Day trip to Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island is just 30 miles north of Seattle and super easy to access either by ferry from Mukilteo or bridge across Deception Pass. This makes it perfect for a day trip with little ones. Read on for everything you need to know for an adventure to Whidbey!

General Itinerary:

9:30 – Ferry from Mukilteo

10:00 – Pick up lunch at Whidbey Island Bagel Factory

10:30-12:00 – Beach time & picnic lunch at Double Bluff Beach

12:30-1:30 – Explore Fort Casey

2:00 – Whidbey Pie from Old Spots Bistro at Greenbank Farm

2:30-3:30 – Playground time at Community Park and/or wine tasting at Spoiled Dog Winery (winery open Friday-Sunday only)

3:35 (or 4:05, or 4:35… depending how the winery went!) – Ferry crossing at Clinton

Bring:

Your Dog!
Beach stuff, croc-type beach shoes, and a full change of clothes for after the beach
Snacks, plus plates and utensils for pie
Hats and Sunscreen (seriously, there’s no shade on this island…)
Kites
Discover Pass for parking at Fort Casey (they do sell day passes at the park – should take credit card, but maybe bring $10 cash just to be safe)
Scooters for Skate Park at Community Park

Do Not Bring:

A stroller – when we went with 3 young kids ages 5, 2, 7 months and didn’t pull ours out of the car once. We did use the Ergo for the baby, however

Weather:

This day trip is great on any non-rainy day. Since there’s such little shade on these parts of the Island, I don’t think I’d actually do this trip on a really hot day.

Details:

The last time we headed up to Whidbey it was a 70-degree, sunny Sunday in May. You would think the place would be super crowded, but not the case at all. We got to the Mukilteo Ferry at 9:23 (yes, very specific…) and made the 9:30 crossing – so seriously not busy. But the ferry runs every 30 minutes, so if things are different the day you go, it’s not a total nightmare. I had a friend go the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and she had to wait about an hour going, but no time at all coming back. When you’re taking any ferries in the area, try and think about the times people would be crossing if they were going to their cabins for the weekend. For example, Memorial Day weekend Saturday morning going to Whidbey: crowded. Memorial Day weekend Monday afternoon leaving Whidbey: crowded. But if you go mid-day Sunday, you’ll probably have a quicker time.

This crossing is very short – like maybe 20 minutes. Just enough time to head up to the potty and snap a few cute obligatory ferry deck photos. My new personal favorite:

Now as you may already know, we have a sweet 12-year-old Golden Retriever, Corby. When we head out for the whole day we usually try and bring her along – more than 6 hours at home alone starts to feel a bit like animal cruelty, in my opinion. So, this day trip is 100% dog friendly. Now if you like dogs, but don’t have one, this is still the trip for you. If you’re deathly afraid of dogs read on, I’ll throw in some alternate suggestions!

Our first stop off the ferry is Whidbey Bagel Factory in Clinton – just 5 minutes down state route 525 from the ferry dock. Their bagel sandwiches are seriously delicious, and this is a great place to pick-up a picnic lunch for the beach.

Next, we head to Double Bluff Beach – our favorite beach on Whidbey because a huge section of it is a dog off-leash area. If you’ve got your pup in-tow this is amazing. If you don’t, then regardless of your feelings about dogs, I’d stick to the area of the beach closest to the parking lot and not included in the off-leash area. Dogs are cute, but they poop, and owners don’t always see them doing it, so miss picking it up… you get the idea. And of course, dogs pee everywhere too – but then again, so do my boys, so that seems like a draw. If this all just sounds no-good to you, I’d also recommend Frank D. Robinson Beach just a bit farther down the road on Mutiny Bay.

The parking lot at Double Bluff is very small. We were lucky to find a spot right away, but since people use this beach as an off-leash area the turnover in the lot seemed fairly constant. If you get there and the lot is full, I bet you’d catch a spot if you waited for just a bit.

This beach truly has it all: sand, rocks, driftwood, SHOWER FOR RINSING THE KIDS OFF AFTER!!! The sand bit is really nice – usually Puget Sound beaches are rocky, so having sand to dig and play in is a treat. The driftwood on this beach is impressive too. Great for fort building, or you can just enjoy the ones already there. Pop your head into them before your kids do – just to check for beer bottles, etc. We were there last time at a high tide so I’m not sure if a low tide would also give you some classic northwest beach features like tidepools and rocks to turn over. Check the tidal charts if that’s important to you, but we had fun at the high tide and there was plenty of beach to enjoy. We wore rain boots when we went – my normal ‘northwest beach’ footwear of choice. But since it was warm and there was so much sand I think I’d do crocs next time instead. The kids were barefoot pretty quickly, and putting their rainboots back on afterwards was a mess.

Since we walked down to the dog part of the beach, we probably had a 5 minute walk before we found a spot to camp out. Because of that, we didn’t bring a ton of stuff: waterproof picnic blanket for the baby, bucket of beach toys, one towel, and a backpack with our bagel lunch and some kid essentials.

There’s a shower right next to the bathrooms that was running when we were there – I feel like showers at places like this sometimes aren’t working in the off season, so I thought that was a good sign! We stripped the boys down and did a full outfit change. I just ran back to the car quickly to grab our change of clothes & shoes. Bathrooms themselves were in pretty bad shape, but got the job done. If you’re not having an emergency might be worth it to wait until the next stop…

… which was Fort Casey State Park – the early 1900s defense and training facility on the west side of the island. The remaining buildings (and “disappearing guns”) are fun to explore – and by fun I mean: fun for my boys, frightening for their parents! This place has not been kid proofed at all and feels like it’s the exact same as it was 100+ years ago when taken out of commission. If your kids are difficult to corral, you might choose to skip this bit or just stick to the grassy field. There are adult sized ladders for climbing, steep cement drop offs for falling off of, and insanely narrow 30 foot tall bridges for teetering across! My kids are decent listeners (well, at least they were that day…) and we were able to explore the structures safely and together. As they’ve gotten older, this stop has become more and more fun for them – so definitely give it a try!

Bringing a kite to fly in the grassy field would be a fun activity as well. And if you’d like to go take a peek at the lighthouse down the road, that could also be a safer option.

After Fort Casey we like to make a few stops on our way back to the ferry. First is Greenbank Farm for pie at Old Spots Bistro! This farm is charming and has a few different fun things to check out. The Bistro sells Whidbey Pies, so that has to be a stop. But there are also gardens, shops, art galleries, dog friendly walking trails through the fields, and a small swing set/playground area. When it was a working farm it was the largest grower of Loganberries, so if you’re trying to be super local grab a Loganberry pie for an afternoon snack!

Next we like to stop at Community Park near Langley – the ‘Castle’ playground here is very fun and my bigger boys love the skate park right next door.

You could also head into Langley and take a stroll through this cute little town. We’re in-and-out of “cute little towns” fairly quickly these days. Stopping into a “cute little shop” with my “cute little boys” sounds like my worst nightmare (and probably the shop owner’s as well…).

Another option is to stop at Spoiled Dog Winery for a little tasting and some outdoor lounging. The kids can run around and play lawn games. The winery is open in the afternoons on Fridays-Sundays.

And from there it’s just a 10 minute drive to the ferry! Hope this helps you on your next adventure to Whidbey Island!

Links:

Ferry Schedule: https://www.wsdot.com/ferries/schedule/

Whidbey Bagel Factory: https://whidbeycamanoislands.com/activities/whidbey-island-bagel-factory/

Tidal Charts: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=9447854

Double Bluff Beach: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/double-bluff

Frank D. Robinson Beach: https://www.whidbeylifemagazine.org/enjoy-robinson-beach-a-priceless-gift-to-the-island/

Fort Casey State Park: http://parks.state.wa.us/505/Fort-Casey

Greenbank Farm: https://whidbeycamanoislands.com/greenbank-farm

Old Spots Bistro: http://www.oldspotsbistro.com/

Community Park: https://swparks.org/parks-facilities/facilities/

Spoiled Dog Winery: http://spoileddogwinery.com/