5 Days: Seattle Day Trips

Five days runs the same spine as 4 days , Mount Rainier, Bainbridge Island, Snoqualmie Falls and Leavenworth, then Boeing’s Everett tour, and adds Olympic National Park as the fifth and most transit-heavy day. For the San Juan Islands as well, see 6 days or 7 days .

Book these before you go:

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
4 Boeing Future of Flight, Everett 30 miles 30-40 min drive Factory tour, book ahead
5 Olympic National Park Ferry, then 90 miles 3-4 hrs one-way Hurricane Ridge, the long day

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 via I-5, WA-512, WA-7 and WA-706. The park dropped its timed-entry reservation system for 2026, so entry is first come, first served, and the Paradise lot still fills by around 9am on summer weekends. Leave by 6:30am or book a guided day tour. Entrance is $30 per vehicle (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 (current fares at wsdot.wa.gov ). Winslow sits right at the dock, no car needed. A deliberate breather between two driving days.

Day 3: Snoqualmie Falls, then Leavenworth

Snoqualmie Falls, a 30 to 45 minute drive east on I-90, is a free 268-foot waterfall worth 30 to 60 minutes on its own. Continue on US-2 to Leavenworth (town info at leavenworth.org ), a further 2 to 2.5 hours out, a former timber town that rebuilt itself as a Bavarian-themed village on purpose in the 1960s rather than a historically German settlement.

Day 4: Boeing Future of Flight, in Everett

Roughly 30 to 40 minutes north to Mukilteo. General admission runs $14 for an adult; the guided 80-minute factory tour, including general admission, now runs roughly $42 to $46 (current pricing at boeingfutureofflight.com ). Book ahead, since timed slots sell out on summer weekends.

Day 5: Olympic National Park, the long one

This is the day that punishes a late start. Reaching Hurricane Ridge means a Washington State Ferries crossing, Seattle to Bainbridge at 35 minutes or Edmonds to Kingston at roughly 30, then a drive to Port Angeles of about 1.5 hours, then another 45 minutes up to the ridge itself: 3 to 4 hours one-way once it’s all added together. The $30 per vehicle entrance matches Rainier’s (current fees at nps.gov/olym ), and winter access to the ridge road runs Friday through Sunday only, worth checking before a midweek off-season visit. Book a guided Olympic National Park day tour if you’d rather not self-navigate the ferry-plus-drive math; a guided full day runs roughly $188 to $350 per person, ferry included.

Do you need a car for this itinerary?

Yes, for four of the five days. Only Bainbridge drops the requirement, since the ferry leaves on foot from downtown. Olympic National Park specifically rewards an early departure over a rental upgrade: the ferry schedule, not the drive itself, sets the pace of that whole day.

Which day is the easiest to cut if you’re short on time?

Boeing’s Everett tour, day four. It’s the one stop here that’s genuinely optional if aviation isn’t a specific interest, and cutting it turns this into a clean 4 day trip without reshuffling the rest of the schedule.

One concrete tip: catch the earliest reasonable ferry on Olympic day. Every hour lost at the dock is an hour lost at Hurricane Ridge itself, not somewhere recoverable later in the day.