from where are questions for you.

tomfuller

I agree with Gardyloo about Lincoln City. Stop to see the world's shortest river and then move on.
Continue onward to McMinnville for the night. Near McMinnville is the Evergreen Aviation Museum with several things the kids would like to see including the "Spruce Goose".
Consider going to Mt. Rainier instead of Mt. St. Helens.
Try to stay in Hood River Oregon instead of Portland.
See the waterfalls on the way out to Hood River.
Hood River is a sailboarding mecca (lessons available).

Greenhill11

Hi Gardyloo

we are coming in August and have 7 days for the road trip to Seattle.

tomfuller

I don't know if your one way rental can go into Canada (check).
Getting from Seattle to Vancouver is easy on the early Amtrak train or a later Amtrak bus (about 4 hours).

Greenhill11

We don't need a car in Canada, hence the plan to get the clipper from Seattle (where we drop the car) to Victoria as it's half an hour drive from Victoria to my family.

Gardyloo

<i>we are coming in August and have 7 days for the road trip to Seattle.</i>

I was afraid of that.

You're going to need to edit your route substantially in order to make this work, or else you're going to be spending virtually all of the time sitting in the car looking at the scenery out the windows.

I'd cut the Sonoma/Mendocino coast as you'll have plenty of beautiful coast later.

I'd cut over from the coast to I-5 on OR Hwy 38 and skip the entire central part of the Oregon coast.

I'd spend half a day (at least) in the Columbia Gorge.

I'd spend a whole day based in Forks in order to see something of the Pacific coastal area of Olympic National Park.

Here's the route - https://goo.gl/maps/jrYTLpKbBmu

Suggested 7-day timetable:

1 SF - Eureka area via Avenue of the Giants
2 Ferndale - Bandon
3 Bandon - Portland (airport area or Troutdale) via SR 38 and I-5
4 Portland/Gorge-Olympia via Mt. St. Helens if time
5 Olympia-Forks via Aberdeen, Lake Quinault and Ruby Beach
6 Forks area - Hoh rain forest, La Push beaches
7 Forks-Seattle via Hurricane Ridge if time and Bainbridge ferry

Even so, this is a high speed plan, with very little time for actual sightseeing beyond the drive-by type. To be frank, I'd be tempted to add a day in the SF bay area to see some redwoods at Henry Cowell or Big Basin state parks (on the road to Santa Cruz, which is a very fun town, by the way) then fly to Seattle and do a Seattle - Columbia Gorge - Olympic Peninsula loop in the remaining days. You'd probably save enough money on a round-trip car rental vs. one way to offset a big part of the flight costs (around $100 one way from SFO to SEA) and that way you wouldn't need to spend whole days in the car seeing nothing beyond the windows. Just a suggestion.

janisj

Your road trip is really just a 'fly by'. I 'might' try that solo in a sports car just wanting a mileage run, but w/ a family and wanting to see and do things you'd need at LEAST twice the time. Listen to everything Gardyloo posted. . .

Underhill

FYI--locals call San Francisco SF or just The City, not San Fran. But by any name it's a beautiful place to visit.