I am living in seattle and looking to visit a place nearby (upto 7-8 hrs road trip single way) with my spouse. I have been to Olympic national park, san juan, st helens and and all the places within 100 miles of seattle.

I will have three full days in my hand for this trip.

Can you please share your experience and suggest me some good naturally beautiful tourist attractive place. Thanks in advance...

Shail

We always head for the Oregon coast.. Newport, Bandon .however-this time of year it can be wet and windy...
For this time of year, I really like Portland..Just came back from there in Oct. The revitalized Pearl District is charming...Powell's bookstore is awesome. Nice hotels downtown and by convention center., Portland Art Museum just opened new wing. -wonderful variety...Light rail and great Streetcar in downtown area are free..
I was there 4 days and always had something to do...
If interested---do a "search" on this forum for Portland OR. --lots of info..

Thanks. I have been to Portland earlier. Also, my preference is the natural beauty. Any suggestions.. Help me out.. I am tired and confused looking into maps but getting no output..

What time of year? If this is a warmer weather trip, what about a food/wine trip to the Walla Walla area or B.C.'s Okanagan Valley?
If you mean for this winter and are willing to travel 7-8 hours each way, that opens up a world of possibilites if you go by air. If you are set on driving and like snow sports, the Bend, Oregon area is great.

You probably have visited Vancouver but we find it a great town.Paul

Dear Shail,

How about Tofino or Ucluelet, BC? Beautiful coastline, great kayaking, lots of eagles and porpoise, spectacular drive from Victoria. We took the high speed ferry from Seattle and arrived at our destination in less than 6 hours total one way time.

Do a Google search and the photos may convince you.

Best wishes, SusanEva

Our favorites that meet your requirements are the Oregon Coast (Cannon Beach), Columbia River Gorge (Hood River), Methow Valley (Winthrop), and B.C.'s Okanagan Valley (especilly the drive from Princeton to Osoyoos).

I'm a fan of the Washington coast around Ocean Shores, Graylands, Long Beach. It's only about 3 hours each way. Or of course much of the Oregon Coast could be reached in that time.

I also love North Cascades, towns like Wintrop and Mazama, but something's up with roadways and I'm not sure how this will continue to effect travel in that direction.

Thanks for the responses. I will be touring this dec most probable first week.

I am googling right now for the great suggestions by you all. Anymore are welcome..

I like the north Willamette wine country. Nice B&Bs, restaurants, wines, scenary, etc.

Would you prefer to go east, to snow country, or stay west of the Cascades for warmer, probably wetter, weather? Also, city versus country? City - Vancouver if you haven't been.

hmm.. I searched for the places mentioned in the threads and many are them are outside US particularly in Canada. Due to visa issues I cannot plan outside US. There's lot of beautiful stuff near around. Till now, the options to me are,

Revisit Portland
Bend in Oregon
Divide time in cascades like wenatchee, chelan, leavonworth etc.
Astoria, Long Beach in Oregon.

I will be preferring the warmer country side but having few hotels for me to rest in.

I'm not sure if this is really true, but I've heard that the San Juan Islands are in a "sun shadow" and have less rain than the mainland, so if you've only been to San Juan, you might find Orcas or Lopez worth checking out. Would love to hear from other Fodorites that have the info. on this.

We stayed at a lovely B&B on Lopez and brought our bikes with us and rode all around. We stayed at Rosaio on Orcas and really enjoyed it, though that was quite a few years ago and I've heard mixed reports on it here lately.

Even though the San Juans are nearby, whenever I go there, I always feel like it's "far away"--seems like time moves much more slowly there.

Good luck and let us know what you decide and how it goes.

To answer the last question: You know, the islands DO get less rainfall than Seattle (though it varies place to place in the islands-the southern tip of San Juan gets very little, but the more you move away from the Olympic rain shadow in the southwestern part of the archipelago the more rain you get). But in my experience (I go up there for work regularly, and it's one of my favorite weekend destinations), it's not ever sunny up there while it's rainy down here. Maybe it's raining more lightly or is just overcast but that's about it.

Guideme, it sounds like you are in need of a PNW guidebook. I like the Moon Handbooks-they always include lots of info on outdoor/nature activities. If you are going on a weekend, I would avoid crossing the mountains in the Washington Cascades until they fix I-90 and have all lanes open again. Once they do, of if you are going on a weekday, I'd put the Methow Valley (Winthrop/Twisp/Mazama) on your list. They already have enough snow for x-country skiing.

thanks christy1, that's sortof what I figured

and i second the moon handbook suggestion--it's been very useful for us