I just got back from a weekend trip to Leavenworth, Washington. Leavenworth serves as a classic getaway from Seattle, but somehow in my eleven years of living in the area I had never visited the cute town.
For those who aren’t familiar, Leavenworth is a town about two and a half hours from Seattle, on the other side of the Cascade mountain range. It is entirely themed like a Bavarian village, with all buildings looking like those you might find in the foothills of the Alps, except in the United States.
I heard about river tubing in the Leavenworth area and thought that floating down a river in a tube sounded like an excellent way to pass a summer afternoon. Mix in the uniqueness of the Bavarian village and its near location to Seattle, and I thought it would be a great weekend getaway from the city for my husband and I. So this post covers everything we did, and whether or not I thought it was worth it.
Things to Do in Leavenworth
Exploring Leavenworth
The main street of Leavenworth during the summer definitely has a fun vibe to it. Seeing the Bavarian inspiration along with flowers in full bloom and mountains framing the background adds up to a unique experience. The streets are full of shops and restaurants, and the main street was closed off to cars, so you had a wide space to wander.
I had fun delving into all the little shops and looking at what they had to sell. There was a good mix of tourist shops with Leavenworth T-shirts, feminine boutiques, and outdoor gear stores. Featured on one side of the main square were tents with art from local artists. I have a much higher tolerance for putzing around stores than my husband, but he also enjoyed exploring the shops.
Alpine Coaster
The Tumwater Twister Alpine Coaster is located on the outskirts of town, but is one of the first things you see if you’re coming from Seattle. If you’re unfamiliar, an alpine coaster is a type of roller coaster where the coaster uses the natural gravity of a hill to send you downhill, and you can use levers on the cart to control how fast or slow you take the curves.
We went on a day where the coaster was completely booked, so when we arrived we had too wait in a twenty minute line in order to get on the ride. Entry is time gated, however, so I wouldn’t expect the wait to ever be much longer than that.
The ride itself was fun. I am a bit of a thrill seeker when it comes to roller coasters, so I didn’t engage the brake all that much on my way down. Unfortunately you are at the mercy of the rider in front of you for you to go as fast as you want. The carts will automatically slow if you get too close, so don’t expect to zoom all the way down if you’re not spaced correctly.
That would be my only con about the ride. Otherwise it’s fun, but over very quickly. It probably is overpriced at $20 for one ride considering the duration of your time on the coaster. Worth it for the experience, but not an absolute must-do if you have other things to do in Leavenworth.
River Tubing
As I said above, this was what prompted me to plan this weekend getaway in the first place. And it was definitely a highlight of the trip!
There are a few options for doing a river float, but we went with the Leavenworth Outdoor Center. Essentially you rent a tube and they provide a van to transport you and the tube to a point upstream on the river. You get in the water and at some time later you’ll end up where you got your tube. You could definitely manage to do this on your own if you have the tubes and two cars, but I didn’t regret going with the package where I didn’t have to coordinate that.
Because of the time of year, we could only do the two mile float, which was predicted to last two hours. If you go earlier in the year the river is higher due to snowmelt and you can take longer trips, or the two mile float will be faster. Granted, even though the river was “slower” when we went, it still had a strong current to pull you along. But there were a few points where the bottom of the tube scraped along an unexpected low point.
The scenery makes the float worth it. The Cascades are gorgeous in the summer, and the area around Leavenworth is no exception. Add to the scenery a beautiful blue sky, warm sun, and refreshing water and it’s truly a great experience.
I had such a great time on the river float and I would 100% come back to do it again, possibly earlier in the year next time so I can experience the faster and deeper river.
Waterfront Park
Leavenworth has a great park along the river – indeed, it’s where you will land at if you tube! But there are several trails in the park as well. My husband and I walked around Blackbird Island after dinner to walk off our heavy German meal and found it to be very pleasant and picturesque. A great change of scenery if you’re tired at looking at fake Germany.
Food in Leavenworth
Now a weekend is not enough time to really get a sense of a destination’s best food, so I’m only going to share what I ended up eating. If you want a more thorough list of restaurants, I used this blog post for my own planning.
Breakfast / Brunch
The only food place I planned ahead was brunch at Larch Brunch Co mainly because I wanted our morning to be relaxed and not trying to figure out what we were going to eat. I’d say Larch Brunch is your classic fancy brunch place (vs a diner/unassuming brunch place). My husband and I both got the crab & shrimp cake benedicts and they were really really good. The side order of cheesy biscuits was also delicious. I would definitely come back here in a future visit.
For our second morning in Leavenworth, my husband knew immediately what he wanted to eat – crepes! He had seen Crepe Cafe Sisters while exploring the previous day and developed a hankering for the really really thin pancakes.
The restaurant is on the more compact side, but we were able to snag a table. The crepes were really good. My husband absolutely loved his “Kickin’ Chicken” with chicken breast and gochujang, and I also enjoyed my “Nutty Dust” with Nutella and cinnamon. Another place I would gladly return to.
Dinner
Dinner on the first night had to have schnitzel. That was my husband’s rule. And we were both very ready for food after being in traffic from Seattle for a few hours. So we took a very quick walk to peer at menus on the village main street before settling on Ludwig’s, as it had schnitzel and open space at a table outside.
Both the schnitzel and my sauerbraten were acceptable. Not the best German food either my husband or I had eaten, but not bad either. The outdoor ambiance was a great introduction to Leavenworth.
Dinner on the second night was shaped by our desire to have a pretzel, and also a desire to not wait in the line that stretched entirely across the street at Munchen Haus. So we settled on Rhein Haus, which proclaimed the best pretzel as deigned by the Seattle Times, and less of a line.
Our eyes were much bigger than our stomach and we got the large pretzel to share between both of us, and we didn’t finish it. We both also got sausages which were very good – the pretzel wasn’t the best, but it also wasn’t bad as far as pretzels go. The patio on top of the roof made for an excellent setting and elite people watching of the square below the restaurant.
Dessert
Dessert options abound in Leavenworth. Two boba tea shops, a fudge shop, a Danish bakery, a gingerbread bakery, and those are only the ones I recall seeing off the top of my head. But the one that we chose was Whistlepunk Ice Cream.
There will likely be a line to get into this ice cream shop, no matter the time of day. Seriously, it was not without a line the entire weekend we were there. But, the line moves fast and the ice cream is freshly made and absolutely delicious. Definitely worth your time, don’t let the line scare you!
General Recommendations for Leavenworth
So, again, this is based off of a single trip to the town, but here’s some quick tips that will help you avoid the pitfalls we ran into this time.
Expect Traffic
Okay, so I said earlier that Leavenworth was two and half hours outside of Seattle, but you should definitely plan for more time if you’re traveling near rush hour. It took about three hours for us to navigate through traffic leaving around 3pm on a Friday afternoon from the city. It took some godawful amount (4 hours?) of time returning back from Leavenworth on Sunday because US Highway 2 always gets backed up in Sultan. Always. If you’ve ever come back from Stevens Pass on a ski weekend, you know the exact spot you will get stuck. I don’t know why it’s always bad there, but it is, and the cellular network is spotty, so plan your car trip accordingly.
Stay in the Town
The hotels and AirBnBs in the town are a little on the expensive side for not being in an actual city, but in hindsight our in-town hotel was worth the price. We stayed at the Hotel Leavenworth, which was right on the main street, and provided free parking. It was very convenient to have guaranteed parking in Leavenworth itself, and also very nice to not have to walk super far when we were done for the day. It also allowed us to easily go back to the room in between activities without messing around with a car.
Book Ahead of Time
I’ve developed into somewhat of a last minute planner as I’ve gotten older. Maybe it’s because I’m traveling more, or because I don’t want to be caught with non refundable tickets, but I definitely wait a while to lock in plans. Don’t do that if you’re planning on visiting Leavenworth in the summer!
I ended up booking a later time than I wanted for the river float (4pm, the last departure) because I waited until two weeks beforehand to lock it in. I almost completely missed out on riding the alpine coaster on Saturday because the slots had been fully booked, but we were able to snag some while refreshing the booking site day of. If you’re interested in either of these attractions book them further out than you think you should!
Leavenworth Weekend Getaway Recap
All in all, I thought this was a great quick getaway from Seattle. Leavenworth has a good amount to do in the town itself, and provides a great base for outdoor activities in the area. What do you think? Have you been to Leavenworth, Washington before? What was your favorite thing to do? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re looking for more Seattle-area trips, check out this post on the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival!
