Olympic National Park is a magical place. Where else can you visit a temperate rainforest one moment, play in the mountaintop snow the next, and finish your day with time on the beach? This amazing park is a great place to visit and we hope this Olympic travel guide will help you to plan your own Olympic National Park vacation.
Protected by National Monument status by Teddy Roosevelt, Olympic National Park was officially designated a National Park in 1938 by Franklin Roosevelt. With 95% of the park’s 1 million acres designated as wilderness, you’ll find some really beautiful pristine pieces of wilderness here. And access to this UNESCO World Heritage site is easy, with close proximity to Seattle the Olympic Peninsula makes for a great long weekend road trip. Continue reading to find the best ways to plan an Olympic National Park vacation.
Top Things To Do
When to Visit
Summer is the best time to visit Olympic National Park. With its close proximity to the Pacific Ocean, weather in the park is unpredictable at best and reliably rainy at worst. However, summer will give you the best chance at good weather, though you should still be prepared for rain. This is one of the rainiest places in the United States after all.
Fall and spring are also nice times to visit the park. Even though the weather will be colder and the chances of rain increase, these seasons are beautiful in their own ways. Spring can be enchanting with denser fog and budding trees. And fall can be beautiful with changing colors along mountain ridges.
Winter will mean colder temperatures and even higher likelihood for rain but it’s still possible to have a good time in the park in winter. However, due to the snow at higher elevations, road closures in the winter are common and you may not be able to see all the park has to offer at this time of year.
Getting There and Around
With Olympic National Park only two hours from Seattle, this park is relatively easy to get to. Flying into Seattle and driving here makes the most sense. You can find day trips for tours leaving from Seattle but these seem to be very rushed. So our preferred method of exploring is flying in to Seattle and renting a car. This will allow you to explore all of the best things to do in Olympic National Park.
Note that from Seattle, you can get to the park by driving south around Puget Sound or by taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island and entering the park from the north. We used these two routes to make a loop, one route for entering and one for exiting the park. To see more of our road trip, check out our Olympic itinerary here.
Getting around the park is easy once you’re there. The roads are well maintained and well marked. You may run into ice or snow at higher elevations. Make sure to slow down for these road conditions especially in the winding mountain roads of Hurricane Ridge.
What to Budget
Flying into the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is relatively inexpensive. Flights range from $100-500 dollars for domestic flights, depending on where you’re flying from.
Additionally, if you are flying into Seattle, you’ll also need to rent a car. Rental cars from the Seattle airport average about $130/day. If you drive the Olympic Peninsula Road Trip that we did, you’ll drive just over 400 miles and need to budget for gas to get you at least that far.
Accommodations
Home rentals are our favorite option for accommodations in the Olympic Peninsula. You’ll find plenty of vacation homes here that are available for rent in the wildernesses surrounding the park. Prices for home rentals average $175/night.
If you’d prefer a hotel, the most popular place to stay is Port Angles and this means this is the place with the greatest variety of hotels. The average hotel price is around $150/night in Port Angles.
If you’d like to camp in the park, fees for camping are $40 or $43/night, depending on the campground. We wouldn’t recommend camping here because of the high likelihood of rain, which we don’t like to camp in. However, if you don’t mind the weather shutting down your dreams of a campfire, camp away as it is definitely the best budget friendly option.
Activities
The entrance fee for Olympic National Park is $30/vehicle. If you plan to visit other national parks within the same year, like the nearby Mt. Rainier, consider buying the $80 America the Beautiful Pass annual national parks pass.
Other than lodging, vehicle, food, and entrance fee, you likely won’t spend another dollar on your trip. As a majority of things to do in Olympic National Park are outdoors, they’re free! We did spend a bit of money here, as we decided to go whale watching out of Port Angles. But if you don’t count that excursion, our family of five spent just under $1000 on a three day weekend.
What to Pack
Don’t forget ocean breezes and mountain tops are cold; I did. Be sure to bring a winter jacket, if only for the few times you’ll need it. Also, this is one of the rainiest places in America. A rain jacket and waterproof shoes are a must. I would even throw in waterproof pants in your visiting in colder weather and plan to do hiking. Lots of the trails had overgrown vegetation which led to wet pants when hiking after a rainfall. Also, the beaches here are very rocky. I hiked them in sandals. I would recommend waterproof hiking boots.
We visited in June and I was cold almost the entire time. Don’t be me, pack warm clothes. If you get anything out of this Olympic National Park travel guide, take away “pack warm clothes” from this.
Lastly, don’t forget a map, we lost cell signal many times and the paper maps in Washington are wonderful.
To continue planning your Olympic National Park vacation, check out our Olympic road trip itinerary here.
