Hi friends! Last week our family went on a little “beginning of summer getaway” to one of our favorite spots in the area, Port Townsend. If you haven’t been to Port Townsend, it’s an adorable coastal town just a couple of hours by car and ferry outside of Seattle.
We’ve been to Port Townsend many times over the years and always enjoy our visits. This post will be a compilation of pics we took on a couple of occasions since I haven’t featured this destination before!
I always love sharing some of our favorite places to travel in my “out to see” series so I hope you enjoy this peek at Port Townsend!
From Port Townsend you can hop a ferry to another of my favorite places, the San Juan Islands and Friday Harbor. You can see a “drive by” of some charming houses from that trip here. It’s a fun day trip or a wonderful getaway on its own.
Port Townsend offers everything we love about a fun escape to the coast. Adorable shops, cute beach houses, delicious restaurants, charming places to stay.
I adore this darling fairytale house found on a hill overlooking the water.
And I am in love with this blue house and THE WHALE WEATHERVANE!
The next few photos are of one of my favorite shops, Conservatory Coastal Home, but there are many stores to check out including neat bookstores, antiques, gifts and clothing shops.
You’ll also find tasty restaurants, ice cream and coffee shops and community events like a farmer’s market! Something delicious around every corner.
We often went to Velocity Coffee for delicious lattes and pastries.
As you wander up and down the streets you’ll find picturesque opportunities to enjoy the water and boats sailing nearby, and it is easy to walk right out to the beach or marina areas.
There is plenty for everyone to enjoy, including related activities like kayaking and whale watching in season (our kids recently went on a whale watching tour and saw lots of whales!).
You definitely get a sense of getting away from it all here (besides the fresh sea air there are often deer out roaming around the neighborhood!).
They have a small movie theatre, a jazz club and other fun places to spend an evening.
My husband and I stayed at this affordable but quaint inn (The Palace Hotel) a year ago, we love the super convenient location.
We’ve never stayed at The Swan Inn but its adorable from the street and right across the street from a favorite coffee shop. It also has dog-friendly rooms so that’s a bonus if you travel with a pet!
We’ve also stayed at the Chevy Chase Beach Cabins. This sweet little farmhouse was perfect for our family and it is even fenced in for the dogs! It’s about a 15 minute drive to the main part of Port Townsend, but such a quiet and enjoyable place to stay.
The main house at the Chevy Chase Beach Cabins is a private home and this side is the main office. It’s really neat!
They have a really nice big private beach you can walk to behind the property that the dogs LOVED! It was so fun to see them run free. They aren’t trustworthy in the city off leash but this was a perfect opportunity for them to run at full speed and be wild!
The trail to the beach smelled absolutely divine, it is so fresh in the forest!
The scenery was breathtaking and serene.
The property also had a playground that even our big kids enjoyed.
We made great memories!
Have you ever been to Port Townsend?
Happy weekend, friends! Excuse my random afternoon posting times this last week–just keeping you on your toes ;-). I’ll be back soon with more of the best of the best kitchen series and updates on the progress in our house.
Related:
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5 Ways to Make Your Home a Staycation Worthy Destination (my post on eBay)
We have stayed at Point Hudson Marina and RV Park. We liked the waterfront spaces and we would watch the shipping canal activity. Waterfront Pizza is great!
It’s been a long time since our last visit to Port Townsend. Thanks for sharing your pictures!
This looks like a lovely place to visit! It’s good to know there’s an RV park! I’ve put it on my list of “Places to Visit.”
That looks like such a fun place to visit. They have very cute houses and shops. It also looks like unique places to stay. The scenery is very beautiful. Thanks for sharing all the beautiful pictures.
Oh how I love Port Townsend. We went on two whale watching trips from there last year where you stop for a few hrs for lunch in Friday Harbor. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
You just gave me some traveling idea for our upcoming 4 day weekend. We live in Vancouver so Port Townsend will be our destination. It is absolutely a lovely place. Thank you for sharing.
Loved photos about Port Townsend. Interestingly, The Victoria – July/August edition of the magazine features Port Townsend also. I even think they talked about one of the same hotels. It looks like a place where time stood still. Always enjoy your blog.
…oh!…how can it be?…all this..and heaven too…blessings…laney
Hey Melissa, LOVE this post! My daughter was just married at Roche Harbor Memorial weekend! (Same day as her Nana & Papas 66th wedding anniversary!). Such a BEAUTIFUL area . . . We are still all talking about it!
I’ll have to give Port Townsend a visit on one of my next trips!
Thanks for sharing . . . XO
I love coastal towns! We just retired to one in Delaware! Your pics of Port Townsend are beautiful and makes me want to visit there! I’ve only been to California on the West Coast, but have always had a yearning to get to Washington and Oregon! I love that there is a ferry that can take you to yet another cool area! Much like here in Lewes. Thanks for sharing your vacation in pictures! I believe we will be checking this area out in the not too distant future!
Spent a wonderful day there roaming the streets while working in Bremerton. Great day trip destination! Picked up some beautiful pieces at one of the galleries there and had great lunch!!
My side of the family (8 adults, 5 kids) booked a “destination Christmas” this last year (most of us live in California but my sister and her family live in British Columbia) and we stayed in a house booked through VRBO on Whidbey Island. We took a day trip on the ferry over to Port Townsend and it was delightful. It was a bit rainy and cold so we walked through many of the shops and popped out to see the water and scenery between rain showers. I LOVED the Coastal Conservatory (love the coziness of that store with all the beautiful items and the little white woodstove) and Velocity coffee (just the best!!) and the place right next door that had all the nautical hardware. So many of the shops and boat storage warehouses had the most amazing (huge!) barn doors. I snapped pictures left and right! I definitely hope to go back again sometime!
Melissa, looks wonderful! I miss the sea, now living in Idaho. Beautiful pictures!! Looks like Lilly and Jack really enjoyed theirselves! Did I see a third Goldendoodle in one of the pictures?? We enjoy our “Baker” so much they are just the best dogs! Glad you had a great family get away! God bless you.
Port Townsend is my husband and my favorite weekend getaway. We always start at North Beach for some sea glass hunting always hunting for the elusive red pieces. We end our days in town after window shopping with some homemade ice cream from elevated ice cream , my favorite flavor is chocolate oranges, so yummy!
It looks beautiful and serene! My kind of place. I’ll trade you. We are “enjoying” feels like temps of 110, (actual temps around ninety six,) very hot and muggy here in Texas. We go to Galveston Island on Wednesday for a day trip (about an hour and a half away) but I can hardly take it this time of year. It’s all about the grandchildren!
Yes! I went my senior year in high school for a trip with a friend! Its been so long since I’ve been there! I need to take my family! I loved all the photos. :)
Beautiful! We live near Port Townsend. My husband’s friend grew up in the fairy tale house. And the garage and yard behind the deer belongs to friends of ours. :) It’s a great little town.