The Ultimate Open Jaw Road Trip: The Pacific Northwest

Seattle

The city’s skyline, smashed between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, and with Mount Rainier a short ride away, certainly makes up for cloudy weather. A vibrant art scene, interesting history and excellent food are worth the price of having to maybe pack along a rain shell.

Getting here: Fly into Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) with dozens of non-stop flights from most airlines leaving major cities. Seattle is a hub for Alaska Airlines.

Getting around: All the major national chains have rental counters at SEA, though you could skip renting a car there and pay less for it in town after riding in on the Link light rail. Just be sure your rental agreement allows for returning the car in Canada.

Where you’re staying: The lobby bar alone is nearly worth the stay at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, with an Italian Renaissance aesthetic — glitzy chandeliers, tons of marble and a soaring lobby. The grand entrance with wings that extend forward seems to almost embrace you. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Fairmont opened in 1924, back when the tallest building in town was the Smith Tower, at 424 feet, a record it held until the 605-foot Space Needle opened in the early 1960s. While Seattle has plenty of design-forward, minimalist hotels — like the CitizenM Seattle South Lake — few can top the opulent accommodations of the Fairmont. If you’re here for the arts, you’re a short walk away from the Seattle Art Museum and the central branch of the Seattle Public Library, a striking, modern glass building that’s worth visiting, even if it’s just to check emails from the top floor. The Fairmont provides a self-parking option at a nearby garage.

What you’re doing: While the locals will often tell you there are better, cheaper views of the city than the Space Needle, no one will fault you for forking over the nearly $50 to take the elevator ride up for the iconic selfie with downtown, Puget Sound and massive mountains like snow-capped Rainier, the Cascades and Olympic ranges. It’s also near the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum with hand-blown glass works from artist Dale Chihuly, including a Glasshouse, which stands in for a greenhouse filled with colorful glass flowers. While not quite as high, the scene inside the Smith Tower Observatory is bound to be less crowded and with better drinks in a speakeasy vibe in the sky. If the weather is cooperating, you can hit the beach and keep the Space Needle and mountains in the background. Take a water taxi across Elliott Bay from Pier 50 to Alki Beach, a long strip of sand that faces Bainbridge Island, and grab a drink at the bars along Alki Avenue.

Where you’re unwinding: It’d be a shame to stay at the Fairmont and not have a drink at its Olympic Bar, which is noisy (in a good way) and busy with plenty of travelers and locals mixing it up. If you’re in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Canon offers cocktails in a bar that gives you something to look at while sipping. Bartenders here need a library ladder to reach some of the bottles on a tall shelf behind the bar. The crew puts together excellent cocktails, but they don’t take themselves too seriously — some drinks come in an IV drip bag and others you sip from a ceramic bathtub. Up in the Belltown neighborhood, you’ll find Cyclops, a holdout from when Seattle was the epicenter of rock. This is the place if you’re in the mood for a dive bar, but you also might kind of want to eat — so come by any time after about 3 p.m. While it’s a bit of a drive from the hotel, if you’re on your way back from visiting the Amazon’s Spheres and its indoor gardens, Deep Dive, opens at the ground level at 4 p.m. for drinks. Inside you’ll find a dark and moody interior full of stained wood, tufted velvet booths and dim lighting.

Where you’re eating: Locals are proud of the University of Washington campus (UDub), and, indeed, it’s worth the trip up to roam the campus, especially the architectural masterpiece Suzzallo Library. But visit after breakfast at Saint Bread, a bakery that has a solid foundation in what you’d expect, like various knots and buns. But they also cater to more eclectic tastes with a smoked ham and cheese sandwich with wasabi mayo or okonomiyaki style tortillas. In that same area, Made in House, a Korean café, focuses on bento boxes and bibimbap for a casual lunch that rewards those who take the time to sit instead of taking a sandwich to-go. As a whole, Seattle nails casual eats and sushi, but for a more elevated night out you can drop a corporate card level amount of money at Sushi Kashiba, the newest outpost for three-time James Beard-nominated chef Shiro Kashiba. Whether you lean more towards sashimi tuna poke, the local geoduck (maybe don’t Google this before ordering) or you play it conservatively with tempura, the chance of eating fish this fresh isn’t something you find in every city. In Beacon Hill, Bar Del Corso cranks out Neopolitan style pies and small plates, like a ricotta salata salad and a few links’ worth of house-made Calabrian sausages. Delancey, on the other hand, blackens their pies a bit harder and also offers a range of dishes from the wood-fired oven, including meatballs using three meats, like your grandma might have made.

When it comes time to head out of Seattle, head north on I95 for about 90 minutes to reach Bellingham. If you’re not in a rush, opt for the scenic Chuckanut Drive: take the exit for route 11, after crossing the Skagit River Bridge. It’s a slower route up the coast to Bellingham with plenty of water views.

Bellingham

Trade Seattle’s modern edge for an even more laid-back vibe, with easier access to the outdoors and a thriving craft beer scene, and you’ve got Bellingham: an easy-to-love contrast to big city living. Bring your hiking boots (or climbing shoes if that’s more your thing), plenty of sunscreen and bear spray, because you’ll be spending plenty of time outside.

Where you’re staying: Bellingham has its fair share of chain hotels, so for a luxury stay that’s right on the water and a bit more local, the Hotel Bellwether is the best choice. The styling leans traditional, with generous-sized rooms, most with a view west over Bellingham Bay. While it sits near a marina, you’re only about a mile from Railroad Avenue, where a lot of restaurants and bars are. The hotel sits between the San Juan Islands, Mount Baker to the east and the underrated North Cascade National Park a bit further out. And unlike city hotels, which can tack on $50 or more a night in parking, here it’s not an additional cost.

What you’re doing: Pack a day bag because the best way to think about your hotel is as a basecamp from which you have daily excursions. A popular hike, just south of town, is in Larrabee State Park. There you’ll find an easy four-mile route around Fragrance Lake, and it’s the evergreen, old-growth forest Pacific Northwest you had in your mind, along with the scent of bark, pine and earthy soil. For more of a workout, the park’s Rock Trail offers more elevation, steeper climbs and a closer look at the area’s geology over the three hours it takes to finish. Get on the water at Bellingham’s Community Boating Center, which rents kayaks and SUPs by the hour. They can give you detailed guidance on where to head out and what to look for when it comes to wildlife and mountain vistas. About an hour drive south of the city, headed back towards Chuckanut, is the Anacortes Ferry Terminal for the Washington State Ferries — your route to getting cars onto the San Juan Islands (Orcas, Shaw, San Juan and Lopez Islands) for day trips. If you’d rather leave the driving to someone else and want to see some whales, San Juan Cruises leaves from a terminal in the same part of town.

While there is plenty to see heading west, maybe the biggest plus to visiting Bellingham is east: Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest has 1,500 miles of trails for every level. An easy route is Artist Ridge, which, at two miles, takes you past alpine gardens to impressive mountain panoramas. If you’ve got a lot of experience, the 2,000-foot elevation on the Hannegan Pass has steep terrain that takes about eight hours to finish, but you’ll get to see glacier-carved valleys and a closer look at the Northern end of the Cascade range. If you’ve got the energy for a longer day, head out to North Cascade National Park, about a 90-minute ride east of town. An easy hike you can finish in a couple of hours is the Thunder Creek Trail which takes you past old grown cedar and fir trees with views of the creek. It’s a good idea to pick up a can of bear spray in town before heading into the Cascades.

Where you’re unwinding: You can’t walk too far in Bellingham without bumping into someone with strong opinions about the city’s dozen or so craft breweries. You can hoof it to a pair of them with a 30-minute stroll to Boundary Bay Brewing Co., one of the oldest in town. Brewers here still make their Scotch Ale, with carmalized wart, which they’ve offered since they opened in 1995. Gruff Brewing Co., across the street, has picnic tables outside and lawn chairs that look out over the bay. If you’re the sort motivated by maps, Bellingham has a Tap Trail you can follow that’s faster than checking your phone. It stands to reason that the country’s largest producer of apples has a strong tradition in making cider. Bellingham Cider Co. is just beside Whatcom Creek with views of the mountains, with cider made from local apples, cider-based cocktails and slushies, which is a nice introduction to the genre for people who think they don’t like cider and a local favorite, especially for happy hour. A bit further out of town Galloway’s Cocktail Bar has a more sophisticated vibe with a massive, backlit bar wall that feels more secluded at night, once the street-facing windows grow dark.

Where you’re eating: For a gloriously carb-y breakfast, which you’ll walk off later, the Birch Door Café’s griddle is going all day for breakfast at any time, including pancakes with bacon ground into the batter. Locals rave about Café Rumba, a Peruvian restaurant specializing in massive sandwiches, the best of which, Butifarra Royal, highlight the house roasted pork, sweet onions, chimichurri and a fried egg. Most of the breweries in town offer food, but for a more creative menu, Carnal employs a massive wood-burning hearth that they use to put a char on everything from dates to steaks. Food reaches you after it’s passed the careful eye of a chef familiar with plating things up with tweezers.

When it comes time to head out of Bellingham, head north on I5 for about 90 minutes into Vancouver, British Columbia.

Vancouver, British Columbia

All the trappings of an international, cosmopolitan city, Vancouver is hemmed in by the Pacific on one side, and snowy mountains on the other. With more packed into its downtown area — where Seattle tends to embrace a bit more suburban sprawl — you can feel a different vibrancy in the city.

Where you’re staying: In a town full of luxury-oriented full-service hotels, the Sylvia is a refreshing departure that prioritizes location over superfluous amenities. You’ll have everything you need, and right outside you’ll find English Bay Beach (First Beach) and the popular paved route for runners, Stanley Park Seawall, between the hotel and the beach. Opt to stay on this side of the hotel for water views. In the other direction, it’s a short walk to the city’s best known greenspace: Stanley Park, which you could explore on a rental bike. The rooms are big and bright, with a serviceable restaurant, an even better bar scene and reasonable parking rates.

What you’re doing: A guided tour that delves into the totem poles in Stanley Park is a good way to get a sense of Vancouver’s origins. Book with Talaysay Tours, and a guide, over the course of an hour, explains the Salish and Northwest Coast Indigenous art in the park, how it was carved and the historic and cultural significance. Even if the weather is cooperating, a few hours visiting the Vancouver Aquarium, Canada’s largest and home to 65,000 animals, is a worthy afternoon. They tuck a rainforest inside the aquarium, so you’ll see sloths the same day as seals and a giant Pacific octopus clever enough to open a jar. Walk, bike or drive to Granville Island, a former industrial lot turned into a thriving, daily public market with more than 300 businesses, including 50 food purveyors. Come for the honey-dipped Lee’s Donuts, or those Montreal style bagels and smoked meat you might have heard so much about from Siegel’s Bagels. If heights are your thing, the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park puts you in close proximity to nature as you saunter across a 450-foot-long bridge that hoists you 230 feet off the forest floor and over the river, which means you’d be walking about shoulder level to the Statue of Liberty. Stroll down Robson Street, which you can reach from the hotel, for a mix of shopping in chain stores, like CB2, or grabbing a mid-afternoon coffee. Just across the English Bay from your hotel, the Museum of Vancouver, right next to the H.R. MacMillan Space Center is, logistically speaking, a two-for-one. The former has, among other things, documentation of the city’s craft brewery culture while the latter has an exhibition that acts as a field guide to living on Mars. If all the city living has you thinking Vancouver is just like any other cosmopolitan hub, take a ferry to Bowen Island, and in about 30 minutes you’ll be able to kayak, hike, stroll farmers markets and rent an e-bike with nary a tall building nearby.

Where you’re unwinding: Guilt & Co. is a live music spot that the concierge at fancier hotels might send you to with a low-key, moody vibe, top flight service and creative cocktails. A range of acts grace the small stage with crowded tables around it, and their drinks list is named after various bands or songs. Nearby, Pourhouse, relies on a long list of whiskeys and bourbons to keep you engaged at the bar, not a bunch of TVs on the wall. Expect locals for happy hour and a solid list of classic cocktails to keep you around after that. For a unique atmosphere that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Uber it to the Shameful Tiki Room (or walk on over from Queen Elizabeth Park if you’re checking out the conservatory and arboretum) where you’ll find legit ’60s-era styling and very strong drinks, many of which have “bowl” in the name, requiring a team to finish.

Where you’re eating: It’s probably worth planning your stay in town around a weekend to have brunch at the Acorn, for its creative take on vegetarian breakfast. Sure, they have pancakes, made with pineapple weed syrup, but it’s the egg sandwich on a potato bun topped with pickled onions and spiced tartar sauce that you’ll want after seeing it on someone else’s table. Closer to the hotel, and maybe the right fix after a morning exploring Stanley Park, you’ll find Maruhachi Ra-men. This neighborhood favorite with a few outposts around Vancouver cranks out a limited number of house-made noodles daily, some of which are bathed in a chicken broth, dialing in a perfect ratio of carb to soup. For a touch of elevated comfort food, Homer St. Café, is a short walk from the Vancouver Public Library’s central branch, which is doing its best to mimic the Colosseum in Rome, with a public, rooftop garden that’s respite. This Yaletown rotisserie café elevates the basic roasted bird to an art form after it sits in an overnight brine.

Check out, and it’s a quick 30-minute ride to Vancouver International Airport.