6 months of foot ferries

My wife and I decided we like foot ferries. I was originally going to try to travel on every foot ferry in Washington State in 2026, but I backed off a bit. The new goal is one every month, here’s a progress report after 6 months.

First, my rules:

Foot ferries cannot allow cars.

They must travel from one dock to another, and at least one of them must be in Washington State. So no Argosy Harbor Cruises, etc.

They must be open to the public. So no ferries to private islands, such as Hat Island near Everett.

They have to run on a published schedule. Otherwise there’d be an infinite number of foot ferries by going to a marina and hiring a boat to take you to some island.

I originally came up with 13 such ferries, as cheap as the West Seattle water taxi and as expensive as whale watching tours that have a long lunch stop at Friday Harbor (the latter apparently have some sort of arrangement with the state that allows you to travel one way, and are listed on some San Juan tourist sites as a method of transport to the Islands). As the year went on, though, I kept finding more, some of which are new for 2026. I ended up with 17, many of which only operate during the summer. That’s when I decided to back off to the one/month schedule.

Here are the ones we sampled:

January: Seattle to Vashon

February: Seattle to West Seattle

March: Seattle to Kingston

April: Seattle to Bremerton

All these (as well as Seattle to Southworth), run out of the fast ferry terminal on the south side of Colman Dock, the main waterfront ferry dock. The terminal has a Disneyland like queueing system under a covered roof, and once you’ve visited once, it will be old hat. The 3 Kitsap destinations are mainly there for commuters to Seattle, have limited or no weekend sailings, and on weekdays have a midday gap (roughly 10-2) when there are no sailings. This makes them excellent daytrip destinations for Seattleites. Kingston and Bremerton have enough amenities near their docks that you can go over around 10, knock around, eat lunch, then take the first ferry back at 2. At Southworth and Vashon (which is King County, not Kitsap) you’re going to want to bring a bike or take a bus from the far end to get to somewhere interesting. A bike in Kingston and Bremerton will help you get to more places, but isn’t necessary for a daytrip.

West Seattle has the best buses at their dock, as there are 2 bus routes that meet the ferry, one to Admiral then Alki and another just to Alki, and they are both free. So you can bus out to the Alki lighthouse and stroll back. When we visited, we bused to Alki then hiked a segment of the Olmsted Loop back to the West Seattle Dock.

In April, from Bremerton I also took one of the two local foot ferries from the Bremerton Terminal, to Annapolis (the other is to Port Orchard). Both these are clearly meant for Bremerton Naval Shipyard workers, but the Port Orchard ferry goes to a more interesting spot and runs on Saturday at least, so it gets some tourist traffic. Annapolis is just a pier east of downtown PO, and I took it there and got back on the next boat back to Bremerton.

May and June were more vacations that involved boats. In May we spent the night in Port Townsend, then took an all day whale watching tour into the San Juans with a long lunch stop in Friday Harbor. This was a nice trip, and we saw a humpback, some orcas, sea lions and puffins. There are similar ferries/whale watching tours that stop at Friday Harbor starting from Bellingham and new this year, Edmonds. I’m not so much of a wildlife nut to do more than one of these in a year.

June’s foot ferry was on Lake Chelan to Stehekin, a town on the north end of this very long lake only accessible by boat, plane, or a very long walk. Stehekin took a blow due to fires and subsequent floods last winter that wiped out the sewage system in the part of town near the ferry landing. They still have running water, and a few miles from the landing things are running somewhat as usual, but one of their main draws was the lodge near the landing and facilities like hot showers for PCT hikers, which are simply not operating this year. Consequently, it was pretty sleepy when we visited last weekend, but it still has some great hiking and I’m hoping they get things fixed up enough for 2027 to be more normal.

In case you’re wondering, here is my list of 17 Washington State foot ferries.

From the Seattle Waterfront: Vashon, West Seattle, Kingston, Southworth, Bremerton, Victoria (the Clipper)

From Bremerton: Port Orchard, Annapolis

From Everett: Jetty Island, (new this year) Langley

To Friday Harbor (whale watching tours with a lunch stop, which you might be able to turn into a longer stay): starting from Port Townsend, Bellingham, (new this year) Edmonds

Lake Chelan – I count it as 1, but there are at least 2 different companies starting from 2 spots (Chelan and Fields Point) and stopping at multiple docks up the lake

Orcas Island to Sucia Island – a few companies will do this on request, but one has a scheduled route during the summer

Lummi Island – generally a car ferry, but every year they schedule a drydock for the main boat, and run the same schedule with a foot ferry. This year it’s during the fall

Vancouver(?) to Seattle via cruise ship. I’m mostly ignoring cruises, but there was a mention in the Times that Holland America occasionally sells otherwise unoccupied berths relatively cheap between Seattle and Vancouver, BC. This requires more research.