Anacortes, Washington: Island Charm Without the Summer Crowds

By Claire Donovan · March 2026

Most people pass through Anacortes on their way somewhere else. That’s the first mistake.

I understand the impulse. We did it for years. Growing up, my family spent summers in the San Juans, and Anacortes was the place you waited for the ferry — a gas station stop and a grocery run before the boat. I knew the ferry terminal parking lot better than I knew the town. It took decades and a shoulder-season visit to realize what I’d been driving past.

Anacortes sits on Fidalgo Island, connected to the mainland by a bridge you barely notice. It’s ninety minutes north of Seattle, tucked into what locals call the “banana belt” — a pocket of the Pacific Northwest that gets twenty-three more days of sunshine per year than the city. The air is different up here. Sharper. Saltier. The pace drops the moment you cross that bridge, and by the time you’ve parked on Commercial Avenue, you’ve stopped checking the time.

The trick is visiting when the crowds haven’t arrived — or have already left. April through May and September through mid-October are the months that belong to you. The whale-watching boats are running. The restaurants are open. The tulip fields south of town are doing something your camera can’t quite capture. And you can walk the waterfront at sunset without stepping around anyone.

Why Anacortes Deserves More Than a Drive-Through

Here’s what surprised me: Anacortes has a genuine sense of itself. It’s not a resort town performing quaintness. It’s a working waterfront community with fishing boats and ferry traffic and a downtown where the businesses are mostly local and mostly good. Over 150 murals cover the buildings along Commercial Avenue — not the commissioned-by-a-developer kind, but detailed paintings of the town’s fishing, timber, and maritime history. David and I spent an hour just walking the street reading them. You learn more about this town from its walls than from any visitor’s guide.

The Anacortes Museum and Maritime Heritage Center sits near the water and tells the story of a place that’s always been oriented toward the sea. It’s small — you can see it in an hour — but there’s a quality to small museums that large ones can’t match. Everything is there because someone cared about it specifically.

What makes Anacortes work for experienced travelers is the ratio. Enough to fill three or four days without rushing. Not so much that you’re managing an itinerary. David and I found ourselves doing the thing we’ve started doing more often now that his schedule allows it: staying an extra night because we weren’t finished.

When to Go (and Why It’s Not July)

Summer in the San Juans is lovely. I won’t pretend otherwise. But July and August bring ferry reservation stress, hotel prices that double, and whale-watching boats that fill weeks in advance. The experience is the same water, the same whales, the same sunsets — just with more company.

Come in April instead. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival runs the entire month, and the fields between Anacortes and Mount Vernon light up in colors that genuinely stopped me mid-sentence. Tulip Town is opening early this year — March 28 — because the winter was mild. Peak bloom usually hits the second or third week of April. Visit on a Tuesday morning and you’ll have entire rows to yourself.

September and early October are the other sweet spot. The weather is often the best of the year — clear skies, warm days, cool evenings. Hotel rates drop. The ferries run on time because the loads are lighter. And the whales are still here, following the salmon runs through Haro Strait.

One more timing note: the Procession of the Species happens on April 25 this year, an Earth Day community parade through downtown Anacortes with handmade costumes, art, music, and the kind of earnest community energy that makes you like a place more.

The Walks That Earn the Views

You don’t come to Anacortes for strenuous hiking. You come for the kind of walks where the views do most of the work and you’re free to just be there.

Washington Park sits on the westernmost tip of Fidalgo Island. The loop trail is 2.2 miles, flat enough for conversation, with views of the San Juan Islands that open up so gradually you don’t realize how far you can see until you stop and look. We went at golden hour on a Thursday evening in late September and saw exactly four other people. I keep telling David we need to go back. He doesn’t need convincing.

Deception Pass State Park is the headliner — the bridge between Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands is one of the most photographed spots in Washington, and for good reason. The Rosario Head Trail adds coastline views that are worth the short walk. Even in shoulder season this park draws visitors, but nothing like summer weekends.

→ Deception Pass State Park guided hike

The one most people miss is Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve. It’s a 15-minute boardwalk through wetlands with 2,000 feet of sandy beach at the end. Cormorants. Hummingbirds. Waterfowl that don’t scatter when you approach because they’re not used to being startled. David sat on a driftwood log there for twenty minutes and didn’t say a word, which is his version of a five-star review.

And then there are the Anacortes Community Forest Lands — fifty miles of trails woven through the woods behind town. No dramatic vistas, just the quiet pleasure of being in a forest that a community has cared for on purpose.

Eating Your Way Down Commercial Avenue

The food in Anacortes is better than it has any right to be for a town this size. That’s the kind of sentence Claire-from-Green-Bay would say, and I mean it as the highest compliment.

Start at Bob’s Chowder Bar & BBQ Salmon. The clam chowder has won enough competitions that they’ve stopped counting, and it deserves every award. It’s the dish that made this place locally famous, and locals don’t exaggerate about it.

Adrift Restaurant does New American with locally sourced everything — the pan-fried oysters are outstanding, and the crab cakes are the kind where you can taste that someone actually cared about the ratio of crab to filler. David ordered both and I pretended I wasn’t going to steal from his plate. We both knew better.

For something quieter, Salt & Vine is a cheese-and-wine bar downtown that’s exactly right for a late afternoon when you’ve been walking all day and want to sit somewhere unhurried. The charcuterie boards are curated, not assembled, and the wine list favors Pacific Northwest producers.

Rockfish Grill doubles as the taproom for Anacortes Brewery — one of the oldest in the state. Wood-fired pizza, fish and chips, and live music on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It’s the kind of place where locals outnumber visitors, which is always a reliable signal.

Morning coffee belongs at ACME, a third-wave shop using Slate Coffee Roasters beans. The pastries come from Knock Out Bakery on Guemes Island, ferried over fresh. I don’t know why that detail delights me as much as it does — pastries arriving by boat — but it does.

Getting on the Water

Anacortes is a gateway to the San Juan Islands, and the water is the reason most people come this direction. Here’s the thing experienced travelers should know: you don’t have to take the ferry to get on the water.

Whale-watching cruises depart directly from Cap Sante Marina, right in downtown Anacortes. No ferry reservation required. No driving onto a boat with your car. You walk to the marina, board, and you’re in prime whale territory — orcas, humpbacks, minke whales, harbor seals, bald eagles. The Salish Sea is one of the richest marine environments on the planet, and the naturalist guides on these boats know it intimately.

→ Whale watching cruise from Anacortes

If you do want the ferry experience — and I’d encourage it at least once — walk on as a foot passenger. It’s about $15 round trip, and the ride to Friday Harbor was recently ranked one of the top ten ferry rides in the world. Leave your car in Anacortes where parking is free, explore Friday Harbor on foot, and catch a return ferry whenever you’re ready.

→ San Juan Islands ferry day trip

Kayaking is the third option, and the one that puts you closest to the water. Guided tours run through sheltered channels between the islands, and in the shoulder season the water is calm enough that even first-timers feel comfortable. There’s a particular stillness to paddling past a harbor seal that’s watching you as carefully as you’re watching it.

→ Guided kayak tour of the San Juan Islands

Tulip Fields and the Shoulder-Season Calendar

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is the anchor event of April, and it’s worth building a trip around even if you’ve never considered yourself a flower person. The fields stretch for acres south of Anacortes, and in peak bloom — typically mid-April — the color is genuinely disorienting. Row after row of red, yellow, purple, and orange against green farmland and the Cascade foothills behind. David took sixty photographs. I just stood there.

Tulip Town and RoozenGaarde are the two main gardens. Tickets run $12–$21 depending on day and time. Weekday mornings are dramatically less crowded than weekends — if you can take a Tuesday off, take a Tuesday off. Dogs are welcome at Tulip Town this year.

Beyond the tulips, the Anacortes Farmers Market runs Saturdays from May through October. During the off-season, winter markets happen the second Saturday of each month through April. And Anacortes Uncorked — a wine-tasting event at the Depot Arts & Community Center — lands in early March if you’re visiting at the start of the season.

Where to Sleep Well

Majestic Inn & Spa is the top pick if you want to be in the middle of everything. It’s a boutique hotel in a historic building on Commercial Avenue — walk out the door and you’re already on the mural walk. There’s a rooftop bar with Fidalgo Bay views, a full-service spa, and 5th Street Bistro on the ground floor serves a surprisingly excellent dinner. This is the splurge option, and it earns the price.

→ Majestic Inn & Spa on Booking.com

Anacortes Ship Harbor Inn is quieter, waterfront-adjacent, and a 15-minute walk from Washington Park. Free breakfast, a relaxed atmosphere, and the kind of place where the staff remembers your name by day two. Mid-range, genuinely comfortable. David preferred this one, which should tell you something about the vibe.

→ Anacortes Ship Harbor Inn on Booking.com

Swinomish Casino & Lodge is a few minutes’ drive from downtown, with 98 smoke-free rooms overlooking Padilla Bay and the San Juans. The on-site restaurant, 13moons, is fine dining worth a reservation even if you’re not staying here. Best for travelers who want a resort-style stay with views.

→ Swinomish Casino & Lodge on Booking.com