Looking at taking a vacation to Washington state

My hubby and I have talked about taking our next out of state vacation to Washington state.

I have been to the Seattle/Everett area in 2005, got a chance to travel to the mountains east of there. Had a great time.

Do any of you have any recommendations as to places to see? What is the best of the time of the year to go there?

Any recommendations or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

a reply to: ChiefD

Olympia is nice for some architecture if your into that, along with the mountain most likely the best time of year for it, my road trip with my fiancee, in January was nice and snowing then. Vashon if you can really nice.

a reply to: ChiefD

What time of year are you considering?

originally posted by: ChiefD
My hubby and I have talked about taking our next out of state vacation to Washington state.

I have been to the Seattle/Everett area in 2005, got a chance to travel to the mountains east of there. Had a great time.

Do any of you have any recommendations as to places to see? What is the best of the time of the year to go there?

Any recommendations or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

My home State! I have resided in Washington for 54 years, and love the geographical features as much as historic sites. We have the ocean, the mountains, lakes, rivers, and all recreational activities related. The best time, weather-wise, would be between late July through September.

Here is a brief list dependent on where the road takes you:

--Seafair festivities, occurring 1st week of Aug: parade, micro-brew fests, food, fun, pirates, hydros, & Blue Angels!
--hiking/berry piking/fishing on your choice of mtn. ranges: Olympic and Cascades
--whale watching/fishing on Puget Sound, offered in many places
--Seattle proper: Space Needle, Pike Place Market, underground, music venues, float plane tours, museums,etc.
--E. Wash: Leavenworth, white water rafting, rodeos, Casinos, resorts

There is so much to do here that we locals take many traditions and institutions for granted. If I knew what interests tickled you & hubby's fancy, I can be detailed. Hope this helps!

a reply to: ChiefD

As 5th Nov. stated, and I forgot, you could spend days exploring the many islands. Vashon, Widbey, Camano, and on.
Also, if you are para-normally inclined, THE Gilliland Ranch. I went last summer with my brothers and 2 friends, and OMG---what an experience. You've gotta make reservations and a small donation, but spending time there, and the things we saw(don't know how to interpret what I saw) were a once in a lifetime experience.

Hi, I've lived in Washington State for 63 years.

I'd say a couple of big draws are Mt. St. Helens, the Olympic Rain forest and Mt. Rainier of course, and all the places my fellow Washingtonian Bosco mentioned.

Oh yeah and don't forget legal weed! That right there is reason enough.

We are having unseasonable hot weather this year, hot and dry. Breaking lots of records with the heat.

We spend a lot of time outdoors and avoid crowds, but a trip to Seattle and the Public Market is always a good time.

I've never heard of the Gilliland Ranch, but just checked it out, sounds fascinating.

Anyway, good luck with your trip planning.

a reply to: ChiefD

My hubby and I have talked about taking our next out of state vacation to Washington state.

One of the cool things about the Seattle area is its diversity of things to do. You can travel for 10 minutes to 2 hours in any direction and find something to keep you occupied for several hours, or days.

Without knowing your interests or other parameters to consider the list of suggestions is very long.

Things to do in Seattle

We can help better if you post your general interests. Or, if you see something interesting on the Google link above ask us for more details about it and our experiences.

I have lived in Seattle/Washington for nearly 50 years and have a couple of favorite place I like to take visitors:

1. Grand Coulee Dam / Lake Roosevelt (great if you are interested in history/industrial revolution)
2. Queen Anne Hill (Bhy Kracke Park)
3. Elbe (at the base of Mt. Ranier)
4. Burke Museum (next to UofW)
5. Sea-Plane sightseeing over Seattle area (fairly inexpensive for the amazing views)
6. Mt. St. Helens (I suggest staying in Portland, OR overnight)
7. Birch Bay (this could be a side trip on the way to BC)
8. Snoqualmie Falls (you may have already seen this gorgeous landmark)
9. Alki Point (a nifty view of the city)
10. Whidbey Island (my first GF was the great great great grand-daughter of Captain Whidbey, for whom this beautiful island community was named)

This is just a fraction of the countless interesting places to experience the PNW!
I hope you have a great trip, most of the people around here are decent, just stay away from the people from CA.

A fun thing to do if you have never been on them before is to take some Ferry boat rides around the sound.

If you get over by Grand Coulee check out Dry Falls.

Dry Falls is a 3.5 mile long scalloped precipice in central Washington, on the opposite side of the Upper Grand Coulee from the Columbia River, and at the head of the Lower Grand Coulee. At five times the width of Niagara,Dry Falls is thought by some to be the greatest known waterfall that ever existed.

en.wikipedia.org...

Thanks for all the responses, ideas, and links.

I'm looking at going next summer, June or July.

I love the mountains, so I'd definitely go see Mt St Helens and Mt Ranier.

Some of the islands sound very nice. That would be fun to explore.

And I'd also want to see parts of Seattle I didn't get to see the last time I was there.

It was neat to see all the vineyards along I5 north of Seattle. When I was there in 2005, there were many beautiful fields of tulips and daffodils. I was there the first two weeks of March, and the weather was unseasonably warm and dry. This caused the early blooms, which I understand don't normally take place until later in March.

Most days were in the 60's or 70's. Locals told me the weather was very weird, as normally it's colder and rainy during that time of the year.

I thought the Mount Vernon area was lovely too. I'm planning to rent a car, as we're looking at driving north to Canada. Just have to get my hubby a passport.

I won't get on a plane, so we're planning on taking Amtrak there. It will be about a 2 1/2 day trip one way, so we'll need to take a couple of weeks.

This is something I have dreamed about for a long time. Hopefully I can make it happen next year.

Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forests, Rain Forest, Desert, Beach, Peugeot Sound, Everything from urban metropolis to rural farmlands and orchards. You could visit the graves of Bruce Lee and his son Brandon which are side by side in or near the U-district (University of Washington), then go a few miles over to Gasworks Park, stopping on the way to grab some of the best greasy,cheap fastfood at Dick's Burgers, then go downtown to Pike Place Market, and/or Pacific Science Center near the Space Needle, maybe later on hit the nightlife in Pioneer Square, paying a one time fee to get into 8 to 10 different bars/dance clubs. Then spend the next day traveling out to Mt. Rainier, which I believe has Ice Caves. There are multiple ice caves somewhere in the state.

. There's the Northwest Trek to look into. Take a day to go out to Ocean Shores, maybe during Harley Weekend or some other event, and take in the beach where lots of people go to fly awesome kites, and you could rent a dune buggy on the beach or take a horse ride on the beach. Maybe head up north to Deception Pass, or go out to the Peninsula to see Mt. St. Helens or visit the Ho Rainforest and try to find the elusive Mick Dodge & friends... there's so much to do. If you wanna go to Eastern WA, there's Leavenworth, a neat little town you should at least look up. Or go out in the desert and go rattlesnake hunting.