I have a tentative itinerary for which I would appreciate comments (and answers to questions) for verification and/or improvement. My wife and I have three goals; see a bit of Mt rainier; drive the coastline; and whalewatching..

Day 1: We will be an couple of hours south of Mt Rainer the night before. Today we will drive thru Mt Rainier, take a short hike or two, and come out on the north side. Is Greenwater a good place to stay the night?

Day 2: Drive to/thru Deception Pass; where to stay on Whidbey Isl? Prefer great views and a walk-able town.

Day 3/4: Port Townsend. This location was recommended as a better alternative than San Juan Island (time to get there and crowds). Apparently very pretty and plenty of Whale watching tours. BUT, there are not many good hotels in Port Townsend; I only see one that has balconies with great views of the ocean. Should this be our main stay or maybe we should do Anacortes/Whidbey rather than Whidbey/Port Townsend?.

Day 5-7: Drive the coastline to San Fran (we must be in San Fran for night 4). Nights in Astoria, Yachtas, and Eureka. On the drive from Eureka to San Fran, will we see the giant redwoods?

Again, whatever input you have would be appreciated.

Last things first: you will definitely see redwoods on US-101:

http://avenueofthegiants.net/

http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=3724

Greenwater is just a village, population 67 at last count. Stay in Enumclaw if you don't want to get closer to Seattle that night.

You are not going to see the ocean from anywhere in Port Townsend..it is located on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. For many travelers, Port Townsend is a delightful place. BTW, "good hotels" and "Olympic Peninsula" do not fit together. There are decent hotels in Port Angeles. If you are looking for upscale lodgings you are visiting the wrong area.

In any event, PT is too far from Olympic National Park to be a base; great for whale watching, but so is Port Angeles.

You do not allow enough time to "drive the coastline" if you are leaving from ONP. US-101 is dreadfully slow and doesn't come close to the ocean until south of Kalaloch, and the rest of the drive down to Astoria is dreary. Take the most convenient route back to the freeway and head west.

https://goo.gl/maps/BkzHsVQgWzF2

Just for orientation. Find Port Townsend and Port Angeles near the top of the map and see the distances involved.

Finally, stay in Trinidad, not Eureka.

Thanks for the info... By the way, where is a good stop with a good hotel with patio on the water (any water/marina)?

My two bits...

Greenwater is one of those places that look more important on a map than they do in real life. I honestly drew a blank when you mentioned it; despite having been through it numerous times it didn't ring any bells at all.

Really, once you're on that road (SR 410) heading west, you're really better off just carrying on until you arrive at a larger town. Anywhere in the Enumclaw - Puyallup area is going to be reasonably convenient, but finding a hotel with any character, aside from possible B&Bs or the like, is going to be pretty unlikely. Most tourists simply pass through the area en route to/from Mt. Rainier, with the vast majority being local residents who don't need hotels.

I had a thought - which you're free to disregard - that would make for quite a departure from your current plans, but which might be acceptable.

You seem to like waterfront or water-view hotels. (Well, who doesn't?) So bear with me for a minute.

There's a highly reputable regional hotel chain, Silver Cloud, that has a couple of waterfront properties, one of which is along the Commemcement Bay waterfront in Tacoma. http://www.silvercloud.com/tacoma/

Driving from the north end of Mt. Rainier (say around Crystal Mountain) getting to the Tacoma Silver Cloud would probably take around 1 1/2 hours. There are numerous places to eat (on the water) near the hotel, or you can explore Tacoma's pleasant "Old Town" a block or so inland from the same waterfront, or historic Ruston, just up the road.

Then here's where the plan really takes a big turn. The next day, take the ferry from Point Defiance (basically Ruston, minutes from the hotel) to Tahlequah, a tiny settlement at the south end of Vashon Island.

Vashon is the "other" major island in central Puget Sound (the well known ones being Whidbey and Bainbridge) with people living on it, but it's very rural and surprisingly undeveloped-feeling compared to Bainbridge or even Whidbey.

There are farms, places to pick berries, lovely little coves with views of the Olympic mountains or Mt. Rainier, a pretty lighthouse or two... in short, it's the essence of Puget Sound minus the tourists. https://boatphotos.files.wordpress.c...12/mg_4321.jpg

At the north end of Vashon is another ferry terminal, with service that goes in two directions - one to Fauntleroy in West Seattle, the other to the village of Southworth on the Kitsap peninsula. You'd take the latter.

From Southworth you'd drive north past Bremerton to the Hood Canal Bridge (free) and then onto the Olympic Peninsula.

At that point you could choose either to proceed to Port Townsend or, again since you like water-view hotels, you could go to Port Angeles instead. In PA you could look at the Red Lion, another regional chain, which has a major property right on the water. http://www.redlion.com/port-angeles

Staying in PA, you'd have a couple of choices for whale watching. First, you could simply go from PA; the dock is down the street from the Red Lion - http://pawhalewatch.com/ - just past the Coho ferry terminal (ferry to Victoria BC.)

Or, you could just go as foot passengers on the Coho, and take one of the highly regarded whale watching services that operate right out of Victoria's beautiful Inner Harbour, such as the Prince of Whales service - http://princeofwhales.com/victoria-tours/

You'd need passports for the Victoria option, but frankly this would be my choice. You could leave the vehicle at the Red Lion, spend some time visiting downtown Victoria, going on the whale watch, then return to PA in the evening. It's a very full day, but an exceptionally rewarding one.

Now this would all come at the expense of Whidbey and Deception Pass, but in my view the additions of Vashon, maybe a visit to the lovely (and tiny) village or Port Gamble (on the Kitsap peninsula just before the Hood Canal Bridge) - http://itsyourbackyard.com/wordpress...c-moutains.jpg - and then the Victoria whale option, would more than compensate.

Here's a map illustrating this proposal: https://goo.gl/maps/p1HHAFELNp22

Forgot to add, here are the ferry schedules - http://www.wsdot.com/ferries/schedule/ - and the Coho (PA - Victoria) schedule - https://www.cohoferry.com/Schedule

Thanks a million. You certainly have given me a lot to think about.

Gardyloo--Have you stayed at the Red Lion in PA? We did last month and never again!!! Truly, I would not suggest it to anyone, even if it were free. They have a prime location, but that is all. Read the reviews on TA if you want details. We always stay at the Olympic Lodge there, although no views, but MUCH MUCH better!!!

Gardyloo--Have you stayed at the Red Lion in PA?

No I haven't, thanks for the heads up. rmgood, take note.

Gardyloo--Yeah, it's really too bad as their location is so good. If they would sink some money into the hotel and stop making excuses for every issue (which there are multiple of), they would be sitting on a gold mine! So many runners had big issues, including us, and for the rate they were charging, there was no excuse.