Itinerary Advice for Pacific Northwest Trip
 

Greetings forum members:

My DH and I are in the beginning stages of planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest area in September 2009. We have ~21 days to get from San Francisco to Seattle. I should also mention that we will have our 21 month old child in tow as well.

Our first rough attempt at the itinerary looks like this:

Day 1 – Fly into San Francisco and drive to Yosemite

Days 2 thru 4 – Yosemite

Day 5 – Drive to San Francisco

Day 6 & 7 – San Francisco

Day 8 – Drive north towards Crescent City. Looking for a suggested 1-night stop in between

Day 9 thru 11 – Crescent City (Redwoods National Park)

Day 12 – Head north up the Oregon Coast. Looking for a suggested 1-night stop before Newport

Day 13 & 14 – Newport, Oregon

Day 15 thru 17 – Portland / Columbia Gorge area

Day 18 thru 20 – Seattle (possibly consider Mt. Rainier or Olympic National Park areas instead)

Day 21 – Fly home from Seattle

Our main focus of the trip is to experience the great outdoors and the national parks. We are not opposed to city attractions when worthwhile.

We have both traveled extensively however this will be our first major trip with our child and any advice would be appreciated. My thoughts are to keep all driving times no more than 4 hrs where possible. Thank you in advance for any thoughts/assistance provided.

Your itinerary seems quite leisurely.

Crescent City isn't a very fun town. Are your sure your want to spend two or three nights there?

Bandon is a good town to stay between Crescent City and Florence.

Yachats and Cannon Beach are other great places to stay on the Oregon Coast.

If you drive north on Highway 1, Mendocino, Albion, or Little River would be good places to stay between San Francisco and Crescent City.

Since we have not booked any flights yet would you recommend starting in SFO and working our way up or starting in Seattle and going south. Does it make any difference?

Also I've read a lot of recommendations to check out this region in early June since the waterfalls will be more active (in the respective areas of course). Are they non existent in Sept? My concern with June is that I would hate for certain passes/roadways to be closed due to snow.

We are trying to keep it somewhat leisurely but are we at a snail's pace with this current itinerary? This is extremely slow for us as a couple and I uncertain how much extra time to factor in for a small child

If you've never driven Highway 1 from Morro Bay to Carmel, I would fly into LA or Santa Barbara.

I would drive to Yosemite from the Monterey vicinity, and then to San Francisco.

You will not encounter snow-closed passes in June on the route you outline.

However, June is not a summer month in Western Washington! Our summer starts after July 4.

Weather is usually pleasant in September throughout the area you plan to travel.

Oregon waterfalls are pretty active all year round.

Stop on the Mendocino coast on your way to Crescent City.

Fly into Seattle and head south.

I also would drive north to south instead (but I'm not sure why I think that is better, quite honestly, maybe because I live in Seattle? -haha).

Because the weather will get progressively better, not worse, which might be the case with the S-N route in September. + they'd be going down the ocean side of 101.

I'd add, it would be worth 1-2 of your days to hit Crater Lake, as you wanted to see the National Parks.

I would also recommend the Mendocino area for your stop between SF and the redwoods. I didn't stay in Crescent City when I drove RT between Seattle and SF last spring (stayed in Trinidad on the way down and Eureka on the way up) but did drive through there, and I thought Trinidad was the nicest place to stay in the area (although it's very quiet and small).

Thanks to everyone for your advice thus far. Upon a little more research I think that we are going to pass on Crater Lake this trip. As I am certain we will fall in love with the area, I know that we will visit again. For this trip I think we'd like to spend the extra day or two on the coast. Here's the revised itinerary thus far:

Day 1 – Fly into Vancouver

Day 2 & 3 – Vancouver

Day 4 & 5 - Seattle

Day 6 & 7 – Olympic National Park

Day 8 – Mt. Rainier

Day 9 – Drive to Mount St. Helens and then on to Portland

Day 10 & 11 – Portland / Columbia River Gorge

Day 12 – Drive to Cannon Beach and head south to Newport or Yachats

Day 13 – Newport / Yachats

Day 14 – Bandon

Day 15– Trinidad, CA

Day 16 – Mendocino or Sonoma

Day 17 thru 20 – Yosemite

Day 21 – San Francisco

Day 22 – Fly home

I am trying to figure out where to grab an extra day from for San Francisco. Not sure if I can really take one from Vancouver or Seattle. I considered skipping Vancouver and putting those days in Monterey, CA but since we have family in Vancouver we really should visit while in the area.

I love your itinerary but I have one suggestion about traveling with a little one. You have alot of overnights and 2 day stops - which makes sense on a road trip but can be rough on a kid. We did a similar paced trip through Ireland with an 18 month old. We found that our little one had some trouble adjusting to all the new places (especially at night) and was much happier when we settled in for three days. I know it is a trade off with longer drives but you might see if the itinerary allows for a little more compression or longer drives so you to have some longer stops (fewer 1 days, maybe a couple of three day stops). For example, do Mt. Ranier as a day trip from Seattle so three nights in Seattle. Or do two nights in Olympia and hit Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helens as day trips, then drive straight to Portland. Try to find another two or three night stop along the coast between Cannon Beach and Trinidad. Maybe plan two nights in Mendocino. You can spend a few days driving longer than four hours as long as they are broken up every few hours with a long stop (to play on the beach or at a park, have lunch, visit a farm, zoo or aquarium). We made great distances during nap time. If you are driving a motorhome or camper you can probably disregard most of my advice.

You might also consider going from Vancouver to Olympic National Park to Seattle. But others may have better info on the order of these two.

I've been giving it some more thought and maybe just a few tweaks to your itinerary might be easier for traveling with your little one. My DH usually does the mapping between towns so I may have underestimated some of the distances so others may have different advice. But I think you can see how I tried to create some longer stays without sacrificing sights to see.

Day 1 – Fly into Vancouver

Day 2 & 3 – Vancouver

Day 4 & 5 – Olympic National Park

Day 6, 7, & 8 - Seattle (including Mt. Rainier)

Day 9, 10 & 11 – Drive to Portland (stop at Mount St. Helens or skip it), Portland (enjoy zoo and children's museum), day trip to the Falls and Columbia River Gorge

Day 12 & 13 – Drive to Newport or Yachats (or farthest point south on coast that you can comfortable drive from Portland), Enjoy coastal towns

Day 14 – long drive to Bandon or furthest point south you can comfortably reach

Day 15 and 16 – Mendocino, Sonoma or Napa

Day 17 thru 20 – Yosemite

Day 21 – San Francisco

Day 22 – Fly home

CDJD, Your revised itinerary is a great improvement over the original. HTTY

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the suggestions on the revised itinerary and completely agree with having fewer changes in lodging. As many of you may know it is difficult trying to decipher what can be done where when you are not familiar with the region. I think my daughter will be much happier not changing as much and mom & dad will be also.

Alright things have changed quite a bit with this trip. My husband is being forced to take two weeks off from work in July (of course around the 4th) so we now have to use our vacation days at this time instead of taking unpaid days. We have also shortened the trip from 21 to 17 days and knocked out California (that will be a separate trip). We are trying our best to keep the costs down where we can but we do need 1 bedroom suites as we are traveling with an 18 month old. I've tried to keep all hotel stays at a minimum 2-3 nights with the exception of Victoria (I would prefer to do a day trip however I do not know what we would do with our luggage for the day and it may be too hectic of a schedule)


So here's the new itinerary:

(July 3 thru July 17, 2009)

Day 1 – Fly into Seattle

Accommodation being considered:
–Silver Cloud Inn at Lake Union
-Marriott Lake Union Residence Inn
–Homewood Suites
–Springhill Suites downtown (previously Pike Street Suites)

Day 2 & 3 – Seattle

Day 4 – Victoria, Canada
Take Victoria Clipper from Seattle to Victoria

Accommodations:
–Try to snag Victoria Marriott Inner Harbor on Priceline (cannot request suite but reg room may be alright for one night)
–Royal Scot Suite Hotel (one negative review on TA) •

Day 5 – Victoria, Canada (Overnight in Port Angeles)

•Return on afternoon Victoria Express to Port Angeles)
•Pick up one-way car rental in Port Angeles

Accommodations:
–Lake Crescent Lodge (Singer Tavern Cottage or Roosevelt Fireplace Cottage)
–Best Western Olympic Lodge looks nice too but looks to be very pricey for a 1-bedroom suite

Day 6 & 7 – Port Angeles

Day 8 – Cannon Beach
•Longest drive (~ 5.5 hrs)
Accommodation:
–Schooners Cove
–Inn at Cannon Beach
–Ocean Lodge
–Surfsand Resort
–Inn at Arch Cape in Arch Cape

Day 9 – Cannon Beach

Day 10 & 11 – Newport / Yachats
Accommodation:
–Overleaf Lodge

Day 12 – Portland
•Stop at Silver Falls State Park east of Salem on journey from Yachats to Portland

Accommodation:
–Embassy Suites Portland Downtown
–Residence Inn Portland Downtown/RiverPlace(need to use free streetcar service to get to downtown proper)
–Park Lane Suites
–Holiday Inn Express – Most affordable

Day 13 – Portland

Day 14 – Portland (Day Trip to the Columbia River Gorge / Mt. Hood)

Day 15 – Mt. Rainier (Stop at Mt. St. Helen along the way)

Accommodation:
– Paradise Inn
– Alta Crystal Resort

Day 16 – Mt. Rainier

Any comments on the itinerary or lodging choices would be greatly appreciated. Again trying to cut costs but not quality and also traveling with a toddler. Thanks

Day 17 – Depart Seattle

With a small child and all the "stuff" that goes with that, I'd strongly consider picking up your rental car when you leave Seattle and taking the car ferry to and from Victoria (you could go via the San Juans and come back via the Coho to Port Angeles) just so you're not having to hassle with carrying it all onto the passenger ferries.

A couple other comments:

It's Homewood Suites that's taking over Pike Street Suites (Homewood will then have 2 Seattle locations--you want downtown east). Springhill is a separate property and not as well located IMO.

If you can get a fireplace cottage at Lk Crescent, go for it! They have more charm than the Singer cottages IMO.

You want to be on the Paradise side of Mt Rainier not all the way over at Crystal since it'll be at the end of a long day if you're going to Mt St Helens as well. If Paradise doesn't work out then try other accommodations in Ashford (Wellspring has a very cute cottage for families called the 3 Bears).

NWWanderer - as always your advice is invaluable and appreciated.

I think I will take your advice and pick up the car rental at the Seattle Airport (much cheaper than doing a one-way rental from Port Angeles even with factoring in Seattle parking fees).

As for taking the car on the ferry it seems expensive, time consuming (have to drive to Anacortes for car ferry service and travel time on the ferry is longer each way) and possibly unecessary. Is my assumption correct that public transportation is readily available in Victoria and that a lot of the downtown area is easily walkable? My thought is to instead drive from Seattle to Port Angeles and just do a day trip to Victoria from there so we do not have to worry about our belongings.

Thanks for the suggestion to stay in Ashford. I will look into the accomodations you sugggested.

Have you considered staying in Sequim? It's not that far from ferry locations--perhaps for a day trip instead of an overnight, leaving you with a "home base" for a little longer, and it's essentially at the base of the Olympic National Park. The rasberry bushes might be ready then--we went with our 2 1/2 year old in early August a few years ago and stayed in a wonderful place for about 4 days and explored much of the Olympic Peninsula from there.

Do you have a baby backpack (The Kelty one is particularly sturdy and has a great sunhood). That thing has saved us on many vacations (Napali Coast trail, Olympics, and beyond....) I agree with an earlier post--travel at naptime whenever possible and make up the distances then!

Actually, it's even less expensive if you take a cab to downtown Seattle and wait to pick up the rental car until you need it (the taxes at Seatac are much higher plus you'll save on a night or two of parking). Much of Seattle can be seen on foot so you could wait until, say, Day 3 to pick up the car and see things that are outside of downtown Seattle such as the zoo.

Yes, doing Victoria as a day trip or even an overnight from Port Angeles could work if it's not too much trouble to carry what you need for your child onto the ferry.