Port Townsend Recommendation

Port Townsend – Washington’s Victorian Seaport & Arts Community

Over the years people have highly recommended a visit to Port Townsend, WA, but, for whatever reason, we have never made the stop. During our trip out west this year, we put Port Townsend on our planned route as we headed south from the San Juans toward Puget Sound.

Port Townsend, one of the coolest small towns in America, sits at the northeast point of the Olympic peninsula where the Strait of Juan De Fuca and Admiralty Inlet meet. In the late 1800s, Port Townsend was intended to become the main city in the Puget Sound area, so a lot of new buildings and Victorian houses were built. However, the rail system the founders counted on to make this happen, only made it to Tacoma. So Port Townsend never became the big city mecca they hoped for. The good news is that today Port Townsend, with its rich maritime history, has a unique small-town village feel with elaborate 120-year-old buildings lining the main street of downtown.

We arrived in port the day after the annual wooden boat show and were happy to see some of the classic wood boats still lingering in port. Like most towns we visit by boat, we walked the entire length of the downtown area,  located within a block of the marina. Lisa especially liked the variety of shops and spent some of her free time shopping. After taking a tour of the main street, we ventured up the bluff overlooking the harbor for a spectacular hillside view of the town and waterfront.

We stayed two days and can attest to why so many of our boater friends suggested we put Port Townsend on our 2014 PNW itinerary… we’ll be back.