Olympic Peninsula
Travel Guide

Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews an Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide published by the Beautiful Pacific Northwest website.

This review is of the original edition but there is now a newer updated edition available on Amazon.

The Olympic Peninsula is one of the most beautiful and stunning parts of the Pacific Coast Highway drive, and for many people it marks the start or end of the marvellous road trip along the USA's Pacific Coast. It's covered in depth on the Beautiful Pacific Northwest website, and now the publisher of that site, Karen Patry, has published her own comprehensive guide to the region, which includes the Olympic National Park.

Photos from the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide

When we say comprehensive, we mean it! The guide runs to 287 pages and covers everything from hotel and restaurant recommendations to what to do if you ever encounter a bear.

There's a wealth of wildlife features, which we certainly appreciated, covering such creatures as marmots, elk, and bald eagles. Another section describes the flowers you're likely to find, and there's a section trees too.

Reviews of the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide

Praise For The Book

Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide: Planning

The travel guide begins with a lengthy and helpful section on planning your trip to the Olympic Peninsula. The author helps you plan trips from one day upwards, and depending on what interests you most. They're very practical plans, assessing how long different activities will take you to do, so they're realistic as to what you can actually fit into each day.

This is followed by a more detailed planning section, which includes chapters on such topics as the best time to visit the Olympic Peninsula, a list of festivals, where you'll find campgrounds, details on professional tour companies, and many other topics besides.

Sample page from the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide

Part Three then covers General Travel Information - maps, information centers, whether to rent an RV, airport car rental options, using the local ferries, and so on.

Sample map from the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide

Part Four is the main part of the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide, with over 200 pages of detailed coverage on anywhere you're remotely likely to want to visit. Popular places like Port Townsend get plenty of hotel and restaurant recommendations, for example.

They're not lengthy write-ups but they're certainly enough to help you make your mind up, and they come with all the practical information you'll need, including opening hours. The attractions and activities in each place also get full coverage.

Sample page from the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide

For Forks, by way of an example, you also get weather coverage, the history of the area, what the town is like today, a piece about the lumber industry, and the town's Twilight tours. The writing is engaging and interesting, and if you're planning your PCH road trip then buying this book beforehand might just persuade you to linger a little longer in this exceptional part of the USA. Highly recommended.

Sample page from the Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide

Olympic National Park Itinerary

If you're planning a trip to the Olympic National Park, we strongly recommend this trip-planning guide and itinerary from Just Go Travel Studios. Click on the image to learn more about what it contains.

Other Olympic Peninsula pages

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The Best Coast Book Review
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Vintage Hollywood
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Frommer's Guide to Seattle
The Frommer's Guide to Seattle has good information about the city and side excursions to the Olympic National Park and elsewhere, plus free city and area map.
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, published by Voyageur Press, is a guide in words and pictures to historic lighthouses along the Pacific Coast Highway.
Olympic National Park Accommodation
Olympic National Park accommodation consists of campgrounds and trailer parks, and most visitors to the park stay in nearby lodges and resorts.
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Best Time to Visit the Olympic Peninsula
PCH Travel picks the best time to visit the Olympic Peninsula, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Culture Trails
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The Napa and Sonoma Guidebook to California Wine Country is from the Moon Handbooks’ travel guide series with reviews of wineries,vineyards, and wine tastings.
Port Angeles in Washington State
Port Angeles in Washington is the largest town on the Olympic Peninsula. It stands on the Pacific Coast Highway and is the gateway to the Olympic National Park.
John Steinbeck California Guide
This John Steinbeck California Guide, A Journey into Steinbeck's California, shows readers how towns like Monterey, Carmel and Salinas influenced the author.
Gardens Of the Pacific Coast Highway
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Santa Barbara Guidebook
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Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park, west of Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, is one of the largest and least developed parks in the United States.
California Camping Book Review
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West Coast RV Parks
One of the best guides to West Coast RV Parks, covering campgrounds in California, Oregon, and Washington, is West Coast RV Camping from Moon Guides.
Green Guide USA West
The Green Guide to the USA West from Michelin covers California, the Pacific North West, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and even Kansas and Alaska.
Forks Washington
Forks is a small city in Washington State, known as the gateway to the Olympic National Park, and as the home for the Twilight series of books and movies.
California Living and Eating
California Living and Eating by Eleanor Maidment is a handsome coffee table book celebrating the food and lifestyle of the Golden State with 80 tasty recipes.
Pacific Coast Highway Road Trips: Lonely Planet Guidebook Review
Review of the Pacific Coast Highway Road Trips book from Lonely Planet, which includes a California Driving Guide, by the Pacific Coast Highway Travel website.