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Pacific NW Trip - Advice Needed
Hi all. I am looking for a little advice on an upcoming trip. My boyfriend and I are travelling to the US from the UK from Oct 31 – Nov 11. Our ultimate destination is the Pacific NW/Vancouver area, but we have a night in Philadelphia on the way out and a night in Toronto on our way home (the penalty for using miles to book flights!).
Our trip is very much on a low budget as we’re unexpectedly moving house a few weeks before we go (we were going to cancel the trip, but we’ve got great flights and we don’t want to lose them). So, I’m looking for some tips on how to make our stay as budget-friendly as possible. We’re looking at spending our time in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, though we haven’t got a definite route/itinerary. We’d like to do the Boeing factory tour and to visit the museum of flight in Seattle, drink beer in Portland and that’s essentially it for ‘must do’ things! We’ll be in the US on election night, so a fun spot to watch the results is also on the list. We like transport and industrial history, craft beer and cheap & cheerful food (street food, diners, etc, rather than high-end restaurants). I’ve been reading the Lewis & Clark diaries, so I’m interested in sights they mention too. My first question – car rental is fairly cheap, picking up from YVR and returning there (we fly in to and out of Vancouver). Are there hotels in the suburbs of Seattle/Portland that are on public transport routes into the city? We’re hoping to save money by staying out of town where parking is cheaper and riding the bus or train ‘downtown’ for sightseeing, etc. Is this a feasible plan for a couple of days in each place? Obviously we’d use the car for Boeing and the museum of flight (unless the public transport to these places is excellent), and we definitely wouldn’t use the car after trying beer! Any tips for locations that would work well for this (so, close to a bus or train route, perhaps some restaurants within walking distance, cheap/free parking) would be greatly appreciated. Of course, if this plan is stupid (public transport costing a fortune, it not running past 8pm, etc), please let me know! Secondly – are there any smaller towns/cities which are worth a visit, based on our interests given above? Spokane and Eugene are the two that spring to mind, but given that Washington is electing its governor, would Olympia be an interesting place to visit around the election? Alternatively, are any of the coastal towns that would be nice for a night? Lastly, for now, we will probably be on the road at about 5pm once we’ve collected our car in Vancouver. Is this a terrible time to attempt to cross the border? Google maps says it’s about a 40 minute drive from the airport to the crossing, but how realistic is that at this time? Would killing a couple of hours at a mall or something be better than battling traffic? Thanks in advance for your help. |
I’m originally from the Pac NW, but live in Belgium now. There are a lot of things to do in the Seattle/Portland area but I am listing things unique to the area and things I don’t think you will find in the UK.
Seattle: Things to do: 1. Definitely go to the famous Pike Street Market and the fish market there. http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/ 2. A fun tour is the underground tour (and I am not talking about the subway). http://www.undergroundtour.com/ 3. Snowqualmie falls is about 1-hr drive from Seattle and well worth it. http://www.snoqualmiefalls.com/ 4. If you get the chance and it is nice out, go for a sale out on the bay. 5. Of course, the Space Needle http://spaceneedle.com/ If you are interested in seeing some amazing forests and wild beaches, I’d suggest a day drive to the Hoh rainforest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoh_Rainforest Some of the tees in this forest are aprox. 95m high. It is a really cool place and there is Portland: 1. NW 23rd Ave. – this street has lots of eclectic shops, tons of coffee shops, restaurants, etc. It is a good place to walk up and wander. It is not big, more like a neighborhood while being blocks from downtown. 2. The Pearl Dist. – this can be interesting if there is something going on. There are a lot of art shops and there is a thing called “First Thursday” where the First Thursday of every month, all the local artists and stores stay open late and there is art being showcased 3. Timberline Lodge – Up on Mt. Hood, this is an easy drive from Portland, about 1-hr. I’d suggest going up there for lunch. You can hike up there, and yes there will still be snow capped top due to the glacier. It should be really beautiful. http://timberlinelodge8-px.trvlclick.com/visit/ 4. Multnomah Falls – This place is really cool. It is 189 m tall. The lodge has great food. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multnomah_Falls 5. Cannon Beach – From Portland, 1-hr drive to the west, you will be at the Pacific Ocean. Cannon Beach has a lot to do. It is a nice mix of a big beach, restaurants, galleries, shops, etc. http://www.cannonbeach.org/ As for lodging in Portland, most all of downtown Portland is connected very well using the Max (the light-rail system). You can ride for free in downtown. It might be worth your money to stay at a place like that Governor Hotel that is 1-block from the MAX so you can easily hop on and off. In Seattle there are several hotels located close to the airport that link easy to downtown Seattle. I’d suggest the Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center. I have had great service here and found it easy to get to downtown. Not sure if this is what you were after, but I hope one or two items helps you plan your trip. |
Thanks for the suggestions! Snoqualmie has popped up already - there's a railroad museum there I think - so to hear another vote for it is encouraging.
Timberline Lodge looks lovely, and so does Multnomah Falls! Would we have any trouble visiting these areas in November (issues with weather, hours of daylight, etc)? |
No, the weather in the PacNW is quite mild, frankly not too much different than the UK. It may rain, but I really don't think you will have any problems except for rain. Timberline should still be without snow at that point. Mult. falls rarely freezes over and when it does, the road along the Columbia River Gorge that you take to get there would be closed. But this is very rare and weather like this doesn't usually happen until Jan/Feb.
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If you are really interested in Air museums... I'd also suggest the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. It is about 1-1.5 hr drive from Portland. Here, you can see Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose" and a SR-71 along with other military, space and and other aircraft. http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/
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The museum looks good, thank you. Glad about the weather - wet and dreary is fine, i don't fancy driving in snow so pleased that shouldn't be an issue.
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Just to note, the free rail zone no longer exists in Portland. All fares are $2.50. The Max is a great way to get around and you could easily pick a hotel along a line and use it even late at night. Just check the schedule for your stop as some stops are very infrequent super late at night or before dawn.
And I second Evergreen. It's an awesome museum. If you like railroad, check out the ORHF museum opening up in Portland this month. A few very cool old engine and a lot of other train bits. There is also a Mt. Hood scenic railway you can ride. I have seen the train but I haven't been on it so I can't say how fun it is to ride. |
Lodgings and beer: In the Portland area you need to become familiar with the McMenamin's chain of funky lodgings - historic properties "re-purposed" (my vote for buzz phrase of the 2010s) to really enjoyable places. On the edge of the Columbia River Gorge (an absolutely must-see part of your trip) is McMenamin's Edgefield, with its combination of pubs, brewery, distillery, winery, restaurants, movie theater, wonderful art, gardens, golf, and affordable accommodations ranging from hostel-like dormitory rooms to very comfortable (but still very affordable) en-suite rooms, all plunked down in the former Multnomah county poor farm.
In Portland (but not downtown) look at their Kennedy School - a former elementary school similarly converted to the same uses. Blackboards in the bedrooms and all that. Lodging in Seattle will tend to be a bit pricier (unfortunately nothing as fun as McMenamin's just yet, but on the way.) There are reasonably car-friendly hotels outside the downtown core - look for example at the Silver Cloud chain of properties, in particular their hotel on Lake Union just north of the city cent(e)r(e). Free parking and breakfast included, 100 yards to the streetcar that goes downtown, Lake Union (float planes to Victoria, waterfront cafes and bars) right across the street. Another place to look in Seattle for affordable but fun accommodations is the MarQueen Hotel in the "lower Queen Anne" neighbo(u)rhood. You'll have to pay to park the car, but the price of the hotel ought to be low enough that the net cost is manageable. One of the best restaurants in town, Toulouse Petit, is right across the street, and there are numerous pubs etc. in the area for beer testing. The Marqueen also has kitchenette units, so take that Dungeness Crab you bought at the Pike Place market, some craft bread and butter from the market, and a bottle of good Washington or Oregon wine (or an equivalent amount of beer) and have a picnic in your room - by far the best "carry out" meal one can have in Seattle. Public transport is very good in both Seattle and Portland, but both cities are very much a collection of neighborhoods, so to see different parts of both cities using buses or the limited tram/light rail offerings, you're constantly using the downtown "hubs" and then traveling out on the "spokes." A car really helps with time management in these cases. And in November rain happens, and the car can be useful in that respect, too. I don't think you really have time to travel to places like Eugene or especially Spokane. And frankly, in early November I think you could use your time more profitably: In Portland visit the Columbia Gorge and Mount Hood, then I'd suggest a route I've taken a number of British friends on as a fun means to travel between Portland and Seattle, avoiding the (very boring) Interstate 5 freeway between the two cities. Head east from Portland through the Columbia Gorge (use the "Historic Highway" between Troutdale and Hood River) then stop at the Maryhill Museum (including the nearby Stonehenge "copy") before heading north on US 97 toward Yakima. From Yakima take I-82 to the junction of I-90 and enter Seattle via Snoqualmie Pass over the Cascade Range. This route takes you into the sagebrush (and sunny) eastern side of both Oregon and Washington, through some marvelous "old West" scenery and the Yakama Indian Reservation, then the Yakima Valley wine country (maybe still some good autumn leaves about) and over the mountains into Seattle, the whole thing taking only a couple of hours longer than the slog up the freeway. Highly recommended. Map. Between Seattle and Vancouver, a great day-trip alternate route to the freeway is to take the Mukilteo ferry (5 min. past the Boeing tour center) to Whidbey Island. Drive up Whidbey, stopping at the cute waterfront villages of Langley and Coupeville, then stop at Deception Pass State Park, next to the incredible churning channel between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands. Then continue on WA Hwy 20 to the junction of WA Hwy 11 ("Chuckanut Drive") which follows the Puget Sound coastline into the Fairhaven (historic) district of Bellingham (hard "g") before connecting back with I-5. Again, this detour adds an hour or two to the otherwise boring drive along the freeway. Map. Regarding election night, unless you're affiliated with one of the candidates or are a party member/donor, most election-night gatherings are low-key affairs. On the west coast things don't get going until quite late, as the polls don't close until 8 or 9 pm, and either (a) the outcome is known right away based on returns from the east, or (b) the outcome isn't known and won't be until the following day. Olympia on election night will be dead as a door nail; the action will be in some hotel ballrooms in Seattle and Bellevue, or in Portland in the case of Oregon. Frankly I'd find a good pub with a lot of TV screens, and toast the health of the winner, or commiserate, as the case may be. |
Wow, thanks for such useful information! I think we can start to put together something really fun.
I hadn't considered the effect of the time difference on election night. A bar wherever we end up seems a better idea than planning something special. |
Originally Posted by saint_em
(Post 19286588)
Hi all. I am looking for a little advice on an upcoming trip. My boyfriend and I are travelling to the US from the UK from Oct 31 – Nov 11. Our ultimate destination is the Pacific NW/Vancouver area, but we have a night in Philadelphia on the way out and a night in Toronto on our way home (the penalty for using miles to book flights!).
Our trip is very much on a low budget as we’re unexpectedly moving house a few weeks before we go (we were going to cancel the trip, but we’ve got great flights and we don’t want to lose them). So, I’m looking for some tips on how to make our stay as budget-friendly as possible. We’re looking at spending our time in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, though we haven’t got a definite route/itinerary. We’d like to do the Boeing factory tour and to visit the museum of flight in Seattle, drink beer in Portland and that’s essentially it for ‘must do’ things! We’ll be in the US on election night, so a fun spot to watch the results is also on the list. We like transport and industrial history, craft beer and cheap & cheerful food (street food, diners, etc, rather than high-end restaurants). I’ve been reading the Lewis & Clark diaries, so I’m interested in sights they mention too. My first question – car rental is fairly cheap, picking up from YVR and returning there (we fly in to and out of Vancouver). Are there hotels in the suburbs of Seattle/Portland that are on public transport routes into the city? We’re hoping to save money by staying out of town where parking is cheaper and riding the bus or train ‘downtown’ for sightseeing, etc. Is this a feasible plan for a couple of days in each place? Obviously we’d use the car for Boeing and the museum of flight (unless the public transport to these places is excellent), and we definitely wouldn’t use the car after trying beer! Any tips for locations that would work well for this (so, close to a bus or train route, perhaps some restaurants within walking distance, cheap/free parking) would be greatly appreciated. Of course, if this plan is stupid (public transport costing a fortune, it not running past 8pm, etc), please let me know! Secondly – are there any smaller towns/cities which are worth a visit, based on our interests given above? Spokane and Eugene are the two that spring to mind, but given that Washington is electing its governor, would Olympia be an interesting place to visit around the election? Alternatively, are any of the coastal towns that would be nice for a night? Lastly, for now, we will probably be on the road at about 5pm once we’ve collected our car in Vancouver. Is this a terrible time to attempt to cross the border? Google maps says it’s about a 40 minute drive from the airport to the crossing, but how realistic is that at this time? Would killing a couple of hours at a mall or something be better than battling traffic? Thanks in advance for your help. the weather during your travel period i s usually in the upper 40s to mid 50s with half the time dealing with rain showers. This is the start of "hurricane" season of the Pacific NW where you can get some pretty strong storms that can cause flooding. Its not uncommon for the winds to be over 100 mph on the coast and over 60 inland. Also at this time...the snow level in the mountains have dropped to roadway mountain pass level so if you are thinking of going to the eastern side of the mountains...you need to watch the weather and be prepared to change your plans. When passing this chains are on the tires. As I look at your itinerary....I am figuring 2-3 days in each city. The drive between thenm is about 3 hrs. I would try to suggest you do Portland on one of the weekend days (Saturday or Sunday) because at that time of the year they still have their Saturday Market operating. The Saturday MArket is similar to Pike Place in Seattle where its mom/pap operated their own business by selling their crafts. In Seattle in woodenville is where many wineries are. Along with that their are microbreweries. Also during this time some specialty orchards produce hard apple cider that is sold at some of these microbreweries. For waterfalls..... Personally I would look to do Multnomah falls in the Columbia gorge over Snoqualmie falls. With Snoqualmie its now located in a suburban area and they have closed hiking trails. Multnomah is in theColumbia Gorge where there are many other falls you can find and see. The Boeing factory tour is in Mulkateo (info about this is on another thread on this page) The Museum of Flight is on Boeing Field just south of downtown Seattle. Not sure what your interests are...is it nature or city. IMPORTANT: At the time of your travel is usually the time the Humback whales make their commute from Alaska down the coast to southern California or Mexico. There are various whale watching tracking sites on this. If this is something you want to see then you could do a drive to the coast. The easiest is near Portland...when you leave Portland you drive to Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Astoria....here there is some historical sites with Lewis and Clark expidition. The other easy trip to the coast is from Olympia to Aberdeen. Each are about an hr drive to the coast. Portland is one of the most european of cities in the country. Portland has a decent subway/trolley system...much more so than Seattle. This also allows you to commute in from cheaper places. There are stations near Portland airport and in Gresham that you can find a hotel at around $75 a night and a 5 min drive to park. From the airport hotels you can take their airport shuttle and connect with the subway line by going to the airport. Seattle is much more expensive than Portland to park. One option...but this operates on a commuter schedule is SoundTransit commuter train that runs between Tacoma, Seattle and Everett. The line goes through Auburn, Kent, Sumner and Puyalup where you can find some cheaper places and then use the commuter tain to go into Seattle for the day. Another option is stay at an airport hotel...use their shuttle (Days Inn, Super 8 on international $75/night) to the airport then connect with Seattle light rail and go into downtown. Things to See/Do in Seattle.... Pikes Place MArket Seattle Art Museum Take a ferry to Bremerton or Bainbridge or take one of the boat tours into the Sound. The ferries do passangers only without car. Portland.... Saturday Market Portland art Museum Japanesse Garden nearby...Columbia Gorge. As I mentioned before...the weather can be an issue which is why Interstate 84 is the best and most reliable way to get through the Cascade Mountains. On the east side of the mountains.... Leavenworth/Wenatchee----leavenworth is an old mining town rebuilt to mimic a Bavarian Alps town. Wenatche is the apple capitol. Yakima...just sotuh is the rattlesnake valley with a bunch of wineries. Hood River/White Salmon Spokane is a little out of the way distancewise. ts a 4.5 hr drive from Seattle. The other "easier" crossing point is the Fraiser River from Vancouver. South of Portland is the Willamette Valley also with a ton of wineries. This stretches along hwy 99 from Portland to Eugene. Other stops along the way...Olympia washignton state capitol, salen Oregon state capitol. Tacoma has a couple of sites: Tacoma Glass Museum and Wshington State History museum. |
Originally Posted by saint_em
(Post 19287813)
Wow, thanks for such useful information! I think we can start to put together something really fun.
I hadn't considered the effect of the time difference on election night. A bar wherever we end up seems a better idea than planning something special. Washignton(most) and Oregon are vote by mail states. In Pierce County (Tacoma) and King County (Seattle) there may be a few walk in polls for the election...but I think all is down by mail. As a result most dont know the totals. In Oregon the ballots need to be receiver or in a drop box by eelction day. In Washignton the ballots need to be postmarked or in the drop boxes by election day. The drop boxes are usually where a few old polling places were (fire stations, schools, libraries). There isnt going to be large parties thrown that the public will be involved in. With the time difference....the east coast polls close at 5pm Pacific time. |
This is great (I am the boyfriend mentioned in the first post), thank you all for your replies - I fear we won't be able to fit everything in, but we'll try!
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My proposed itinerary for you.....
Wed Oct 31...Your flight gets in stay in Vancouver Thu Nov 1...Vancouver...evening drive down to Seattle (stay in Everett) Fri Nov 2....do Boeing tour, do museum of flight...evening in downtown Seatttle Sat Nov 3...day in Seattle.....drive down to Portland Sun Nov 4 day in Portland for Saturday market, Japanesse garden Mon Nov 5 Columbia Gorge, wineries Tues Nov 6 Day along coast near Cannon Beach and Astoria (Lewis and Clark sites) Wed Nov 7 Drive up stop in Olympia and Tacoma Thu Nov 8 Day in Seattle..explore the other parts you have to drive through like Ballard, Fremont... Fri Nov 9 ???? Sat Nov 10 Vancouver Sun Nov 11 Vancouver Im not sure when your flights arive and depart. Also.... Not sure if this is your taste or not.... In Seattle under the Hwy 99, Aurora bridge is the fremont Troll. Not sure if you get this in the UK...but there is the discovery show on the alaska fisherman called deadliest catch. Many of them are based out of Seattle so in the ballard locks there are a few tourist things there. You can tour one of the retired ships. Also in the Fremont/Ballard area there are few city parks that give you the scenic view of the seattle skyline with mt rainier in the background on a clear day. The itinery can be adjusted based on the westher. |
We actually land in Vancouver at about 1pm on the 1st. We like the sound of Portland at the weekend, and it seems the Mt Hood Railroad runs at weekends too.
Is driving straight from Vancouver to Portland, leaving Vancouver at about 2pm, going to be a nightmare? Google says it's about a 5hr drive straight down I5, but I don't know how likely this prediction is to be accurate. Is there anywhere on the way South worth spending the night? We like the idea of the scenic route back North, hence using I5 for this leg. |
Originally Posted by saint_em
(Post 19306338)
We actually land in Vancouver at about 1pm on the 1st. We like the sound of Portland at the weekend, and it seems the Mt Hood Railroad runs at weekends too.
Is driving straight from Vancouver to Portland, leaving Vancouver at about 2pm, going to be a nightmare? Google says it's about a 5hr drive straight down I5, but I don't know how likely this prediction is to be accurate. Is there anywhere on the way South worth spending the night? We like the idea of the scenic route back North, hence using I5 for this leg. |
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