Traveling to and around The island
There are many options to travel to and from San Juan island. From there, there are many ways to get to San Juan island. They take a bit of pre-planning, and we do recommend booking in advance, but no matter what option you take, you will get a lovely scenic view of the PNW from air or water!
Fly from Seattle
By far our preferred mode of travel to the island! If you fly into SeaTac airport, you will be shuttled to Boeing Field for a land plane flight or to Lake Union/Lake Washington for a seaplane flight. Check out the following options to book your flights:
Kenmore Air
Friday Harbor Seaplanes
San Juan Airlines
Point to Point Air
Westwind Aviation
Shuttle from Seatac
This is a convenient and inexpensive option for people flying in to Seattle to take a shuttle directly to the Anacortes ferry terminal where you will catch the ferry to San Juan island. It’s ~2 hours between Seattle and Anacortes. We have found two options for shuttles (there may be others as well - these are just the two that we found!): Bellair Airporter and Island Airporter
Passenger & Car Ferry from anacortes
Ferries to the San Juan Islands depart from Anacortes, which is a 2-2.5 hour drive north of SeaTac airport.
You can drive onto the ferry or park at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal and walk on. If you plan on driving your car onto the ferry, reservations are required! You will need to make reservations for both your arrival and departure trips. Reservations are not required for walk-on-only passengers (so you don’t need to reserve if you plan to take a shuttle from Seattle to the ferry terminal)
The ferry reservation system on the WSF website is complicated, so we will try to break it down for you:
To get to the island, you will need to drive from Seattle to Anacortes (~2 hr drive, depending on traffic). From Anacortes, you will take a ferry to Friday Harbor (the main town on San Juan Island). Don’t reserve a ferry to Orcas, Lopez, or Shaw island and expect to be able to get to San Juan Island from there… the islands are not connected by a bridge and you can only get between them by ferry!
Ferry reservations are released in 3 waves, with 1/3 of reservations released in each wave:
1st wave: Tuesday, May 3rd at 7am PDT. All summer reservations open. We recommend setting an alarm and booking as soon as the site opens.
2nd wave: 2 weeks before the sailing date at 7am PDT. If you miss the first wave and plan to travel to the island on Wednesday, June 19 then set an alarm for 7am on Wednesday June 15. If you plan to leave the island on Friday, July 1 then set an alarm for 7am on Friday, June 17.
3rd wave: 2 days before the sailing date at 7am PDT - by this point, usually only the very early or very late boats for any given day are available, so we don’t recommend waiting. Those last reservations usually sell out by 7:15am, so set an alarm!
Remember that you need to make reservations for your travel to and from the island!
If you aren’t sure of your dates or aren’t sure if you are going to bring a car, then we recommend booking anyway. There is no charge when booking a ferry reservation but you will be charged a “no show” fee of $10 if you book a reservation and then don’t use it or cancel it. You can cancel your reservation up until 5pm the day before your travel date.
Traveling around the island
A car is not necessary on the island - but don’t rely on Uber or Lyft, since those aren’t available here! We will organize a coordinated shuttle from Friday Harbor to our venue at the beginning of the ceremony and end of reception so if you’re staying in Friday Harbor, you can leave your car behind and take the shuttle. If you stay outside of Friday Harbor, we recommend taking one of the island taxi services to and from the venue.
Outside of wedding events, there are many ways to explore the island without a car, listed below. The Jolly Trolley is especially cute.
Friday Harbor Jolly Trolley
San Juan Transit
Susie’s Moped and Car Rentals
M&W Auto (Car Rentals)
Rhode Trips Taxi & Tours
Friday Harbor Taxi
San Juan Taxi and Tours
Meat Machine Cycles
Discovery Adventure Bike Rentals
Inter-island travel
Our wedding is on San Juan island, which is part of the San Juan Island archipelago. There are approximately 400 islands in the archipelago, depending on what you define as an island and the tides. The ferry from Anacortes services 4 of the islands: San Juan, Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw. Taking a car on an inter-island ferry does not require a reservation, and going on as a passenger never requires a reservation. So if you want to explore other islands while you are here, it’s easy to do so!
Only some of the other islands in the archipelago are accessible/ open to tourists. Lummi and Guemes, for example, do have small car/ passenger ferries. Other islands are accessible only by private boat or charter. Some islands are privately owned or are only accessible to full-time residents. Have fun exploring!