Cascadia: Seattle, Olympic, Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler

1. Day 1: Arrive in Seattle

   Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to your hotel in central Seattle

   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Seattle
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), about 25 km south of downtown. We meet arrivals at set times through the day and drive you to a central hotel; the pick-up windows come with your final itinerary. If you land early, the city is easy to explore on foot: walk down to the waterfront on Elliott Bay, where the green and white state ferries come and go, or wander Pioneer Square, the brick district where Seattle began after the fire of 1889. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the hotel for a short briefing on the trip: two countries, three ferries and a passport check in the middle, how the days are paced, and what to pack for rain in the Hoh and wind on Hurricane Ridge. Then we walk to a welcome dinner nearby, with Pacific Northwest salmon and shellfish on the menu. Tomorrow starts at Pike Place Market as the stalls open, a few minutes from the hotel.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in Seattle

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Pike Place Market and the Space Needle

   Pike Place Market, the waterfront and Seattle Center

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Seattle
   Day 2 details

   We walk into Pike Place Market at about 9 am, as the produce, flower and craft stalls open and before the midday crowds, which are heaviest on cruise-ship days. The market has traded above the waterfront since 1907; your guide takes you past the fish stalls and the craft tables, down through the lower levels and out to the viewpoints over Elliott Bay, then onto the rebuilt waterfront promenade. Lunch is your choice inside the market, where the choice is wide. In the early afternoon a short van ride brings us to Seattle Center, built for the 1962 World's Fair, and up the Space Needle on a timed ticket. From the decks at about 160 m you look over Lake Union, the Olympic Mountains we cross to tomorrow and, on a clear day, Mount Rainier. The rest of the day is free: Chihuly Garden and Glass is next door, and the Olympic Sculpture Park runs down to the water a short walk away.

   Included

   • Guided walk through Pike Place Market as the stalls open
   • The Seattle waterfront
   • Space Needle observation decks on a timed ticket

   Optional experiences

   • Chihuly Garden and Glass
   • Museum of Pop Culture
   • The Ballard Locks and fish ladder

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Seattle

   Activity: About 3 km on foot in the morning, with some steep streets and stairs between the market and the waterfront.

   

3. Day 3: Across Puget Sound to Rialto Beach

   Seattle to Bainbridge Island by ferry, then Port Angeles, Lake Crescent, Forks and Rialto Beach

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Forks
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we take the Washington State ferry from Colman Dock for the 35-minute crossing to Bainbridge Island, with the Seattle skyline behind. From the island it is about an hour and three quarters over the Hood Canal Bridge and along the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles, where we stop for a sit-down lunch. The road then follows the south shore of Lake Crescent, deep, clear and ringed by forested hills, and we pull in at the water for a short stop before Forks, about an hour and twenty minutes after lunch. After check-in we drive 25 minutes each way to Rialto Beach on the wild Pacific coast of Olympic National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sea stacks stand offshore, and the beach is piled with bleached driftwood. We walk north along the shore in the late afternoon light, and if the tide is low, on to the arch at Hole-in-the-Wall. With the Rialto run the day has about 4 hours of driving. Dinner in Forks is included, since there are few places to eat here.

   Included

   • Seattle to Bainbridge Island ferry across Puget Sound
   • Sit-down lunch in Port Angeles
   • Lake Crescent
   • Olympic National Park entry, as arranged with the park
   • Rialto Beach walk with your guide
   • Dinner in Forks

   Easier option: Walk a short way along the driftwood at Rialto Beach, about 1 km, and wait at the sea stacks nearest the parking area.

   More active option: Walk to Hole-in-the-Wall and back, about 5 km on sand and cobbles, when the tide allows passing the headland.

   Free time: Late evening free in Forks

   Activity: About 4 hours on the road in all, Rialto Beach included: about 1 h 45 to Port Angeles, 1 h 20 to Forks and 25 minutes each way to the beach, plus the ferry. Rialto Beach is sand and loose cobbles, and Hole-in-the-Wall can only be reached safely around low tide; your guide checks the tide table.

   

4. Day 4: The Hoh Rain Forest and Hurricane Ridge

   Forks to the Hoh Rain Forest, then Lake Crescent, Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Port Angeles
   Day 4 details

   From Forks the Hoh Rain Forest is about 50 minutes, so we leave at 7:30 and are at the entrance by about 8:20, ahead of the summer queue that builds at its single gate later in the morning. The Hoh gets several metres of rain a year: Sitka spruce and western hemlock rise from fallen nurse logs, and bigleaf maples hang with thick curtains of moss. We walk the Hall of Mosses and the Spruce Nature Trail with your guide, watching for Roosevelt elk. Then it is about an hour and a half back through Forks to Lake Crescent for a picnic lunch by the water, and 45 minutes on to Port Angeles to check in. In the afternoon, when the morning cloud has often lifted, we climb about 27 km to Hurricane Ridge at around 1,600 m, about 45 minutes each way, to views of the glaciers of Mount Olympus and meadows with deer and marmots. This is the trip's longest day, about 4.5 hours of driving, because the Hoh and the Ridge sit on opposite sides of the park; no leg is over 90 minutes, and lunch and walks break it up. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Hoh Rain Forest: the Hall of Mosses and the Spruce Nature Trail with your guide
   • Picnic lunch at Lake Crescent
   • Hurricane Ridge viewpoints and meadow walks with your guide

   Easier option: Walk only the Hall of Mosses, a flat loop of about 1.3 km, and stay on the level meadow paths near the Hurricane Ridge parking area.

   More active option: Walk to Marymere Falls from Lake Crescent, about 3 km return, after lunch; and at Hurricane Ridge, if the road beyond the parking area has reopened, the paved Hurricane Hill trail, about 5 km return with about 200 m of climbing.

   Free time: Evening free in Port Angeles

   Activity: About 4.5 hours on the road, the only day over our 4-hour guide, in legs of 90 minutes or less: 50 minutes to the Hoh, 1 h 30 to Lake Crescent, 45 minutes to Port Angeles, and 45 minutes each way to Hurricane Ridge. The 7:30 start is the price of reaching the Hoh before the queue. Hurricane Ridge can be cold and windy even in summer; the day lodge burned in 2023, so only basic facilities are open at the top. We carry water in the van.

   

5. Day 5: The Coho ferry to Victoria

   Port Angeles to Victoria by ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Victoria
   Day 5 details

   Today we cross into Canada by sea. The MV Coho car ferry sails from the Port Angeles waterfront across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 90 minutes, and we travel as foot passengers with our luggage: our Washington van and driver say goodbye at the terminal, and a Canadian van and driver meet us in Victoria. The Coho runs only a few sailings a day, so the time of today's crossing depends on the season's timetable, which we confirm with your dates. If it is a morning sailing, the walk below follows lunch; if it is later, the morning is free in Port Angeles and the walk moves to the early evening. Canadian border officers check passports on arrival in the Inner Harbour, a few steps from the hotels. Watch from the deck for harbour porpoises and, now and then, whales. Your guide then takes you on foot around the Inner Harbour: the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, finished in 1898, the Fairmont Empress facing the water, and the lanes of Chinatown, the oldest in Canada, including Fan Tan Alley. The rest of the day is free.

   Included

   • MV Coho ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria
   • Guided walk around the Inner Harbour, the Parliament Buildings and Chinatown

   Optional experiences

   • Royal BC Museum
   • Afternoon tea in Victoria

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Victoria

   Activity: About 3 km on foot, flat. Keep your passport in your hand luggage for the crossing. The Coho sails only a few times a day; the sailing time, and so the order of today's plan, comes with your confirmation.

   

6. Day 6: Butchart Gardens and whale watching

   Victoria to Butchart Gardens and back, then a whale-watching boat from the Inner Harbour

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Victoria
   Day 6 details

   We drive about half an hour north to Butchart Gardens to walk in as the gates open, before the tour coaches. Begun in the early 1900s in a worked-out limestone quarry, the gardens are a National Historic Site of Canada: the Sunken Garden fills the old quarry floor, and the Rose, Japanese and Italian gardens spread out beyond it. Your guide walks the first loop with you, then you have time on your own before we drive back to Victoria by about 12:30 for lunch of your choice at the harbour. At about 2 pm we board a whale-watching boat from the Inner Harbour with a naturalist guide for about three hours in the Salish Sea. Summer brings Bigg's orcas and humpback whales to these waters, with sea lions, harbour seals and bald eagles on the rocks; sightings are likely in summer but never certain. We are back by early evening, and dinner is free.

   Included

   • Butchart Gardens entry at opening
   • Whale-watching boat trip with a naturalist, about 3 hours

   Easier option: Choose the covered cabin on the whale-watching boat rather than the open deck, and keep to the main paths at Butchart Gardens.

   More active option: Walk every garden at Butchart, about 3 km on paths and stairs, while the others take the main loop.

   Free time: Evening free in Victoria

   Activity: About 3 km on garden paths with some stairs. The boat can be cold and wet even in summer; the operator provides warm gear on open boats, and seasickness tablets are worth bringing.

   

7. Day 7: Through the Gulf Islands to Vancouver

   Victoria to Swartz Bay, ferry to Tsawwassen, then Granville Island and Gastown in Vancouver

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Vancouver
   Day 7 details

   We leave Victoria at about 9 am for Swartz Bay, 35 minutes up the Saanich Peninsula, and drive onto a BC Ferries sailing to Tsawwassen on the mainland. The crossing takes about an hour and a half and threads the Southern Gulf Islands through Active Pass, where the forested shores come close on both sides; it is a good hour to stand on deck. From Tsawwassen it is about 40 minutes into Vancouver. Lunch is your choice at the Granville Island Public Market, a former industrial island under the Granville Street Bridge, full of food stalls, artists' studios and a working fishing dock. In the afternoon your guide walks you through Gastown, the city's oldest quarter, past its steam clock and cobbled streets, and along Coal Harbour to Canada Place, with floatplanes taking off against the North Shore mountains. The evening is free in Vancouver, where the restaurant choice is huge.

   Included

   • BC Ferries sailing from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen through the Gulf Islands
   • Granville Island Public Market
   • Guided walk through Gastown, Coal Harbour and Canada Place

   Optional experiences

   • Vancouver Lookout tower
   • Aquabus across False Creek

   Free time: Evening free in Vancouver

   Activity: About 4 km on foot in the afternoon, mostly flat.

   

8. Day 8: The Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler

   Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay, Shannon Falls and the Sea to Sky Gondola at Squamish, then Brandywine Falls and Whistler, and back

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Vancouver
   Day 8 details

   We leave at 8 am on the Sea to Sky Highway, cut into the cliffs above Howe Sound. About an hour brings us to Shannon Falls, which drops some 335 m beside the road, and next door the Sea to Sky Gondola lifts us to a summit at about 885 m, with a suspension bridge and short trails looking down the fjord. About 45 minutes further north we stop at Brandywine Falls, about 70 m, a short walk from the road, and Whistler is 20 minutes on. We sit down to lunch in the village, which hosted events of the 2010 Winter Olympics, then visit the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, where Indigenous guides introduce the two nations whose shared territory this is. You have about an hour and a half free in the village before the drive back, about two hours in one stretch, for a farewell dinner together in Vancouver at about 7:30 pm. It is a full day: about 4 hours of driving, plus the gondola, lunch, the centre and free time. If you would rather rest, stay in Vancouver and join us for dinner.

   Included

   • Shannon Falls
   • Sea to Sky Gondola at Squamish
   • Brandywine Falls
   • Sit-down lunch in Whistler
   • Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre entry and guided introduction
   • Farewell dinner in Vancouver

   Optional experiences

   • Peak 2 Peak Gondola in Whistler

   Easier option: Stay near the summit lodge and viewing decks at the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola.

   More active option: Walk the Panorama Trail loop at the top of the gondola, about 1.6 km, and the trail to the Brandywine Falls viewing platform and the suspension bridge beyond it.

   Free time: About 90 minutes free in Whistler Village; or skip the day and keep it free in Vancouver

   Activity: About 4 hours on the road: about 1 hour to Shannon Falls, 45 minutes to Brandywine Falls and 20 minutes to Whistler on the way up, then about 2 hours straight back. Out at 8 am, back for dinner at about 7:30 pm. About 4 km on foot on gravel trails and boardwalk.

   

9. Day 9: Stanley Park and home from Vancouver

   Vancouver to Stanley Park, then Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   A last walk before you fly. At about 9 am we drive into Stanley Park, the 400-hectare forest at the tip of the downtown peninsula, and walk a stretch of the seawall to the totem poles at Brockton Point, carved by artists of First Nations along the coast, with views back across Coal Harbour to the city and over to the North Shore mountains. The park is quiet at this hour, and your guide talks about the city's Indigenous and port history as we go. Back at the hotel by about 10:30, you have time to pack and check out, and then it is about 40 minutes to Vancouver International Airport (YVR), where we drop the group at about noon. Flights to the United States clear US customs and immigration in Vancouver before you board, so allow time for that. Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm. If you are staying on, we can leave you at the hotel instead.

   Included

   • Stanley Park seawall and the Brockton Point totem poles with your guide
   • Drop-off at Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

   Easier option: If your flight leaves before about 3 pm, we take you to YVR straight from the hotel in the morning.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm. About 2 km on foot, flat.

Wildlife and weather: July and August are the driest months, with Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver often in the low to mid 20s C, while the Pacific coast stays near 15 C and is often foggy in the morning. Hurricane Ridge can hold snow into June, and the Hoh gets rain in every month. Look for Olympic marmots and black-tailed deer at Hurricane Ridge, Roosevelt elk in the Hoh valley, sea stars in the tide pools at Rialto Beach, and Bigg's orcas, humpback whales, sea lions and bald eagles in the Salish Sea.

• Seattle2 nights
• Forks1 night
• Port Angeles1 night
• Victoria2 nights
• Vancouver2 nights