Washington State and Oregon Itinerary for 1 Week

TRAVEL

We arrived in Seattle at 10am. To get to the city, we used the train and got an uber to pick up our rental car from Turo. If you’ve never heard about Turo, it’s kinda like uber, but for renting cars. Our rental was only $30 per day and we drove a black Honda civic.

• Tip: I realized that we actually didn’t need a rental car while we were in Seattle because our hotel was close to everything and daily parking in Seattle averages at around $50. We could’ve saved some money, but it was too late.

Checked in at our hotel. Payed $110 for 2 night parking. BIG OOF.

HOTEL

Homewood Suites Seattle Convention Center/Pike Street

This was a super nice hotel! It had a living room, kitchen, a gym, hot tub, pool, computer center, a tv in the living room AND bedroom, and complimentary breakfast and happy hour from 5-7pm where the served free beer, wine, and dinner. The view of the skyscrapers was a nice touch.

I’m so used to staying in cheap hostels, and I really wanted to splurge on a nice hotel since this trip was for our anniversary. I highly recommend this hotel because it was so close to downtown and everything was walking distance. Super convenient.

PIKES PLACE MARKET

We walked for about 15 mins to Pikes Place Market. So many things to do here!! We were so hungry, so we headed straight to Beecher’s Handmade Cheese to get some food. Don’t miss this place it’s soooo gewwwwd.

When you get here, there’s honestly so much to see. We probably walked around for 2-3 hours. Tried some smoked salmon at the fish market, saw the fish toss, and smelled all the flowers.

We stopped by the first ever Starbucks, of course, then ate more food and drank some more at Rachel’s Ginger Beer. I got a ginger beer float cocktail thing. I think it was peach ginger beer, with tequila, and vanilla soft serve, so basically 3 of my favorite things in one tall glass. The hubs got a soft serve.

A few blocks away is the gum wall. I really thought it would only be like one small wall, but it was a whole alley, and it was absolutely disgusting and awesome at the same time.

• Tip: Don’t forget to bring your own bubble gum, so you can contribute to the disgusting-ness.

We were so tired, so we just grabbed some snacks at Target on the way back to our hotel. Our hotel also includes complimentary alcohol and dinner from 5-7pm, so we definitely took advantage of that.

Day 2

Our hotel has complimentary breakfast,so weren’t able to try Biscuit Bitch or Portage Bay Café which were both highly recommended.

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND AND FERRY

Walked 20 mins to the ferry station. Took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. It costs $8 per person. If you have the Orca card, you can use it for the ferry. The ferry takes about 45 mins one way.

• Tip: take a picture of the ferry schedule or screenshot it online to make sure you can get back on time.

Bainbridge is such a cute little town. We just walked around and checked out all the stores. I found kombucha on tap

• Tip: walk by the water! It’s so beautiful.

Lunch: Harbour Public House. We got here right when it opened which was 11am, and got such a great seating outside with the view of the water. The fish and chips and clam chowder to die for!

After lunch, we got on the ferry back to the city. It costs nothing to get back on the ferry back to Seattle.

BACK IN THE CITY

We just walked around the Ferris wheel area and back to our hotel to pick up our car. We drove to Full Tilt Ice Cream for a quick snack. The one that we went to was in the Capitol Hill area.

PANORAMIC VIEW OF SEATTLE

Afterwards, we drove to Kerry Park to see the panoramic view of the city. It’s a small park with a surprisingly nice view of everything Seattle.

• Tip: Another option is happy hour at the Smith Tower 360-degree view of the city (4:00-6:00pm). it’s usually $20 to go up the tower, but only $10 during happy hour. We didn’t do this since Kerry Park was free and it has the best view of the space needle.

I don’t really recommend going up the Space Needle. I really don’t think it’s worth $44 and once you’re up there you don’t get a view of the space needle itself. It’s kinda like going up the Eiffel Tower and not having the view of what Paris is known for!

We planned on going to the Chihuly Glass Museum, but it was a bit pricey as well and it was happened to be closed for an event, so it worked out for our wallets.

We ate at Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya for dinner, which was a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  I highly recommend the garlic tonkotsu ramen with pork belly. Oh my lawwwwd so good.

• Tip: there’s a Starbucks Roastery a few blocks from this area. We didn’t go in because we were exhausted, but it looked so much more interesting than the first ever Starbucks.

 

Mt. Rainier National Park

Day 3

 

TRAVEL

Drove about 2 hours to get to the Mt. Rainier National Park Visitor Center (Paradise Entrance).

• Tip: Make sure that you are going to the Paradise entrance because there a couple of entrances. Also, if you are using google maps, save your map to access it offline because you will lose service. The correct address is for Henry M Jackson Visitor Center. There’s not a lot of signs once you get in the park, which was odd. We were using highway 410, but make sure to merge into 123 once you reach a fork to get to the Paradise entrance.

We did the Skyline Trail Loop: 5.5 miles loop. This might be one of the prettiest hikes I have ever done. You have such a pretty view the whole time. 2/3’s of the hike, you get to look at Mt. Rainier and see the glacier up close. When you look behind you, you will see a panoramic view of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. It  was honestly Sound of Music vibes. You get to see everything—wildflowers, wildlife, meadows, especially in the last 1/3 of the hike. We actually took a shortcut and went through the Golden Gate Trail going back. At the end of it, you get to see the stunning Myrtle falls. It’s such a rewarding hike. The first mile is all uphill and strenuous, but the rest of the hike was very easy. It took us about 5 hours to complete the loop, which included stopping for pictures and water breaks. It’s so worth it.

HOTEL

Paradise Village Hotel

Our cabin omg. I have so much to say about this cabin!!!! It’s so charming. I wanted to originally stay at Paradise Village Inn, but they were all booked and required a 2-night stay. I’m so glad we didn’t stay there because it looked so crowded.

People, Paradise Village Hotel is where you need to be. Bring your friends, cousins, mother, and your grocery bagger to this place. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside was so nice. This hotel is owned by a Ukrainian family. It seems to be recently renovated and everything looked like a modern farmhouse. The bathroom floor was HEATED! I repeat, HEATED FLOORS. I don’t think you understand how much it changed my life. And the bathroom plays music.

We ate dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. They had combinations of Eastern European foods and American food. The restaurant was so cozy and it was just a vibe. We ordered salmon with roasted vegetables, broccoli and cheese soup, and chicken fettuccine alfredo. Everything made my heart feel so happy.

 

Portland 

Day 4

We headed straight to Pine State Biscuits from our lodge in Mt. Rainier, which was about a 2-hour drive. I ordered the highly recommended “The Reggie.” It was good and the gravy was yuuuum, but I still prefer the biscuit sandwiches from Denver Biscuit Co. Those are way more flavorful. “The Reggie” is like when you have a summer fling. You don’t really want to marry your summer fling.

DOWNTOWN PORTLAND

Afterwards, we drove downtown to Powell’s bookstore. If you are a big reader, you will love this place. L and I don’t read very often (even though we would really want to), and we still ended up buying books and enjoying everything. It’s like a huge bookstore maze. The whole place is massive.

We had a lot of time to kill, but had no concrete agenda, so we went to the water front and stumbled upon the Saturday market and just people watched for a while.

• Tip: If you walk a few more blocks, you will find Mill Ends Park (or maybe completely miss it). It is the smallest park in the world! It’s kind of stupid and hilarious because it’s so easy to miss because of how small it is. If you type it in google maps, it’s easy to get to it. It’s kind of in the middle of the road.

PORTLAND IS FOR EATING

We ate dinner Nongs Khao Man Gai (order #1), let me tell you. This meal was so good I think I inhaled it in 2 seconds. It was tender and full of flavor. L ordered the pork dish, which confirmed his love for Portland. For dessert, we went to Salt and Straw for ice cream. This place is officially my favorite ice cream place. If you take anything from this Washington State Oregon Itinerary, it is to go and eat ice cream at Salt and Straw. You just have to try it yourself. What makes them unique is that they put vegetables and other eccentric ingredients in their ice cream (not in all of them though). Like they have flavors like, lavender olive oil and strawberry balsamic vinegar.

Airbnb: A house 20 mins from Portland

I also wanted to include Bend and Crater Lake into this Washington State Oregon itinerary, but we only had 8 days unfortunately.

 

Lavender Valley Farm and Multnomah Falls Columbia River Gorge

Day 5

For our early morning fuel, we went to Pip’s Doughnuts and Chai.  can’t even describe to you how much we loved this place. We tried every single donut and our favorites were maple bacon and hazelnut. The honey flavor one was good too.  I don’t think you can go wrong with whatever you order here. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

LAVENDER FARMS

We drove to Hood River Lavender Farms for a nice view of Mt. Adams. Because it’s already the end of September, there weren’t a lot of lavender in bloom left. Stayed here for about 15 mins.

We then headed to Lavender Valley Farms for an incredible view of Mt. Hood. SUCH AN AMAZING PLACE. We took my most favorite pictures here. We were having so much fun that we didn’t realize that we had been taking pictures for an hour. Another thing that was so awesome about this place is that there weren’t many people. There were probably 5 of us the whole time we took pictures.

• Tip: These farms are only 15 mins away from each other, so go to both. You also call ahead to make check if the lavender fields are still in bloom.

For lunch, we just stopped by the side of the road to eat some cold meats and snacks. Super fancy hah.

• Optional: Mt. Hood National Forest (about a 45-minute drive)

On the way back to Portland, we stopped at Multnomah falls. It was very pretty and definitely much taller than I was expecting, but we didn’t go up or hike it because we were pretty slumped. This place had so many people! It was ridiculous. Probably my lest favorite part of the trip.

BACK IN THE CITY

For dinner, we went to the famous Pokpok restaurant. We had about an hour wait, so we walked around the block and found the store called Citizen Ruth. The sell feminist and LGBT friendly knickknacks.

Pokpok is famous for their fish sauce wings, which I honestly did not like very much because they were extremely salty and overpowering. The grilled pork was seasoned very well, and the pork satay was just okay. This place might be a bit overhyped.

• Tip: there’s a restaurant down the street called Whiskey Soda Lounge that serves the exact same dishes with no wait time. I believe they’re owned by the same management.

Afterwards, we stopped by Salt and Straw for ice cream AGAIN because it was just THAT good. Eating is the best part of this Washington State Oregon itinerary.

 

Olympic National Park- Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent

Day 6

HURRICANE RIDGE

We drove 5 hours from Portland to Hurricane Ridge. There’s a quick 45 min loop that you can do here called High Ridge trail, which we planned on doing, but ended up doing the 4-mile hike Klahhane Ridge accidentally. I’m never trusting Lawrence to ask for directions. He forgot the name of the actual loop, so we accidentally went on another trail. We should’ve known it was wrong since we were the only people on the trail. Lawrence said that they both had the word “ridge,” so he thought they were the same trail. I was pissed for like 2 seconds. BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO? Our 45 min hike turned into 4 hours.

HOTEL AND LAKE CRESCENT LODGE

Hotel: Lake Crescent Lodge

After that grueling hike, we drove to Lake Crescent, which is also where our hotel was located. I wanted to spend a few hours here, but obviously couldn’t because our hike was kind of a fail. We got here right around 7:30 pm which was the perfect time to see the sunset. My frustration from the hike quickly disappeared when I saw the view here. Such a perfect location. We sat in the screened in patio for dinner and ordered mules, fish and chips, cheeseburger, and fries. I don’t know if we were just super hungry and tired, but the food made me forget all my problems.

Optional: Cape Flattery/Neah Bay (1 hour 30 mins)

 

Olympic National Park- Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach

Day 7

We slept in until about 8am and ate breakfast at the hotel. Iced coffee, eggs, hash, and bacon, with the view of Lake Crescent is how I want to start all my mornings. Since we got to the lodge pretty late the night before, we spent about an hour enjoying the lake and taking pictures.

HOH NATIONAL RAINFOREST

We headed to the Hoh National Rainforest. The rainforest is about an hour and a half drive from the lodge. We did the Hall of Mosses “hike,” which took about 45 mins. It was more like a walk. We made sure it was an actual loop this time and stayed on the right trail! Definitely could not risk another 4-mile accidental hike again. The drive to Hoh Rainforest was gorgeous, but I wasn’t that impressed by the trail itself. Maybe I was expecting this place to be like the actual Brazilian amazon or maybe because I’ve seen moss when visiting Charleston, SC.

For lunch, we decided on Hard Rain Café because honestly, there was nothing else around. This restaurant/souvenir shop was about 3 miles outside of the Hoh Rainforest entrance. It’s a bit easy to miss, but you will definitely pass it. Their burgers were surprisingly juicy and flavorful. Make sure to also get the mocha iced coffee and salmon berry iced tea.

Optional: Sol Duc Hot Springs/Sol Duc Falls

RUBY BEACH

After stuffing our bellies, we drove straight to Ruby beach, which took about an hour. I have been excited to go here the most! I looked at so many Instagram pictures weeks before the trip. I was so in love. It was everything I ever imagined. The water was cold, but I loved the gorgeous sea stacks, fresh air, and how the sound of the water made me feel. This is exactly how I imagined the Pacific North West to be. This was probably my most favorite part of the trip.

• Tip: If you prefer to lie on the sand and tan, there are a couple of beach entrances without the sea stacks if you keep driving passed the main entrance where the sand is not damp.

Airbnb: Overnight at Olympia

We had about a 3-hour drive to Olympia where our Airbnb was located, so we left right before sun set. Stopped by McDonalds for dinner because it was already about 10 pm. Olympia is a pretty good stopping point and it’s also a good place middle ground when visiting Washington State and Oregon.

Day 8

RETURN HOME

Returned our rental car and caught our flight to RDU.

Pacific North West, I miss you so so so much already. I hope this Washington State Oregon Itinerary is helpful for your future trip!

Do you have any Washington State or Oregon recommendations?