The 7 Can't-Miss Towns In Washington

Ask a Washington local where to send an out-of-town guest and a few towns come up every time. They are the ones people build a weekend around and talk about long after. Leavenworth turned a dying timber town into a full Bavarian village and never looked back. Roslyn still runs the oldest bar in the state out of its coal-mining days. Walla Walla poured its old onion-farming money into a wine scene people now drive hours to taste. Each of these seven towns gives you a reason to make the detour and stay a while.

Leavenworth

Leavenworth remodeled itself into a Bavarian village in the 1960s to save a fading timber economy, and the theme stuck. Andreas Keller Restaurant leans fully into it, serving Käsespätzle, schnitzel, and Weisswurst while accordion players work the room. The remodel reaches the lodging too, with a four-star hotel between Front Street Park and the Bavarian Lodge dressed in the same alpine style.

The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum holds the largest nutcracker collection in the United States, more than 9,000 pieces that range from Roman-era carvings to modern figures. Kids work through a scavenger hunt and can build a nutcracker of their own. At the south end of town, Waterfront Park opens onto trails, a public beach on the Wenatchee River, and a footbridge to Blackbird Island.

Poulsbo

Poulsbo sits on Liberty Bay, and Norwegian settlers gave it the nickname Little Norway more than a century ago. Muriel Iverson Williams Waterfront Park runs along the shoreline downtown. Through the summer it hosts Summer Nights at the Bay, a free Tuesday-evening concert series that the city has run for more than twenty years. The Brass Kraken Pub next to the park serves a menu that runs from pizza burgers to build-your-own mac and cheese, with live music most nights.

Front Street carries the Little Norway theme through its shops and bakeries. Dancing Brush Studio hands visitors the tools for ceramics, sculpture, fused clay, and glasswork. On the north side of town, the 40-acre Fish Park threads nature trails, boardwalks, and bridges along Dogfish Creek to an outdoor amphitheater.

Oak Harbor

Oak Harbor anchors the north end of Whidbey Island and packs its calendar with community events. The Oak Harbor Music Festival takes over downtown every Labor Day weekend, with more than 40 acts on multiple stages plus food trucks, craft booths, and beer gardens. Windjammer Park handles the everyday recreation, with a swimming lagoon, three baseball fields, basketball courts, and a boat launch on the waterfront. Its Shipwreck Shores Splash Park runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

Downtown, the Tipsy Jellyfish pours wines from around the world and fills its calendar with trivia and karaoke nights. On the east edge of town, the Wildwood Farm Bed and Breakfast puts up guests among the horses, with trail rides and a fire pit for evening campfires.

Port Angeles

Port Angeles fronts the Strait of Juan de Fuca and serves as the main gateway to Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge, a short drive up from downtown, opens onto wide views of the Olympic Mountains. Down on the City Pier, the Feiro Marine Life Center keeps three touch tanks stocked with hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, and sea stars pulled from local waters. The center also runs educational programs and takes on volunteers.

In the heart of downtown, Next Door Gastropub turns out classic bar food and marks beer-calendar occasions like National IPA Day through the summer. The City Pier and neighboring Hollywood Beach give walkers two easygoing places to take in the Strait. Anglers fish from both, and the city Parks and Recreation Department handles pier rentals.

Roslyn

Roslyn grew up as a coal-mining town in the Cascades, just off Interstate 90, and it still wears that history on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Brick Saloon opened in 1889 and is widely recognized as Washington's oldest continuously operating bar. Behind its 23-foot running-water spittoon and mounted deer head, the kitchen puts out beer-battered cod, and bands play most weekends. Up on Washington Avenue, the woman-owned Hotel Roslyn pairs its rooms with a small shop of home decor and local goods.

The 300-acre Roslyn Urban Forest sits at the edge of town, its trails shared by hikers, bikers, and horseback riders through stands of Douglas fir, grand fir, and Ponderosa pine. The 6.8-mile Cle Elum Ridge route, reached via the Ewok and Crooked Tree trails, climbs steadily to a ridgetop view over town and the surrounding peaks. Black bears, deer, elk, and flying squirrels all range through the forest.

Walla Walla

Walla Walla ranks among the larger cities in southeastern Washington and built its name on wine. Walls Vineyards runs indoor and outdoor tastings and a wine club, with dinners like its Wine Down Wednesdays on the calendar. A short way out of downtown, Salted Mill serves rotating steak frites, smoked-gouda pasta, and ceviche inside the old Whitehouse-Crawford building.

The 51 E. Main boutique hotel puts guests a short walk from Heritage Square Park, a downtown green with a water feature, gardens, and a picnic shelter. Through the warmer months, the park hosts a Summer Concert Series and other seasonal events.

Langley

Langley perches on a bluff over Saratoga Passage on Whidbey Island and bills itself as a whale-watching town. Gray whales feed just offshore each spring, and the Langley Whale Center tracks them and displays whale skeletons and other Salish Sea marine life. Staff and volunteers there field questions from visitors of every age.

Just outside the core, the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts stages plays, concerts, and musicals for the community. Back downtown, the Inn at Langley looks out over the water, with a spa, rooms above the passage, and the Passage Restaurant off the lobby.

Plan Your Washington Road Trip

A driver willing to cross the state finds plenty waiting in these seven towns. Leavenworth and Poulsbo trade on their imported European themes, one Bavarian and one Norwegian. Roslyn and Walla Walla mine their own past, one for coal-town character and one for the vineyards that followed the onion fields. Oak Harbor, Port Angeles, and Langley each work the water in their own way, through festivals, marine science, and spring whales. String a few together and Washington makes a long weekend easy to fill.