Classic Northwest

Fourteen nights looping out of Seattle down through Oregon to the redwoods and back, taking in four national parks and the Oregon coast. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK with a road book.

Two nights in Seattle start it, then two in Olympic National Park, which manages to be a rain forest, a mountain range and a wild coastline at the same time. Cannon Beach follows, with Haystack Rock standing offshore, and then the Oregon coast proper, where Shore Acres and Cape Arago sit above the water on the southern stretch.

Two nights in the redwoods come next, among trees that were already old when the Romans arrived. Then the route turns inland and climbs to Crater Lake, a flooded caldera of a blue that does not look real, before Mount Hood and two nights in Portland. Two nights at Mount Rainier close the loop, where the summer meadows below the Paradise visitor centre are the reason that name stuck.

Around 1,350 miles over fourteen nights, with six of the nine stops lasting two nights. Two things to raise when you enquire. Crater Lake’s rim road and Mount Rainier’s high roads are both snowbound for a good part of the year and the page is silent on it. And five of the nine overnights are given as the park or the coast rather than a town, including two consecutive nights listed only as the Oregon Coast, so ask where you are actually staying. It suits anyone who wants the north west’s parks without a long drive into the interior.