Portland to Seattle – Pacific North West USA – 14 Day Itinerary

Portland to Seattle on the Pacific North West Coast of the USA is not by any means an epic road trip.  You can drive direct between the cities in only three hours on an uninteresting grey highway.  Take these two individually unique cities of Portland and Seattle, plus, add a few detours off the said highway and now we have the makings of an interesting, combo of city and town breaks for a two week road trip.

The Operator is already in the continent after flying from New Zealand to Vancouver and driving to meet Rosie, who has been in Whistler, Canada for the last month.  After nearly a week of exploring this area together we drive back to Vancouver and fly to Portland, Oregon where we will begin our 14 Day Pacific North West holiday exploring Portland and Seattle with a couple of off shoots on the way.

Check out our 14 day Portland to Seattle Itinerary.

Portland, Oregon – 4 nights

Then collect rental car and drive 1 hour south into Oregon wine country to McMinnville.

McMinnville, Oregon – 2 nights

Then drive three hours to Mt St Helens and explore the volcano.  Overnight at a lake lodge up the road.

Silver Lake Lodge, Washington – 1 night

Then drive three hours to Seattle.

Seattle, Washington –  6 nights

Then drive 3 hours back to Portland, leave the car at the airport and fly to Vancouver, Canada.

Vancouver, Canada – 1 night

Airport Hotel before both we fly home to New Zealand.

Why are you not renting a car in Vancouver and driving to Seattle which is only 3 hours away Rosie?  Good question.  We looked at all the options and taking a rental car from Canada into the USA had huge surcharges attached.  It was cheaper to get the return flight from Vancouver to Portland!  Plus, Rosie had researched that the car border crossings into the US were a gamble as to how long it could take you….anything from a minimum of a 1 hour wait to up 3 hours.  No thanks.  Plus, the drive from Portland back to Vancouver could take anything from 7 – 10 hours depending on the border crossing, nah, we will flag it.  A nice cheap internal flight suits us fine and look at the views!

Rosie does not know a heck of a lot about Portland other than its slogan ‘Keep Portland Weird’ which is enough for her to go there!  She also knows that it is one of the greenest cities in the world with more people cycling in it than driving.  Excellent!

Surely that means there will be no shortage of parking spaces for The Operator!  There does seem to be an over abundance of Vegan and Vegetarian restaurants online but apparently down the road from where we are staying is one of the best BBQ joints in town so am not feeling nervous about going hungry or living solely on plant matter.  Plus, this town seems to have an obsession over donuts and where the best are, Rosie is also happy to help settle this debate.

On the way between cities we are only making a couple of stops.  One for a sojourn in McMinnville, the lush rolling wine country of Oregon famed for its Pinot Noir and amazing restaurants.  Rosie will be sitting back and sampling truffle fondue whilst sipping bubbles overlooking the rolling landscape, I kid you not, all within a short stagger back to our downtown hotel of which we have to share an interconnecting bathroom with the next room.  Rosie hasn’t told The Operator that one yet….Rosie is praying no one has booked the adjoining room.  Rosie pities the neighbors having to share that room after The Operators morning ablutions.

Our next stop is The Silver Lake Lodge, where we can see the mighty Mt St Helens from the end of the lake.  The Lodge is perched with the front overhanging the lake and it advertises that you can fish for bass from your balconies.  Serious!  Just don’t clean the fish in your room, is the cardinal rule!  The Operator is well excited about this prospect more so than actually visiting the volcano that famously erupted in 1980 making world headlines that Rosie can remember being totally terrified by as a nipper.  The upside is that we have our own bathroom, but it does seem to be a bit of a dive hotel…so watch this space also.

As for Seattle, our final stop, well Rosie loves Grey Anatomy, nineties grunge music and coffee.  Say no more!   Rosie even says bring it on to this city of constant precipitation as she is prepared for that too.  We are going to have a ball here in this city even though our AirBnB apartment has a 5 page contract of rules from the Body Corporate Housing Association that administer the building, culminating in a $500 fine for every rule we break.  This could be Interesting, lucky we are old, boring, pet less, will not be using the swimming pool, will not be smoking anything we shouldn’t be, and yes, we will be keeping our clothes on….We are good to go!

Rosie has worked out a whole list of activities she wants to see and do in each place and I would love you to come on this journey with us starting tomorrow.