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.
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.
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
The guide to California Bed and Breakfast Inns lists over 250 boutique hotels, wine country cottages and more.
Books About the Pacific Coast Highway in California, Oregon and Washington including travel guidebooks, route guides, restaurant guides, and many more.
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.
Northwest Wine Country is a food and wine lover's guide to vineyards, fine dining, accommodation, restaurants in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia.
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.
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.
Lonely Planet's Guide to Cycling the USA West Coast is a bicycling guidebook for anyone touring California, Oregon and Washington by bike.
Brewpubs and good beer are at the heart of the Good Beer Guide to the West Coast USA which lists the best bars and breweries from Seattle to San Diego.
Pacific Coast Highway Travel's California Camping book review rates the 20th anniversary edition of Moon's complete guide to over 1400 tent and RV campgrounds.
Some of the best California Backroads are included in Backroads of the California Coast, with 24 highly recommended driving tours off the Pacific Coast Highway.
Soul of Los Angeles from French publishers Jonglez is a travel guide to 30 Exceptional Experiences in California's largest city.
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.
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.
Pacific Coast Highway Travel's book review of Insider's Guide to San Francisco guidebook by Jill Loeffler, publisher of the San Francisco Tourism Tips website.
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.
Vintage Hollywood in Los Angeles is an extract from the Lonely Planets book Culture Trails.
To John Steinbeck Monterey's Cannery Row was a place of sardine canneries, bums and honky tonks, but today the Monterey Aquarium attracts visitors.
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.
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.
Olympic Peninsula wineries are not in the heart of Washington wine country but the vineyards near the Pacific Coast Highway are worth a visit.
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.
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.
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.
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, published by Voyageur Press, is a guide in words and pictures to historic lighthouses along 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.
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