Our Washington State Family Itinerary: Seattle, Mount Rainier and Olympic National Park
I recently wrote about why I overplan every family vacation.
Washington State was the trip that made me want to write that post.
I had built a very detailed itinerary before we left. Then we changed it repeatedly.
Some of those changes happened before the trip. We reversed the direction we planned to travel around Olympic National Park. We changed hotels. We dropped activities that looked good on paper but made less sense geographically.
Other changes happened while we were there because of weather, parking, energy, timing or simply discovering that we could fit in more than I expected.
The result was a trip that included Seattle, Mount Rainier, Olympic National Park, Shabbat in the city, waterfalls, rainforests, beaches, Boeing and quite a lot of driving.
This is the itinerary we actually did.
The basic route
We flew into Seattle and rented a minivan.
Our trip went roughly:
Seattle-Tacoma Airport → DuPont → Mount Rainier → Tacoma → Seattle → Lake Quinault and the Olympic coast → Forks → Hoh Rain Forest → Lake Crescent → Hurricane Ridge → Kingston-Edmonds ferry → Lynnwood/Everett → Seattle → airport
We stayed:
- One night in DuPont before Mount Rainier
- Three nights in Seattle, including Shabbat
- One night in Forks
- One night in Lynnwood before our final day
This worked very well geographically.
The one thing I would emphasize if you are planning something similar is that Olympic National Park is enormous. There is no road through the middle of the park. You are driving around it.
Looking at the route on an actual map before booking hotels matters.
I learned this even more emphatically when one of my early AI-generated trip maps cheerfully showed us driving across water.
Day 1: We Landed Late, So the Goal Was Just to Get South
Our flight landed in Seattle at night, and the first night was intentionally boring.
We picked up the rental car and drove down to DuPont, where we stayed at the Home2 Suites. The whole point was to wake up already south of Seattle and closer to Mount Rainier instead of starting our first real vacation day in traffic.
One small thing that helped: I had packed everyone’s pajamas and Rainier clothes together so we did not have to unpack six people’s luggage around midnight.
Nothing memorable happened that night. That was fine. The next morning was the point.
What worked: positioning ourselves for an early Mount Rainier start instead of trying to make Seattle the base for everything.
Day 2: Mount Rainier Kept Giving Us More Time Than I Expected
This was the day where all the overplanning really paid off.
We entered Mount Rainier through the Nisqually Entrance and started working our way toward Paradise. I knew the basic order of the stops, but I did not know how long each one would actually take once we were there.
We stopped at Longmire Museum, hiked to Carter Falls, saw Christine Falls, stopped at Ricksecker Point, and then went to Narada Falls.
By 11:00, we had already done all of that.
That was not what I expected.
We passed the visitor center at Paradise, but parking was completely full, so instead of circling forever, we stopped elsewhere and ate lunch.
This is where having too much research helped. I already knew what else was around. We could decide whether to go back toward Paradise, add another hike, stop at Reflection Lakes, or simply keep moving.
We ended up doing more around the mountain and then headed toward Tacoma.
The thing I kept thinking that day was: starting early changes the whole experience. By the time parking was becoming a real problem, we had already seen a lot.
That evening we went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma for Third Thursday. We watched live glassblowing and walked the Chihuly Bridge of Glass.
Mount Rainier followed by a glass museum sounds like a strange combination.
It actually worked really well.
What surprised me: how much we had already done before lunch.
What I would repeat: the early start and the Nisqually-to-Paradise route.
Day 3: Seattle, but With a Friday Deadline
Friday had a very different rhythm because we needed to be back at the hotel with enough time to get ready for Shabbat.
We started with the Space Needle, then stopped to shop for Shabbat food and get lunch.
After that we took the monorail downtown and went to Pike Place Market.
We wandered around Pike Place for a while, then took the monorail back toward Seattle Center. Later we went to Chihuly Garden and Glass and then IMAX before heading back to the hotel for Shabbat dinner.
This was one of those days where I was constantly doing the mental math of, “Do we have time for one more thing?”
We had talked about a number of other possibilities earlier in the planning process, but once we were actually there, I cared much more about doing the things we really wanted without making the end of the afternoon miserable.
The location of the hotel made a huge difference. We could walk to Seattle Center, use the monorail instead of moving the car, and get back without spending half the day dealing with parking.
The highlight for me was Chihuly. It had been one of the things I really wanted to do before the trip, and it lived up to that.
What mattered most: being close enough to Seattle Center that we did not have to keep moving the minivan.
Day 4: Shabbat Was Part of the Trip, Not a Break From It
Saturday was slower, which we needed.
We went to shul, then spent time at the Artists at Play playground, came back for Shabbat lunch, and played games in the hotel.
Later we walked again, including Denny Park, the Spheres, and Olympic Sculpture Park, before heading back to the hotel and then to shul again.
It was a full day, but not in the same way the national park days were full.
There was no pressure to “fit everything in.”
Some of the day was sightseeing. Some of it was just sitting around playing games.
That balance felt right.
One of the things I had worried about while planning was whether staying in Seattle for Shabbat would feel like we were losing a day of the trip.
It did not.
Because we had chosen a hotel where we could walk to so much, Shabbat became its own kind of Seattle day.
What worked: choosing the hotel around Shabbat needs first and sightseeing second.
Day 5: We Were at Ruby Beach by 2:00, Which Was Not the Plan
Sunday was our Olympic coast day.
The plan had been centered around Kalaloch, the Tree of Life and Ruby Beach.
Instead, by 2:00 we had already done Lake Quinault, stopped at the ranger center, seen the Tree of Life, explored Beach 4, and made it to Ruby Beach.
This was one of those moments where I realized we had somehow moved much faster than the itinerary.
I kept asking, “What else should we do?”
But there was also a point where adding something just because we could fit it in stopped making sense.
Ruby Beach was worth staying at.
The coast was one of my favorite parts of the trip because every stop felt different. Lake Quinault was lush and quiet. Beach 4 had a completely different feel. Ruby Beach had the dramatic sea stacks.
And then there was the Tree of Life.
Very cool.
I should have worn flip-flops.
That was not in any of the planning guides.
We also discovered something I somehow had not come across in all of my pre-trip research. We collect Junior Ranger badges at national parks, but Olympic also has patches the kids could earn. There was a coastal activity booklet for one of them, so in addition to adding Junior Ranger badges to the collection, we came home with patches.
Apparently there is still more for me to overresearch.
We eventually drove to Forks and checked into Olympic Suites Inn. The room was not fancy, but it was spacious, and having a kitchen was useful before another early national park morning.
What surprised me: how much we managed to fit in before mid-afternoon.
What I would do again: Lake Quinault, even though it had not been the main focus of the original plan.
Day 6: Hoh Early, Then One of the Best Pivots of the Trip
Monday was the day I was most worried about overloading.
The plan was Hoh Rain Forest, Lake Crescent, Marymere Falls, and then Hurricane Ridge only if it still made sense.
We left Forks early because I had read too many reports about the line to get into Hoh later in the morning.
That was absolutely the right decision.
We did both the Hall of Mosses and the Spruce Nature Trail while things were still relatively quiet. Then we drove to Lake Crescent and hiked to Marymere Falls.
At that point, Hurricane Ridge was still a question mark.
I did not want it to become one of those things where everyone is exhausted, we are two hours behind schedule, and I am still insisting we go because it is written down on the itinerary.
So we checked the conditions.
The weather was gorgeous. Clear skies. Great visibility.
We went.
Hurricane Ridge turned into one of the best parts of the entire trip.
The views were incredible. And because I had always treated it as something we would do if it made sense, rather than something we were obligated to accomplish, going up felt like a really good decision instead of one more thing we were dragging ourselves through.
Afterward we drove toward Kingston and took the Kingston-Edmonds ferry.
I had spent far too much time researching ferry schedules before the trip. Naturally.
But after several days of driving, getting out of the car and standing outside on the ferry was actually a really nice way to end the Olympic portion of the trip.
What mattered most: getting to Hoh early.
Best pivot: keeping Hurricane Ridge optional until we knew the weather and timing were actually worth it.
Day 7: Boeing Was the Anchor, and the Rest of the Day Just Happened
Our last day did not start nearly as early as I had planned.
At that point, I was okay with that.
We had one fixed thing: the Boeing Future of Flight tour.
We did the tour and spent time afterward looking at the planes and exhibits. Then we headed toward Seattle and stopped at the Fremont Troll.
And then came one of those extremely specific things that ends up on a family vacation.
We had heard there was a Boeing plane sitting between buildings near Denny and Stewart Streets.
That sounded weird enough that we wanted to see it.
So before heading to the airport, we went.
It is exactly what it sounds like.
A plane.
Between buildings.
Completely strange and very cool.
There was no grand trip-planning logic behind that stop. We had time. It was close enough. Somebody had told us about it. We were curious.
That was enough.
It was also a fairly appropriate way to end a trip I had spent weeks planning in enormous detail.
Boeing was worth building the day around.
What made the ending fun: having enough flexibility left to follow something random.
Packing lunches made the national park days easier
One of the least exciting pieces of our trip planning was also one of the most useful: we packed lunch. A lot.
With six people, I did not want our national park days organized around the question of where we could find food at noon.
We carried sandwich supplies, snacks, water and other easy food with us. That meant we could eat when it made sense instead of leaving a trail, giving up a parking spot or driving somewhere simply because everyone was hungry.
At Mount Rainier, when Paradise parking did not work out the way we expected, we could just stop and eat.
On the Olympic Peninsula, we could stay at a beach or keep moving toward the next stop without building the day around finding lunch.
There were certainly prettier picnic locations than others. Sometimes we were basically just eating where it was convenient.
That was fine.
Having food with us gave the itinerary another layer of flexibility, and it also made keeping kosher while we were moving through places with limited food options much simpler.
If I Were Planning This Trip Again
I would not copy our itinerary minute for minute.
That would sort of defeat the point.
I would keep the overall structure, but I would still go into each day knowing that something was likely to change.
If Mount Rainier is a priority, give it a full day and start early.
If you are visiting Hoh in the summer, get there early.
If you are driving around Olympic National Park, spend some time looking at the actual geography before you choose hotels. The park is enormous, and there is no convenient road cutting through the middle of it.
If something like Hurricane Ridge depends heavily on weather, keep it optional until you know what the conditions actually look like.
Pack lunch.
And research more possibilities than you expect to use.
You may never need most of them.
That is fine.
Sometimes the extra research gives you a backup when the parking lot is full. Sometimes it lets you add Lake Quinault because the day is moving faster than expected. Sometimes it helps you recognize that the thing you planned to do is no longer worth doing.
And sometimes it means you have enough room left in the trip to go look at a random airplane sitting between buildings on your way to the airport.
For us, that is part of what makes all the overplanning worth it.
What I would tell someone planning this trip
I would not copy our itinerary minute for minute.
That would defeat the point of the way I plan trips.
Instead, I would start with the pieces that matter most to your family.
If Mount Rainier is your highest priority, give it a full day and start early.
If you are visiting Hoh in summer, get there early.
If you are driving around Olympic National Park, look carefully at the geography before choosing hotels.
If something like Hurricane Ridge depends heavily on weather, keep it optional until you know what conditions actually look like.
And if you are traveling with a family, research more possibilities than you expect to use.
You may not need most of them.
That is fine.
Sometimes the extra research gives you a backup when the parking lot is full.
Sometimes it lets you add a beach because you are two hours ahead of schedule.
Sometimes it tells you when to stop adding things and just enjoy where you are.
And occasionally it leads you to a random airplane sitting between buildings on your way to the airport.
For us, that is part of what makes the trip work.
