3 Days: Seattle Day Trips
Three days keeps the 2 day base of Mount Rainier and Bainbridge Island, then adds a full third day road-tripping east: Snoqualmie Falls, then Leavenworth. For the longer version with the Everett factory and Olympic National Park, see 5 days .
Book these before you go:
- Compare rental cars on Discover Cars
- Mount Rainier day tours on GetYourGuide
- Leavenworth wine tours on GetYourGuide
- Downtown Seattle hotels on Booking.com
| Day | Stop | Distance from Seattle | Travel time | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Rainier National Park | 107 miles | 2-2.5 hrs drive | Paradise, go before 9am |
| 2 | Bainbridge Island | 8 miles, ferry | 35 min | Winslow, easy half day |
| 3 | Snoqualmie Falls, then Leavenworth | 30 miles, then 117 miles | 45 min, then 2-2.5 hrs | Waterfall stop, Bavarian village |
Day 1: Mount Rainier, go early
Mount Rainier (official park info at nps.gov/mora ) is roughly 107 miles and 2 to 2.5 hours away via I-5, WA-512, WA-7 and WA-706, and 2026 drops the timed-entry reservation system entirely after two pilot years: entry is first come, first served again. The Paradise lot still fills by around 9am on summer weekends, so leave by 6:30am or book a guided day tour instead. Entrance runs $30 per vehicle, cashless only (current fees at nps.gov/mora ).
Day 2: Bainbridge Island, the easy one
The passenger ferry leaves directly from the downtown Seattle waterfront, takes 35 minutes, and costs $11.35 westbound for an adult, free on the return since fare is only collected in one direction (current fares at wsdot.wa.gov ). Winslow sits right at the dock, so no car is required. It’s the cheapest, lowest-effort day on this whole itinerary, a deliberate breather after Rainier’s early start.
Day 3: Snoqualmie Falls, then Leavenworth
Snoqualmie Falls is a 30 to 45 minute drive east on I-90, a free, no-ticket 268-foot waterfall with an observation deck and a Twin Peaks filming connection via the Salish Lodge sitting directly above it. On its own it’s a 30 to 60 minute stop, so keep driving east on US-2 to Leavenworth (town info at leavenworth.org ), another 2 to 2.5 hours further out. Leavenworth is worth seeing for what it actually is: a former timber town that lost its economy when the rail line rerouted around it in the 1960s and rebuilt itself as a Bavarian-themed village on purpose, not because German settlers founded it. Book a Leavenworth wine tour ahead if you’d rather taste the valley’s wineries than drive yourself between them.
Do you need a car for this itinerary?
Yes, for two of the three days. Mount Rainier and the Snoqualmie-Leavenworth run both require a rental or a booked tour; there’s no transit alternative for either. Only Bainbridge, day two, drops the car requirement entirely, since the ferry leaves on foot from downtown.
Is Leavenworth worth the 4 to 5 hour round trip?
Yes, once you stop expecting a historically German town and accept it for the deliberate 1960s economic rebrand it actually is. The alpine scenery and the Nutcracker Museum earn the drive on their own merits, and pairing it with Snoqualmie Falls on the way out keeps the day from being pure driving.
One concrete tip: fuel up before leaving Snoqualmie for Leavenworth. The stretch on US-2 through the pass has long gaps between gas stations, longer than the drive time alone suggests.