Map of North Puget Sound

By Land and By Sea

The best way is with your own wheels, so you can wander around and enjoy all the beautiful scenery on the Olympic Peninsula.

Among car rental agencies, Hertz is our favourite, they have been very pleasant and helpful (don't even ask us about the evil Dollar). And, they also offer discounts to AAA members. Or, you could even rent an RV at Family Fun RV just south of Sea-Tac airport; the Point Hudson Resort offers some RV camping spots right on the beach.

If you are flying into Sea-Tac airport and renting a car, we suggest that you drive around the bottom of Puget Sound to avoid the summer ferry traffic which can involve delays of several hours, particularly on Friday and Sunday evenings. The round-Sound route is about 110 miles, probably about 2.5 hours. Drive

• south on Interstate 5 to Tacoma
• west on Highway 16 to Gorst
• north on Highway 3 (through Bremerton) to Port Gamble
• north/west on Highway 104 (over the Hood Canal Bridge) til you see signs for and turn onto
• Highway 19 north to Port Townsend. At the four-corner intersection in Chimacum, continue straight on. 19 eventually runs into highway 20 north into Port Townsend.

From downtown Seattle, most people take the Seattle - Bainbridge Island ferry, then drive north on Highway 305 to Poulsbo, where you join Highway 3 north (see above).

However, even though it's a longer crossing, the Seattle-Bremerton ferry is a bigger ferry and sometimes has a shorter wait. In Bremerton, follow signs to Highway 3 and go north.

And, from north Seattle it can be faster to take Interstate 5 north to the Edmonds-Kingston ferry. In Kingston, take highway 104 north (via Port Gamble and the Hood Canal) to highway 19 (see above).

From Vancouver BC, take Highway 99 south to the border (again, beware of delays) and Interstate 5 through Bellingham to Burlington. Take highway 20 west towards Anacortes then south (still on 20, via Deception Pass) to the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry. This, by the way, is a truly beautiful drive all the way, but 20 is only two lanes so take your time.

From any of the San Juan Islands, take the appropriate one of the Washington State Ferries to Anacortes, and follow highway 20 south to Keystone. Or, from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, you can take the daily, passenger-only Puget Sound Express passenger ferry directly to Port Townsend (leaves P. T. 8:30 am, arrives Friday Harbor 11 am; leaves Friday Harbor 3 pm, arrives P. T. 6 pm, $34.50 one way, $49 round trip).

By Air:
You can charter a plane directly from Sea-Tac to Port Townsend, on Port Townsend Airways. Suit your own schedule, $69 each way for one, or only $39 each way if there are 5 of you. To arrange airplane ride-shares, please contact our friend and Transportation Coordinator, Ellie (hpweiss@u.washington.edu).

Flying into Seattle:

• The Internet Travel Agency is a good place to research fares and schedules, and even book tickets online. I tend to prefer it slightly to Travelocity.
• If you don't mind flying on TWA (which is not our favourite airline), you can get 20%-discounted tickets from www.Lowestfares.com.
• If you know a particular low price you want for your itinerary, you can "bid" for it on www.Priceline.com. You state your price and the dates and where you want to go, and within an hour they email or call you back and tell you if any airlines took your bid. It's especially good for trips less than 21 days from now, but can be booked up to 6 months in advance. The drawback: you can only bid once for an itinerary, so you need to have a pretty good idea of a price low enough for you but high enough for the airlines.
• If you're a true travel hack who will brave a command-line interface to search by the lowest fares rather than the date of travel, try easySabre.

From SeaTac, take the Seattle Metro Bus 194 Express or 174 local to downtown Seattle ($1.75 in rush hour, $1.25 other times, each way). Ask the driver to let you off near Madison and to direct you to the ferry terminal, which will be a few blocks' walk downhill to the waterfront. Take the Bainbridge Island ferry ($3.50) and, on the far side, catch Kitsap Transit bus #90 to Poulsbo ($1). In Poulsbo, catch the Jefferson Transit bus to Port Townsend ($1.50), which runs 4 trips daily on weekdays, and 2 on weekends.

Within Port Townsend:
Jefferson Transit offers a free shuttle bus around downtown. And, the Peninsula Taxi will take you further afield, even as far as ferry connections or Sea-Tac if you're up to paying $1.25 a mile: (360) 385-1872.

Yahoo Map of Port Townsend