Archive for the 'Washington' Category
Before Winter Olympics, travel to Vancouver via 25%-off Amtrak
November 20, 2009 5:57am
If you’re heading to Vancouver, B.C. for the 2010 Olympic Games, you’ve probably (hopefully) got your travel plans in place. But if you’d prefer a quieter visit, get there well before Feb. 12, which is when the Games begin and crowds descend.
Amtrak’s Cascades service provides an especially enjoyable means for pre-Olympics travelers to reach this “freewheeling and offbeat” destination. Direct services link Portland, Ore., and Seattle — among other places — to Vancouver, but the discounts currently on offer for the route may provide Southern California travelers incentive to craft together a trip too.
Deal: Amtrak is offering 25% off coach fares for Cascades passengers traveling between now and Jan. 31, 2010. You must book by Dec. 31, 2009. Discounted one-way fares from Portland are as low as $34.50 total per person; the trip takes about eight hours. I easily found availability on certain dates at this price. Read the rest of this entry »
Washington: Clam-digging season underway; scheduled digs and hotel deals this winter
November 12, 2009 11:18am
Are you manic for mollusks? Then head north, dear adventurer, as clam-digging season is underway in the Pacific Northwest.
Among upcoming clam digs in Washington is one on Nov. 16 at Olympic National Park’s Kalaloch Beach, scheduled by the National Park Service. The search at this coastal site, presumably popular with clam-digging types, will be for razor clams during the evening tide, with digs restricted to the period between noon and midnight. Other tentative dates for the season, meant to coincide with clam digs in other parts of the state, are Dec. 4-5, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
Helping to make such an excursion easier to plan, Kalaloch Lodge, a remote hotel within the park which Times staff writer Christopher Reynolds visited on a road trip in July, is offering related deals.
Deals: Kalaloch Lodge’s “Clam Digger” package features one night’s accommodations, a bucket, shovel and net, and breakfast for two for $169 per night (pre-tax). The equipment will be yours to keep. Experienced clam-diggers with their own tools, however, can opt to skip the equipment component and pay just $129 for the room and breakfast. Read the rest of this entry »
Seattle’s Inn at Harbor Steps hotel deal: Stay one night, get the next night free
November 9, 2009 8:25am
If you are planning your first trip to Seattle, staying downtown is a must. Inn at Harbor Steps, a Four Sisters Inn property, is right between Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. Check out its specials page. There are several deals available, but I liked the “Stay One Night, Receive Your Second Night Free“ deal best. The rate for the guest rooms also includes full breakfast and afternoon wine and hors d’oeuvres. The offer is good Sundays through Thursdays, with rooms priced at $200 for a queen bed, $225 for two queen beds (no fireplace) or a king bed, and $250 for a king bed with a jet spa tub and shower.
Tested: You can view the deal online, but call the hotel to get the special rate. Just tell them the name of the deal when you make your reservation to get the discount. I called and checked dates for Feb. 21 to 23, and there was plenty of availability. Under the deal, the bill for two nights in a room with a queen bed came to $219, including tax, or about $110 per day. Note that there is only self-parking ($18 a day). There is no charge for Internet access, but you have to get a cable at the front desk; there’s no WiFi. Also, when I called (several times) after 5 p.m., my call did not get answered.
When: Good for stays Sunday to Thursday, through March 31. Blackout dates apply.
Caveat: There are a lot of blackout dates. See the full terms and conditions page before you call.
Contact: Inn at Harbor Steps, (888) 728-8910 or (206) 748-0973
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
Photo: Inn at Harbor Steps guest room. Credit: Four Sisters Inns
JetBlue 1-day sale: $24 to $49 one-way fares from Long Beach (LGB)
October 15, 2009 6:20am
If you thought Wednesday’s $44 airfare sale wasn’t cheap enough, you weren’t alone. Apparently, JetBlue also thought that was hardly impressive. The JetBlue Sample Sale has fares as low as $24 one way, pre-tax. Even better, of the seven flights on sale from Long Beach, none of the fares are over $49 each way. So, what will it be, a quickie getaway to San Francisco for $29 each way, or how about Seattle for $10 more?
Starting fares in the JetBlue Sample Sale from Long Beach, CA (LGB) :
$29 to Oakland, CA (OAK)
$49 to Portland, OR (PDX)
$39 to Sacramento (SMF)
$49 to Salt Lake City, UT (SLC)
$39 to Seattle, WA (SEA)
$29 to San Francisco, CA (SFO)
$24 to San Jose, CA (SJC)
When: Book by 10:59 p.m. Oct. 15 for travel between Oct. 22 and Dec. 16 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Free hotel nights this fall through Expedia sale
September 15, 2009 2:27pm
If you’re shopping for a hotel stay domestically or abroad, take a few minutes to peruse Expedia’s new sale before booking. Its “Fall Free Nights Sale,” though a little unwieldy at times to navigate online, is generating some good deals on numerous properties.
Deal: With this Expedia.com sale, you can reel in your last night for free at more than 1,700 venues internationally on certain multiple-night stays. Though the promotion states discount availability for stays of three, four and five nights, I found one “second night free” offer (directly below) in Mexico. Yet, for some other properties, the deals didn’t turn out to be as good as I’d expected.
Still, it’s a worthwhile exercise to compare current Expedia sale rates with what you’d pay directly with the hotel or elsewhere. I certainly found savings; see below.
* Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: At the 208-unit Playa Del Sol Costa Sur resort, you get every second night free under this deal. Read the rest of this entry »
Three airfare sales: Take your pick — JetBlue, Southwest or Virgin America
September 8, 2009 6:41pm
Fresh from the long Labor Day weekend, Southwest and JetBlue launched new sales this morning. Fares are just as cheap on Virgin America too. Great timing, because I bet travelers are either thinking about the great holiday they just took and realizing they ought to take breaks more often, or had to forgo a weekend getaway and are still hoping to pack in an escape before the end of the year. At our convenience are three airfare sales.
JetBlue: The R&R sale has flights starting at $29 each way, pre-tax. I found flights between Los Angeles (LAX) and Boston (BOS) for $109 each way or $239 round trip, after taxes. When I checked Long Beach (LGB), there were flights to San Francisco (SFO) and Las Vegas (LAS) for $39 each way, pre-tax. I also saw flights to Seattle (SEA) for $69 each way and Washington (IAD) for $109 each way, pre-tax. Purchase your tickets by Sept. 10 at 10:50 p.m. for travel through Dec. 16. Some blackout dates and restrictions apply.
Southwest: Check out the Click ‘n Save 3 Days of Deals sale with fares starting at $49 each way. I found flights between Burbank (BUR) or Los Angeles (LAX) and Las Vegas (LAS), Oakland (OAK), Sacramento (SAC) and San Jose (SJC) for $49 each way, pre-tax. I also found flights between Burbank (BUR) and Seattle (SEA) for $69 each way, or Chicago (MDW) for $94 each way, pre-tax. Purchase by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 10 for travel through Dec. 17. Travel valid every day of the week, some blackout dates and restrictions apply.
Virgin America: I found $39 one-way main cabin fares on Virgin America between Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO), and $69 one-way to Seattle (SEA) midweek. There were also $39 flights between Orange County (SNA) or San Diego (SAN) and San Francisco (SFO). I also found cross-country flights between Los Angeles (LAX) and Washington (IAD) starting at $99 each way. All prices noted were pre-tax. Purchase by Sept. 22 for travel between Sept. 12 and Nov. 18, Dec. 2-16 or Jan. 6 - Feb. 10. Some blackout dates and restrictions apply.
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
[Photo: In this July 19, 2005, file photo, a JetBlue Airbus flies over a pair of Southwest Airlines' jets from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, bound for New York's JFK Airport. Credit: Associated Press / Reed Saxon, file]
Alaska Air fall sale lists cheap flights to Mexico, Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Washington
September 1, 2009 8:02am
It might make for a tough decision: Head up to the Pacific Northwest before it gets too wet, or take advantage of cheap flights to Mexico. But wait — if you’ve always wanted to see Alaska in the winter, or visit friends in Montana, this could be a good time too. Alaska Air has a sale on right now with flights to Bend, Ore.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Seattle and Santa Rosa, Calif. out of Los Angeles (LAX) starting at $69 one-way, pre-tax. If you feel like skipping the drive, Mammoth Lakes is also on that list. (Remember, service to Mammoth Lakes begins Dec. 17).
Several cities in Mexico are included in the Fall Sale. Flights from Los Angeles to Mexico start at $75 for Los Cabos and cap off at $139 each way for Manzanillo. But flights to popular south of the border cities such as Puerto Vallarta start at $109 and Cancun, Mazatlan and Mexico City all start at $119 each way. Note: The low-fare calendar wasn’t working for Cancun, La Paz, Puerto Vallarta, and it made it hard to search for the cheapest fares. You might want to call if you have a tough time finding sale prices online.
September marks the shoulder season for Alaska. If you have questions about when to go to Alaska, Frommers breaks down what you can expect weather wise by seasons and months. December through March sounds like a lovely time to visit Alaska if you want to see the Aurora Borealis or try some winter outdoor activities like skiing, snowmobiling or dog sledding. But note that the Alaska Air Fall sale is only good for flights through Feb. 10.
Horizon Air: Why drive when you can fly to Mammoth?
August 5, 2009 9:19am
If you are still making the long five-hour or more drive to Mammoth during ski season, you might consider trying a quickie 70-minute flight this winter from LAX. Horizon Air, which had one flight a day from Los Angeles-Mammoth Lakes Yosemite airport last year, has added a second daily non-stop flight for this coming winter season. If you can plan ahead, rates start at $69 each way, pre-tax, out of Los Angeles. The big news for skiers and snowboarders all over the West Coast is that Horizon Air has also added new non-stop service from Reno ($49) and San Jose ($69), and direct one-stop service from Seattle ($149) and Portland ($144).
This year’s schedule beginning Dec. 17, 2009, through April 11, 2010:
Depart Los Angeles/Arrive Mammoth
8:40 a.m./9:50 a.m.
2:40 p.m./3:50 p.m.
The OrWa diaries, Day 7: Finish line
July 20, 2009 2:10pm
Hey, I finally connected the highway dots between California and Canada today. That is, a little after 3 p.m., I rolled into the public park at the north end of Blaine, Wash., which happens to border another country.
Nice little border crossing they have here - lots of grass (of the fescue variety), picnic benches, a man selling ice cream and a lone U. S. Border Patrol SUV sitting in the shade of a tree, waiting and waiting for action.
Weird, if you’re from Southern California. Also wonderful. And that, I figured, would be an ideal final note for this week-long road trip, and for the day, which began with a ferry ride from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island and a concession-stand lunch at Deception Pass. But we don’t really get to choose when our trips end. The trips tell us, sometimes days before the return flight is scheduled. And this trip said: “Not so fast, buddy.”
I had a night to spend in Bellingham before flying back to Los Angeles, so I invited Gil, a buddy from Seattle, to come on up and join me for dinner. Killing time, we first ran into a serious bike race, for which several downtown streets were closed. Then we wandered down to the public dock in time to see a fine sunset and a couple of local young men flinging themselves repeatedly into the sea (pictured below).
Now that I was done chasing fun, fun was coming after us.
And then we finally sat down for that dinner — in a pub resounding with the strings and whistles of an Irish folk group. Turns out they play every Sunday night at Skylark’s, in the Fairhaven area of Bellingham. And that’s where this coastal adventure came to its proper ending, at the bar, with a hunk of cod at the end of my fork, a lilting note hanging in the air.
Of course it wasn’t a comprehensive trip– neither Washington’s shoreline nor my department’s budget would allow one. But I started at the Oregon-California line, clung to the coast as closely as I could, and slept every night in a hotel or trailer or lighthouse-keeper’s home that was right on the ocean. The cheapest night was $81 (the Port Townsend room above the Grateful Dead cover band). The costliest was about $225 (the Heceta Head lighthouse B&B in Oregon). Put this trip next to my January journey from the Tijuana border to northernmost California and you get a snapshot of the West Coast, and maybe an idea for a trip of your own. More details and advice on the Oregon-Washington findings will follow soon, when I pull together a proper story for the Travel section.
And by the way, what’s all this nonsense about people needing umbrellas and raincoats in the Northwest? Seven days, something like 900 miles, maybe two dozen beaches … and not a drop of rain.
– Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times staff writer
Photos: 1. Far below the big bridge at Deception Pass, Wash., two kayakers work their way around a corner. 2. The seaside Washington-Canada border crossing, which includes a fenceless park, grassy expanses, a sculpture garden and ornamental horticulture, is remarkably like the California-Mexico border in that, um, never mind. 3. On the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island, Wash.,, a small dog braves the stiff breeze. 4. They closed off several streets for a Sunday afternoon bike race in downtown Bellingham. 5. Down at the dock in the Fairhaven area of Bellingham, some of the boys like taking flying leaps. Credit: Christopher Reynolds
The OrWa road trip diaries, Day 6: Stacked stones, bared fangs and the end of the new world
July 19, 2009 1:07pm
About now, you may be thinking, we’re due for a reference to that old Grateful Dead lyric, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” So here it is. And here’s why.
I’m sleeping tonight — well, I may not be sleeping; I may just be lying down — in a Port Townsend, Wash., hotel room, directly above the town’s leading brew pub. My room was quite affordable, about $81, and when I got here I remembered the proprietress saying something about the bar having live music sometimes.
Well, what it has is a Grateful Dead tribute band, Jack Acid. The band members have already covered “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia” and a bunch of other favorites. And it’s clear they’re far from done. Which probably means that I’m far from sleep.
So, the day. It was long — something like 250 driving miles. And because of the way 101 is routed through Washington, there’s been a lot of jogging out to the coast, jogging back to the highway, then jogging out to the coast again. But there have been rewards.
A few miles north of Kalaloch Lodge, I stepped down to Ruby Beach, the last easily reached beach before the 101 veers inland through the Hoh Rain Forest. It was filled with massive driftwood — not so surprising, given Kalaloch beach. But over the months and years, visitors had covered this driftwood with little cairns — pebbles and stones stacked everywhere, on trunks, branches, sea stacks. I’d seen cairns in plenty of other places. But this setup was otherworldly.
An old guy with a fancy camera sidled up.
“Down in San Diego, they sell flat river rocks like this for a fortune,” he said. “A friend of mine put some in his frontyard. Cost about $1,000. I don’t dare tell him he could have gotten all he wanted.”
The man wandered off, and so did I. To Forks, where popular culture is rewiring the town.
Every since writer Stephenie Meyer set a 2005 vampire novel in this small, hardscrabble lumber town (after she went looking on Google for someplace dark and wet), entranced strangers have been showing up, often teenage girls. But now that the novel has grown into a series of books, and a movie series, among other things, the vampire pilgrim phenomenon has gone out of control.
