Washington State
Travel Guide
The Washington State travel guide from Frommer's covers hotels in Seattle, driving the Pacific Coast Highway, Olympic National Park, where to eat and more.
Mount Rainier
Frommer's Washington State travel guide has almost 400 pages of advice for visitors (and locals) on where to go, where to stay, where to eat and drink, and what to do in the only state in the United States to be named after a President.
This Washington travel guide from Frommer's hasn't been updated for several years, so you may want to buy an alternative and more up-to-date guide.
Check on Amazon.
There's much more to Washington than the Pacific Coast Highway, of course, and this guide covers the whole area, from Spokane to Seattle, and from the highest point at the top of Mt Rainier (14,410ft/4,395m) down to sea level on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. From wine country to whale-watching, from Aberdeen to Zillah, this Frommer's guide covers it all.
Author Karl Samson actually lives next door in Oregon, and is the author of Frommer's Oregon guidebook. However, he's also written the Frommer's Seattle guide and is one of our favorite guidebook writers. No, we don't know him at all, even though we're guidebook writers ourselves, but we like his style, and the way his enthusiasm for places shines through in every book he writes. And his Washington State travel guide is no exception.
The Best of Washington State
Nor is it an exception to the Frommer's format which involves beginning the book with a few pages on 'What's New', followed by the opening chapter: 'The Best of Washington.' Here the author gets to point readers towards the state's best experiences, including Best Beaches, Best Bed and Breakfast Inns, Best Mountain Lodges and Resorts, Best Waterfront Resorts and Lodges, Best Wineries, Best Off-the-Beaten-Path Restaurants, and the Best Family Attractions and Activities.
Washington State's Best Beaches
So the Best Beaches – they're mostly going to be along the Pacific Coast Highway, right? Wrong. As the author points out, some of the best beaches are in places like Orcas Island and Whidbey Island. His own favorites near La Push are actually in the Olympic National Park but not on 101, which has decided to take a short cut inland at this point, heading through Forks and only reaching the coast again at Port Angeles.
The Pacific Coast Highway in Washington
The Pacific Coast Highway is different in Washington. Very different. It runs around the Olympic Peninsula and even takes you in the 'wrong' direction for a while. That is to say, if you're driving south then you'll find yourself driving north up the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula, while there are parts where the Pacific Coast is nowhere to be seen.
Washington State Travel Guide on the Road
We took this guide with us on our own recent road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway, and it proved to be a reliable travel companion.
It had a few quirks, of course. We happened to stay in Ellensburg after finishing our Pacific Coast Highway drive and were heading east to Idaho. The only hotel the Frommer's guide recommends is 40 minutes from Ellensburg – so we used the AAA guide and that took us to the really excellent and cheap Cedars Inn and Suites (now the Econo Lodge), just off I-90 and ten minutes from the town center.
We also visited Forks on the Olympic Peninsula, and fell in love with this funky little place. We were surprised the guide makes no mention of the single biggest tourist draw in Forks today – the vampires of the book and movie, Twilight.
These are pretty minor things, though, and overall we liked the writing, and especially the detailed hotel and restaurant reviews, which really did give you a strong feel of whether you wanted to stay/eat there or not. You could tell the author had covered the ground, just as we were doing, and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend this Washington State travel guide from Frommer's.
Other book pages
Greetings from California is a beautiful coffee-table book which describes the legends, landmarks and lore of California, including the Pacific Coast Highway.
West Coast Road Eats is a road food guide covering the Pacific Coast from California through Oregon to Washington, giving the best road trip food stops.
Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews the book Culture Trails by Lonely Planet, which has a section on Vintage Hollywood alongside 51 other perfect weekends.
The Pacific Coast Highway in California book shows in historic photos the building of the Pacific Coast Highway from its earliest beginnings in 1911.
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.
Seattle is a great city break vacation destination and also the perfect start for the Pacific Coast Highway drive, and the gateway to Washington wine country.
Epic Drives of the World from Lonely Planet describes 50 of the world's most exciting road trips, including, of course, the Pacific Coast Highway.
To John Steinbeck Monterey's Cannery Row was a place of sardine canneries, bums and honky tonks, but today the Monterey Aquarium attracts visitors.
Located on a peninsula, Westport is a small fishing town in Washington State with the largest marina in the Pacific Northwest.
The Longest Beach in the USA is arguably in Long Beach in Washington, though claims that it is also the longest beach in the world are wide of the mark.
101 free San Francisco attractions and things to do are in the Kindle guide, 101 Free Things to Do in San Francisco, in the Travel Free eGuidebooks series.
The Best Coast is a west coast travel guide, sub-titled A Road Trip Atlas it doesn't use photos but instead has hundreds of beautiful illustrations.
The guide to California Bed and Breakfast Inns lists over 250 boutique hotels, wine country cottages and more.
Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews an Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide published by the Beautiful Pacific Northwest website.
Lonely Planet's Coastal California guidebook is the ideal travel guide for driving or cycling the Pacific Coast Highway from the Oregon border to Mexico.
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, published by Voyageur Press, is a guide in words and pictures to historic lighthouses along the Pacific Coast Highway.
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.
Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews the Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip guide from Moon covering California, Oregon and Washington
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 Townsend is noted for its Victorian architecture, sits at the top of the Olympic Peninsula, close to the Olympic National Park and 55 miles from Seattle.
Pacific Coast Highway guides include our own printed book and ebook guides to the best hotels along the PCH, available in paperback, PDF and Kindle formats.
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.
The Los Angeles travel guide book from Lonely Planet also covers San Diego and Southern California, including Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and Disneyland.
Vintage Hollywood in Los Angeles is an extract from the Lonely Planets book Culture Trails.
One of the best California coast guides is the California Coastal Access Guide, describing the coast’s beaches, National Parks, State Parks, with many maps.
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