For those that live in Western Washington and are looking for a weekend getaway, look no further than Port Townsend. Port Townsend is often overlooked, but it is located on the northeast corner of then Olympic Peninsula and is full of maritime history and Victorian Era architecture. Due to its unique appeal, Port Townsend has a reputation of being one of the coolest small towns in the United States.
There are festivals year round that’ll peek at least one interest for most. There are many trails and beaches to explore, an abundance of local small owned shops and restaurants, and robust seafaring culture and history.
How far is Port Townsend? You can get to Port Townsend from Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, or Olympia in less than two hours. If coming from Everett or Seattle, the shorter route will require a ferry ride, but there are non-ferry routes available. Please Note: When the ferry is part of your journey, the above noted travel time does no include the time waiting for the ferry and your actual travel time will be more than two hours.
I arrived to Port Townsend around 4 pm on a Friday and checked into my hotel for the weekend – Palace Hotel. Palace Hotel was built in 1889 and is located in the heart of historic downtown with a stunning Victorian Era ambiance. This historic hotel has 26 rooms across 3 stories, but unfortuenly isn’t wheelchair accessible and the only way to get to the rooms is by climbing many stairs. There are no rooms on the main floor.
Once we were settled in our rooms, we explored the many shared spaces the hotel has to offer in their many foyers. When I say the ambiance is stunning, I truly mean it. But rumor on the street (quite literally) is the hotel is haunted and the person that haunts each room or space has their portrait hung on the wall.
After a little bit of exploring the downtown area, we got dinner at The Old Whiskey Mill where we stayed for well over an hour post closing (yeah, we were “those people” by mistake). I went on this trip with a friend I hadn’t seen in far too long, so time got away from us due to good ongoing conversation. We also connected with a few of the people that worked there and they would just come over to chitchat with us as well here and there throughout the night. I guess our aura that evening was very approachable.
On Saturday we booked an all day whale watching tour with Puget Sound Express. This tour departs at 9 am (check in at 8:30 am) from Point Hudson Marina and lasts approximately 8 hours with a 2 hour stop for lunch on Friday Harbor. Point Hudson Marina is about a 10 minute walk from Palace Hotel. For this tour, you are assigned a booth seat on the inside of the charter boat and are able to bring food and drink onto the boat. Had we known this, we would have picked up breakfast to-go from Hudson Point Cafe across the marina like our booth mates did. We got breakfast from there the next morning though.
Before this tour, I didn’t think I got sea sick as I had never gotten sick on a boat before. About half the way to Friday Harbor while we were going through the Salish Sea I quickly learned that I do indeed get sea sick on rougher waters and I was unprepared for this new discovery. However, the staff of Puget Sound Express were prepared to help people like me.
Ways to prepare for sea sickness:
- Take Dramamine before and/or during your trip
- Suck on ginger hard candies throughout
- Wear motion sickness pressure point bracelets
- Drink water regularily
- Carry a barf bag just in case
- Sit outside on the back of the boat (you will not be facing forward)
By the time we arrived to Friday Harbor I was so happy to be on land again. I was still feeling queasy even though I had taken Dramamine that the crew gave me before I got off the boat. We got lucky and were able to get lunch at Downriggers without a reservation (make a reservation for this place, always). I highly recommend the pesto roasted turkey sandwich with their house made potato chips (and if you’re feeling adventurous, their mimosa flight if it is available).
Once we finished with lunch, we had only about 20 minutes to explore the town and get back to the boat. If you are looking to have both a traditional a sit down lunch and explore the town I do recommend that you eat someone other than Downriggers. Good food isn’t quickly made, plus it is one of the highest capacity restaurants on the island, therefore they have more guests to serve and waits will be longer.
With this being a whale watching tour, the captain was in constant communication with her team to locate whales (otherwise vouchers would be given to all the guests to come back and try again). We didn’t see any on our ride to Friday Harbor, but a few miles from Port Townsend on our way back two orca pods were located and we stopped and watched them for about 45 minutes.
It is a requirement that all charter boats have to be 100+ yards away from whales. Your first instinct will be to capture photos and videos of the whales, probably on your phone, but they won’t turn out that great because of how far away the whales are. Those that have fancier camera’s will be able to get some good shots, but contrary to what you might think, orcas don’t actually breach a whole lot. You’ll see a lot of fins above water with some breaching, so don’t look away or blink a lot or you might miss something spectacular. Here is your reminder that it is okay to live in the moment and not worry about capturing the picture shot.
We got back to Port Townsend around 4 pm and we leisurely walked through town. On the way, we stopped off at Elevated Ice Cream Co. for some scoops of locally made small batch ice cream. It was delicious! They open daily at 10 am and offer, at a minimum, 30 different flavors of ice cream, sherbet, and non-dairy Italian ices at any one time.
It is important to note that most of the retail shops in town close between 5 pm and 6 pm, so if you are following this itinerary for guidance, you will want to explore and shop before stopping to get dinner or ice cream on Saturday. My favorite shop is The Spice & Tea Exchange of Port Townsend.
As for dinner, you can’t go wrong. But we learned very quickly that most places required a reservation and we did not have one. We attempted to get dinner at about 4 places before we found somewhere that had availability. I could list out some places in town to grab a bite, but being that I didn’t try them all, I think it would be best for me to link to the Yelp page and you can decide what fancies your taste buds and make those advance reservations – Port Townsend Dinner Restaurants.
Sunday was our check out day and we explored the town’s retail shops a little bit more after breakfast before we checked out. Most shops open between 10 am and 11 am, so if you have time in the morning before you need to head out, definitely make it a point to visit a few more shops, especially if you were not able to on Friday or Saturday.
Wanderland Jess 