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Aussie's seeking assistance from US residents!


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Hi everyone

 

We are from the Gold Coast Queensland Australia and will be cruising from Sydney to Seattle in April 2018. We will staying in the California Coastal/Pacific Northwest for around 5 months.

 

We are looking at staying longer term in places so that we can really absorb the American lifestyles and not be a tourist but travellers.

 

We do intend doing an Alaskan cruise whilst there and probably spend about a month up in Vancouver Canada, but the rest of the time has yet to be decided. We are thinking around San Francisco might be nice but we are open to ideas.

 

We are seeking guidance from West Coast locals who can recommend places (ie suburbs/towns) to live short term but also places to avoid.

 

Any assistance appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Mark

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If you’re going to drive down from Vancouver to San Francisco I’d dr be down the 101 freeway and stop in Astoria, Oregon and continue thru to Far Northern California (Eureka area). Far Northern California is home to the Coastal Redwoods and banana slugs.

 

 

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Consider taking ferries (I can’t remember but I think it was either 2 or 3 and we were in a car to drive between ferries. You would need to research how to do the trip if you don’t have a car) north from Vancouver to Powell River area. From there take a boat to Desolation Sound (we did a day cruise from Lund but wish we had rented a boat to do a longer trip). One of the most gorgeous areas on earth and remote so not too many people make it there.

 

 

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Consider driving highway 2 east from Seattle to see gorgeous views and 2 of the most beautiful national parks - North Cascades (remote with few visitors) and Glacier (lots of visitors but oh so gorgeous). Also if you can time it the Calgary stampede in held in July in Calgary Canada. It is similar to a fair or carnival and the rodeo that is part of the fair is great and includes a musical show as well as chuck wagon races which are very entertaining. During the mornings various locations around Calgary have free breakfasts served outside in parking lots that include pancakes, sausage and eggs. Really something to experience.

 

We did this trip in our RV and stayed 3 weeks in a campground near Hungry Horse (that is the name of a town) in the Glacier area seeing Flathead Lake and the many cute fun towns in the area. We spent about a week seeing North Cascades area and another week in the Calgary area.

 

 

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Portland should definitely be on your list to consider. Even if you hate beer, wine, food etc. it's still worth seeing if only for the unique vibe of the city - and if you do like food & booze it's one of the best cities in the world to visit, not just in the US. We spend 2+ months a year, every year there and have not yet run out of stuff to see and do (and eat and drink). Quite feasible to day-trip to everywhere around the northern OR coast, up the Columbia etc. and take in many small places that just aren't worth spending too much time in individually.

 

I'm totally onboard with the above reccos about driving the 101, and also getting further inland (while personally the Stampede doesn't do anything for me, if you're interested in that sort of cowboy yeehaw stuff then it doesn't get bigger than Calgary's - and crossing the Badlands down into Montana, desert country in Nevada etc. would certainly give you very different scenery than the coast).

 

With five months, I'd be inclined to include San Diego as one of your home bases - SD and SF are, to me, the most re-visitable cities in California.

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Hi everyone

 

 

 

We are from the Gold Coast Queensland Australia and will be cruising from Sydney to Seattle in April 2018. We will staying in the California Coastal/Pacific Northwest for around 5 months.

 

 

 

We are looking at staying longer term in places so that we can really absorb the American lifestyles and not be a tourist but travellers.

 

 

 

We do intend doing an Alaskan cruise whilst there and probably spend about a month up in Vancouver Canada, but the rest of the time has yet to be decided. We are thinking around San Francisco might be nice but we are open to ideas.

 

 

 

We are seeking guidance from West Coast locals who can recommend places (ie suburbs/towns) to live short term but also places to avoid.

 

 

 

Any assistance appreciated.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

If you are wine people, head south from Seattle through Oregon (do some wine tasting in the Willamette Valley. But continue on to Mendocino and Sonoma Counties in Northern California. A good base of operations in Mendocino would be any of the local towns like Fort Bragg or Mendocino or even Albion and Little River.

Further south you could stay in Santa Rosa or Petaluma in Sonoma County. One of my favorite little towns is Occidental, which is not far from Sebastopol.

We're talking world class wines all around you in any of these locations.

 

 

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For a five month stay that is a hard one. I assume you have access to a car.

 

For Northern CA If you can handle the weather and expense, San Francisco would be my first choice. But it is expensive there. Silicon Valley is nice but also very expensive. You might want to look at Sacramento because it is centrally located. You have San Francisco and the Bay area to the wast, Reno and Lake Tahoe and the old gold rush communities to the east Yosemite and Sequoia to the south and to the north is Mt Lassen, Mt Shasta and southern Oregon But it can get hot there in the summer. There are a number of smaller communities north of San Francisco on the Pacific as well. Napa and Sonoma would be interesting choice but I don't know about this year's fire damage.

 

In Southern CA check out Santa Barbara and Ventura (which is burning ) counties. That would be my first choice. If not then check out San Diego and Orange counties - places close to the ocean.

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I highly recommend the North San Diego County towns of Vista, California or Carlsbad, California. Both are reasonably close to downtown San Diego, ocean, mountains, desert, everything without the crowds. Cute downtowns, lots of charm. Can't beat the weather. Check it out. :D

 

Hi everyone

 

We are from the Gold Coast Queensland Australia and will be cruising from Sydney to Seattle in April 2018. We will staying in the California Coastal/Pacific Northwest for around 5 months.

 

We are looking at staying longer term in places so that we can really absorb the American lifestyles and not be a tourist but travellers.

 

We do intend doing an Alaskan cruise whilst there and probably spend about a month up in Vancouver Canada, but the rest of the time has yet to be decided. We are thinking around San Francisco might be nice but we are open to ideas.

 

We are seeking guidance from West Coast locals who can recommend places (ie suburbs/towns) to live short term but also places to avoid.

 

Any assistance appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I really like Whidbey Island near Seattle. I haven't been to Gig Harbor, but it looks interesting too.

Also I always enjoy visits to Astoria, Cannon Beach, and Gearhart, Oregon. Some of our friends like the little towns south of there.

I didn't like the heavy traffic in Portland, but I liked Troutdale and the Hood River area was beautiful! It would be a good base, and you could take public transportation to Portland for city life, restaurants, and the like.

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I really like Whidbey Island near Seattle. I haven't been to Gig Harbor, but it looks interesting too.

Also I always enjoy visits to Astoria, Cannon Beach, and Gearhart, Oregon. Some of our friends like the little towns south of there.

I didn't like the heavy traffic in Portland, but I liked Troutdale and the Hood River area was beautiful! It would be a good base, and you could take public transportation to Portland for city life, restaurants, and the like.

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Do not miss the giant redwoods in N. CA but you need a car to see them. Same with the San Juan Islands between Seattle and Vancouver. If you want public trans. there are 2 daily trains from Seattle to Vancouver and a daily train from Seatte to Los Angeles.

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