Inspiration for your own tailor-made trip
USA - Canada - Seattle - Olympic National Park - Vancouver - Vancouver Island
100% customisable for you
Fly direct to Seattle – a journey of around ten hours – and transfer privately into the city centre for a two-night stay. Set between the waterfront and downtown districts, your hotel provides a well-placed base for exploring the city’s mix of historic piers, modern architecture and easy harbour access.
Spend the rest of the day getting acquainted with Seattle at your own pace. Wander down to the harbour for views across Elliott Bay, browse the stalls at Pike Place Market or take in the city from above at the Space Needle. Coffee shops, galleries and easy neighbourhood streets make it a straightforward city to ease into, with the water never far away.
Today, work your way around the Seattle sights you didn’t get to see yesterday, starting at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), with tickets already included in your itinerary. Its bold, guitar-inspired form sets the tone for the exhibits inside, which move through music, film and wider popular culture.
From here, head up the Space Needle for sweeping views across Elliott Bay and, on a clear day, right out to the Olympic Mountains and Cascade Range. Back at street level, drift through Pike Place Market, where the energy shifts between fish stalls, small cafés and the original market halls.
Continue into Pioneer Square, where red brick facades hint at the city’s past, before making your way back towards the waterfront for a slow wander along the piers. If time allows, cross the water to Alki Beach for a different angle on the skyline, or head into Fremont, where street art, independent shops and a slightly offbeat spirit round out the day.
This morning, collect your rental car and drive west towards Kalaloch, crossing from Seattle’s urban edge into the quieter expanse of the Olympic Peninsula. The drive is around four and a half hours, and the route gradually shifts from city to coastline, with forested stretches and open water hinting at what’s ahead.
Arrive in Olympic National Park and check in for a two-night stay at a coastal lodge set just back from the Pacific. Simple cabins are dotted through the landscape, designed to fit in with their surroundings. Here, the focus is entirely on place: towering evergreens, driftwood-strewn beaches and the constant presence of the ocean beyond. With little in the way of distraction, the pace quietens – and the landscape does all the talking.
Today, explore the southern Olympic Peninsula from your base in Kalaloch, where forest and coastline sit in close, dramatic contrast. Wild beaches and sheltered coves give this stretch of coast an almost otherworldly feel, shaped as much by weather as by tide.
Head inland to the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the finest examples of temperate rainforest in the United States. Heavy rainfall feeds an ecosystem of towering conifers and moss-draped maples, with ferns and dense undergrowth carpeting the forest floor. Roosevelt elk and deer move quietly through the stillness, alongside smaller woodland species best spotted along gentle trails that cut through the trees.
Back towards the coast, time your visit with the tide to see the rock pools come alive with marine life, from starfish clinging to rocks to anemones opening in the shallows as the water retreats. End the day along Ruby Beach or Beach 4, where driftwood, sea stacks and shifting light capture the raw character of this stretch of Pacific shoreline.
Today, make the three-hour journey across the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles, crossing from the Pacific coast to the calmer waters of the north shore. On the way, make a detour to La Push, a coastal village on the Quileute Indian Reservation, where beaches such as Rialto, First and Second Beach stretch out in long, untamed runs of sand and driftwood. This is one of the most exposed and elemental sections of coastline in the United States, shaped by heavy seas carving sea stacks from rock and leaving vast fallen trunks scattered along the shore.
Spend the night near Lake Crescent, a deep, glacial lake set within the forested folds of Olympic National Park, where clear water meets steep, wooded shores and the surrounding hills hold the light late into the evening.
Goodbye USA, hello Canada! Today, take the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria on Vancouver Island, crossing from the United States into British Columbia on a short but scenic ferry passage across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. After a journey of around two hours in total, arrive in Victoria and transfer to the residential James Bay neighbourhood, just a short walk from the city centre and home for the night.
Victoria has an easy, distinctly British-influenced pace, with historic architecture, harbour views and leafy streets shaping the atmosphere. Take time to wander the Inner Harbour, where the Parliament Buildings are especially striking after dark. Continue into Chinatown – the oldest in Canada – before exploring Market Square’s compact network of shops and cafés.
Elsewhere in the city, the Royal BC Museum provides a deeper look at the region’s natural and cultural history, while the waterfront is the natural place to pause (with a delicious portion of fish and chips, of course) as ferries move quietly in and out of the harbour.
This morning, drive from Victoria to Ucluelet, crossing Vancouver Island from south to west in a full-day journey of around six hours. Don’t worry, it's a beautiful drive: the route moves from coastal city streets into forested highways and increasingly remote stretches of island landscape, before reaching the Pacific edge.
Arrive in Ucluelet and settle in for three nights just outside the village, with direct access to the shoreline and uninterrupted views across Ucluelet Bay and the Pacific shaped throughout the day by tide, weather and light.
Spend two days exploring the wild coastline around Ucluelet, a small peninsula town where rainforest meets the Pacific and the landscape feels constantly in motion. Life here is – understandably – shaped by the outdoors, with walking trails, water-based excursions and wildlife encounters setting the rhythm of each day.
Follow sections of the Wild Pacific Trail, like the Lighthouse Loop with its wide ocean views and striking sunsets. Take a pause at viewpoints such as Sea Lions Pool, where marine life is often visible just offshore (remember to add a pair of binoculars to your packing list, if you haven’t already).
One of the days is dedicated to a Zodiac safari (a fast-paced, small-group boat tour) into Clayoquot Sound, a local body of water with many inlets and islands. At low tide, navigate the shoreline in search of black bears feeding along the water’s edge, with the chance to encounter sea lions, bald eagles and herons along the way.
For those wanting to stretch their legs even more, a guided hike along the Pacific Rim Coast Trail offers a deeper look at this coastline, moving between dense rainforest, exposed cliffs and long, empty beaches once used by shipwrecked sailors travelling toward civilisation.
Today, drive from Ucluelet across Vancouver Island to Nanaimo (around two and a half hours), passing east through forested highways toward the ferry terminal. From here, cross the Strait of Georgia to Horseshoe Bay (around one and a half hours by ferry), then continue by road for around 30 minutes into downtown Vancouver, where you’ll check in for a two-night stay.
Set in the heart of the city, your hotel provides a comfortable and contemporary base with easy access to the waterfront, neighbourhood parks and Vancouver’s walkable downtown grid. Once settled in, head out to explore the city’s lively dining scene. Vancouver is a standout culinary destination, known for exceptional Pacific seafood and some of the best sushi outside Japan, best experienced in its buzzy neighbourhood restaurants (consult our Dossier for a list of our favourites).
Today, explore Vancouver by bicycle, a city that’s best experienced at street level where harbour views, distinct neighbourhood character and pockets of green space sit in close reach. We’ve arranged bikes for the day, allowing you to move easily between districts and take in the city’s mix of historic facades, converted industrial spaces and contemporary architecture.
Ride past the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, its chateau-style presence marking one of the city’s early landmarks, before continuing into Yaletown, where old warehouses have been transformed into a lively quarter of cafés and design-led spaces. From there, continue to Granville Island, where the public market brings together food stalls, studios and an easy creative energy that spills out towards the water.
Finish in Stanley Park, a vast green peninsula at the edge of downtown. Follow the Seawall as it traces the coastline, with forest rising on one side and open water on the other, or take quieter interior trails beneath the canopy before looping back into the city.
Bid Canada a fond farewell this morning, as you drive south from Vancouver to Anacortes in Washington (around two hours). From here, board the ferry across to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The crossing takes around one and a half hours and moves you into the quieter waters of the Salish Sea and the island-dotted landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
Arrive in Friday Harbor – named after Joe Friday, a Hawaiian settler who arrived two centuries ago – and settle in for two nights at a small hillside collection of cottages and Victorian houses set above the port. Compact and walkable, the town is known for its lack of chain stores, an easy, self-contained feel and the famously unusual 1859 ‘Pig War’, of which the only casualty in 13 years was a pig.
Today, head out on a cruise into the surrounding waters of the Salish Sea, one of the best places in North America to observe orcas in their natural environment. Several resident pods are regularly seen here, moving between the islands and inlets. From the boat, learn more about their behaviour and the ongoing efforts to protect them, with the chance of hopefully spotting seals, sea lions and porpoises along the way too.
Today, take the ferry from Friday Harbor back to Anacortes (around one and a half hours), then continue south through Puget Sound towards Tacoma (around two hours), passing back through the wider Seattle region.
Arrive in Tacoma, the ‘City of Destiny’, shaped by its industrial past and ongoing creative reinvention, where historic infrastructure sits alongside a growing arts scene. Glass art is central to its identity, with the Museum of Glass acting as a focal point of the waterfront, linked to the city by its distinctive pedestrian bridge.
Check in at a hotel for the night in the city centre, well-placed for exploring Tacoma’s emerging dining scene, with independent restaurants and relaxed neighbourhood bars reflecting its low-key, creative energy.
Sadly, your epic road trip adventure ends today. Drive 30 minutes to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, soaking up one last stretch of highway and a final glimpse of the Pacific Northwest slipping past the window. Return your rental car and board your overnight return flight, arriving back home the following day.
Everything in this itinerary is entirely customisable, down to the smallest details. Here are some more suggestions of what could be included
Each of our trips is entirely tailor-made with originality, quality and cultural immersion in mind. Our team of destination specialists will craft itineraries based on your tastes, using their first-hand knowledge and the help of our in-country team of Concierges and guides. All trips are accompanied by a wide range of additional services, including a 24-hour helpline, the Original Travel app, fast-track airport services and much more.
Enquire now
Each of our trips is entirely tailor-made with originality, quality and cultural immersion in mind. Our team of destination specialists will craft itineraries based on your tastes, using their first-hand knowledge and the help of our in-country team of Concierges and guides. All trips are accompanied by a wide range of additional services, including a 24-hour helpline, the Original Travel app, fast-track airport services and much more.
Enquire now
Our team of destination experts will get to know you and your unique requirements for your holiday
We work with you to build an ultra-personalised holiday itinerary with your choice of accommodation, experiences and activities
All of our holidays include little extras designed to make a big difference to your trip, from fast-tracking you through airport check-in and security to our network of local Concierges
