Itinerary for a scenic 5 day driving tour
 

We are senior citizens who love scenic drives and photography and are in the initial phase of planning a driving trip in Washington. We are lookiing at flying Atlanta to Sea/Tac Friday, June 15 arriving at abvout 12:30 pm. We will plan on renting a car at the airport. We will probably need to spend the last night, Monday 6-21 near the airport and return the rental car before departing around 1:30 pm.
We have the Reader's Digest "the Mosty Scenic Drives in America and would love to see if we can fit in;
1. The Olympic Loop
2. The North Cascade Loop and
3. The drive to Mount Rainier
We have no problem with doing this in a continous loop and staying at a different hotel ($200 or less) each night in order to make the most efficient use of the five days. and we would have no problem cuting out the Everett to Leavenworth portion of the Cascade Loop if necessary. We are both retired and are not "fixed" on June or with these dates and are open to recommended alternate time frames .Any suggestions for a 5 day itinerary, places to say and "must see" sites would be greatly appreciated.

Our summer is July and August. I suggest you visit in late July or in August.

There is no graceful way to combine the Olympic and North Cascade loops . Here is a possible itinerary:

1. Mt. Rainier and Paradise Inn
2. Lake Quinault Lodge
3. Lake Crescent Lodge
4. Seattle via 101 along Hood Canal
5. Winthrop via Highway 20--North Cascade Highway
6. SeaTac airport via Highway 2--over Stevens Pass

You would probably get more responses if you had "Washington" in your subject line.

HTTY

Given your retired status, why only 5 days?

Before Internet, I (senior Aussie) also used the Readers' Digest Scenic Drives book. You will find Fodors very useful as well, though the RD is a good place to start, and I rather wish I had one now that I've just started to plan a couple of weeks' travel from Washington DC.( Our local library doesn't stock it any more.) May I suggest you take the ferry over from Port Angeles to Victoria BC, at least as a day trip?

Don't rent at the airport. By next summer there will be a light rail line from the airport into downtown Seattle, where car rentals are considerably cheaper.

Thanks for the information and it appears I may be biting off more than be reasonably done in the 5 full days devoted to driving. Time is not necessarily the limiting issue, but the budget is a constraint. I will look at the alternative of limiting the trip to two of these routes and or the Oregeon coast (Astoria to Florence) and Mt Hood drives.
Thanks

In my opinion, the drive from Astoria to Tillamook is not particularly scenic, even if the Astoria area is historic. You can save time by going from or to Portland and the coast.

I second Michael's suggestion. We're going from Seattle to the coast on Tuesday and plan to jump off of the interstate at exit 294 and take 99W/18 through the wine country out to Newport.