I need an itinerary for a 3 day, 2 nt trip looping Olympic National Park - Start Seattle, End SEA-TAC. Ideas?

Family of 4 driving from Seattle, looping Olympic National Park counter-clockwise on the 101 and ending at SEA-TAC. Can't camp this time (not bringing camping gear), need hotels. Hotels w/i ONP seem booked. Traveling end of August (2009). Any suggestions on scheduling, what to see, where to stay would be great, never been to that area.I need an itinerary for a 3 day, 2 nt trip looping Olympic National Park - Start Seattle, End SEA-TAC. Ideas?
I made a similar road trip years ago when my kids were young. Like you I have a family of 4 and we did a counter-clockwise loop around Olympic NP starting in Seattle but didn't end in Sea-Tac. We continued on to Mt Rainier, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Devil's Tower, Mt Rushmore, Wind Cave, Hot Springs and Badlands. We spent 24 days on that road trip and it was great.



Getting back to Olympic, our first stop after leaving Seattle was for lunch at Lake Quinault. We continued on to Kalaloch Lodge where we spent 2 nights. My best memories of Olympic are of this area. Our cabin was situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific. During low tides the water line exposed a hundred yards of the sandy beach. The kids loved looking for shells and anything else that might wash up on the beach. While at Kalaloch we explored Ruby Beach and the Hoh Rain Forest. After leaving Kalaloch we drove to Sol Duc then continued on to Lake Crescent. I wasn't impressed by Sol Duc and didn't think it was worth the drive to get there. It's just a swimming pool size hot tub fed by the hot springs. Too much concrete and people for my liking. We spent the night at Crescent Lake where we rented a row boat to go out on the lake and also did a little hiking. From there we drove to Hurricane Ridge and stopped at the Olympic NP Visitor Center in Port Angeles. We spent two nights in Port Angeles and during the free day we took the ferry to Victoria. Instead of taking the car over on the ferry we picked up a tour of the city and the surrounding area. I was especially impressed by Butchart Gardens and the Royal British Columbia Museum.



Anyway, that's my experience and you can use it to put together your road trip. I highly recommend that you spend the first night at Kalaloch Lodge and I hope you can get a cabin overlooking the Pacific. When you leave there stop at Ruby Beach and the Hoh Rain Forest but skip Sol Duc. You can spend your second night at Crescent Lake or push on to Port Angeles were rooms are more readily available and less expensive. See Hurricane Ridge and if time permits, stop at the visitor center before continuing on to Sea-Tac.



If Kalaloch Lodge is full I'm not sure what the alternatives are. Lodging in this area is scarce. Try searching the internet and look for B%26amp;Bs.



Here's a map of Olympic - http://www.nps.gov/carto/PDF/OLYMmap1.pd鈥?/a>



I hope you have a great trip with the family.
Thanks for the advice! Good info. We're really looking forward to our trip!!

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I need an itinerary for a 3 day, 2 nt trip looping Olympic National Park - Start Seattle, End SEA-TAC. Ideas?
there are quite a few sites that you can search that will likely show you great hotels at the best prices available. check out the website BookMe and you will be able to compare prices on all the reputable travel sites in just a couple minutes. it's very convenient and will save you a bunch of time and money. Also, make sure you buy them online... otherwise they charge much higher fees for phone orders. good luck.