Road Tripping in the Pacific Northwest with Lonely Planet

When Lonely Planet Pacific Northwest’s Best Trips (Regional Guide) arrived at our house for me to review, can you guess why it disappeared from my desk? That’s right, Alan saw the tagline, “33 Amazing Road Trips,” and the book became a fixture on his desk because you know how much he enjoys planning our road trips. The section on Vancouver Island’s Remote North was just what Alan needed to research a May road trip to Vancouver Island.

The Pacific Northwest’s Best Trips provides road trip itineraries for Washington, Oregon and British Columbia plus a bonus selection of Classic Trips like “Up the Inside Passage,” which isn’t a road trip at all but rather a journey by ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway. Alan and I will be paying extra special attention to that section when we travel on the Alaska Marine Highway from Anchorage, AK, to Bellignham, WA, in mid-September.

Each itinerary includes maps, photos plus mileage and suggested number of days for the trip. You’ll learn the best time to go, where to take the essential photo of the trip plus what’s best about the journey. For instance, Hoh Rainforest is marked as “Best for Wildlife” on the Olympic Peninsula Loop becuase of rare glimpses of Roosevelt elk.

The itineraries offer step by step directions that also include not-to-be-missed highlights to see. Of course Alan likes the fun detour suggestions that take travelers even more off-the-beaten-path. And a “Link Your Trip” box tells which itineraries to combine for longer trips. An “Eating and Sleeping” page at the end of each itinerary suggests restaurants and accommodations. It’s the weakest component of the book, so consider these pages as a place to start rather than a comprehensive selection of dining and accommodation choices.

The itineraries in The Pacific Northwest’s Best Trips aren’t that far from our Montana headquarters, which means that we’ll be trying out many of the road tripping ideas. In fact, we’ll be using some of the suggestions in “Circling the Rockies” for a trip into British Columbia in late June. And I like that the book is small enough to bring along for reference.

Did you know that Lonely Planet publishes a series of Best Trips books? Would you like to win one? As part of our 5-year-anniversary celebration, Lonely Planet is offering one of our lucky readers his or her choice of one of the Best Trips books.

Here’s how to enter the Lonely Planet Best Trips books giveaway

Post a comment to tell us which one of the Lonely Planet Best Trips books that you would like to win. Please include your email address for contact purposes. Giveaway ends on Thursday, May 16, 2013, at 11:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Winner will be announced as soon as possible. According to our general contest rules, the winner must be a U.S. resident and respond within 48 hours of receiving the notification email; or we chose another winner.

More 5-year-anniversary giveaways:

• Pin to Win Kuru Shoes (ends May 31, 2013)
• California Directory of Fine Wineries: Central Coast (May 30, 2013)
• QuikPod Explorer II giveaway (ends May 23, 2013)
• Ladies Scottevest giveaway (ends May 22, 2013)
• Kauai Trailblazer book giveway in the May newsletter (ends May 31, 2013: must subscribe to our newsletter)
• $100 TownePlace Suites Marriott gift card giveaway in the May newsletter (ends (May 31, 2013: must subscribe to our newsletter)

Disclosure: Lonely Planet has provided a copy of The Pacific Northwest’s Best Trips book for my review and a copy of a Best Trips book for the giveaway. I have included an Amazon link for your convenience, however My Itchy Travel Feet does receive a small percentage for purchases made at Amazon.com.

UPDATE: May 16, 2013, 12:00 p.m: this contest has expired. As soon as the winner acknowledges receipt of my email, I’ll make the announcement.