Port Angeles

Port Angeles stands on the northern coast of Washington state, looking across the Strait of San Juan de Fuca at Vancouver Island, in Canada. It's the biggest town on the Olympic Peninsula, and the main gateway town for visits to the Olympic National Park.

There are plenty of other places you could make your base if visiting the National Park, but here is where you'll find most of the hotels, restaurants, shopping, and other entertainments, and a few things for visitors to go see as well – like Hollywood Beach.

As there's an airport and a marina here, and it's on the Pacific Coast Highway (though US101 isn't quite on the Pacific Coast yet), Port Angeles does get busy in the summer. It's definitely a place for folks who like company. If you want a bit more peace and solitude, choose to stay in one of the many fine lodges that can be found on the edge of the Olympic National Park.

The name of Port Angeles, by the way, was originally Puerto de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, or the Port of Our Lady of the Angels. It acquired this melodious Spanish name in 1791 from the explorer Juan Francisco de Eliza, but George Vancouver cut it short in 1792 when he trimmed it to Port Angeles.

THINGS TO DO IN PORT ANGELES
Clallam Historical Society Museum
223 E. 4th Street
The focus of this museum is the 1914 courthouse that has been beautifully preserved, allowing you to see what it was like to be the judge or jury, or even the accused, standing before them. There are also displays about the history of the town, especially the many Native American people who originally lived here: the Hoh, Makah, Quileute, Quinault, and S'Klallam tribes.

The Fiero Marine Life Center
At the Pier
See what's happening down below the ocean waves with these displays of the marine creatures that inhabit the local waters. There are aquariums and touch tanks, and experts around to tell you all about them. Note that outside of high summer, the Center is only open on weekend afternoons.

Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
1203 W. Lauridsen Blvd
The galleries of this excellent art center highlights the work of the atists of the Pacific Northwest. There's also an outdoor sculpture garden, and it's the perfect spot to take photos of the city and the harbor.

For more information on Port Angeles visit the website of the
Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce

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PCH Hotels Guide

Pacific Coast Highway Hotels Guide 2011

To help you in choosing your Pacific Coast Highway hotel, guesthouse, inn, bed-and-breakfast, resort, motel or other accommodations, we've prepared our Pacific Coast Highway Hotels Guide ebook. In it we do mini-reviews of accommodations along the Highway, from Seattle to San Diego, through Washington, Oregon, and California.

For the 2011 edition we added new hotels, including a special 50-hotel section covering California’s wine country of Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles - by far the most popular diversion from the PCH drive. In all there are over 200 hotels listed, complete with 8 pages of color maps showing the towns where our recommended hotels can be found. There are both alphabetical and geographical indexes, helping you plan your journey.

We also include color photos of all the hotels that are our Personal Favorites. Here's the link to
read more about our ebook guide to Pacific Coast Highway hotels

Or you can buy it here for $2.99:

KINDLE EDITION
The Hotels Guide is also available but without the maps and color photos in the US Kindle Store for $4.99 and in the UK Kindle Store at a price based on the US price.

NOOK EDITION
The guide is also available at Barnes and Noble for the Nook.

PAPERBACK EDITION
If you want a printed edition without color photos and with only black and white maps, it costs $8.99 at the Amazon US store.

PCH Hotels Guide app

We've also published our PCH Hotels Guide as an app in the Apple Store.
You can buy it here and
read about it here.