Whidbey Island

Understand

About 80,000 people live on Whidbey Island.

History

Whidbey Island was once inhabited by members of the Lower Skagit, Swinomish, Suquamish, Snohomish and other Native American tribes. In the era of European exploration, the island had one of the largest Native settlements on Puget Sound.

The first known European sighting of Whidbey Island was during the 1790 Spanish expedition of Manuel Quimper and Gonzalo López de Haro on the Princesa Real. The island was fully explored in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver. When Joseph Whidbey and Peter Puget, members of Vancouver's expedition, circumnavigated the island in June 1792, Vancouver named the island in Whidbey's honor.

In 1850, Colonel Isaac N. Ebey became the first permanent white settler on Whidbey Island, claiming a square mile (2.6 km²) of prairie with a southern shoreline on Admiralty Inlet. Even though he was farming potatoes and wheat on his land, he was also the postmaster for Port Townsend, and rowed a boat daily across the inlet in order to work at the post office there. On August 11, 1857, Colonel Ebey was murdered and beheaded by Haida who traveled from the Queen Charlotte Islands in proxy-retaliation for the killing of a Haida chief at Port Gamble.

Fort Ebey, named for the Colonel, was established in 1942 on the west side of the central part of the island, just northwest of Coupeville.

Cities

Whidbey Island is mostly residences and farmlands, interspersed with a few small towns.

• Clinton - A small town on the southern tip of Whidbey Island, with a ferry terminal to Mukilteo.
• Coupeville - County seat of Island County, with a ferry terminal to Port Townsend.
• Freeland - Named after the original socialist colony.
• Greenbank - Known for its community farm.
• Langley - Small city overlooking Saratoga Passage. Known as The Village by the Sea.
• Oak Harbor - Largest city on the island, with a popular marina. Home to Naval Air Station - Whidbey.

Other destinations

• Deception Pass State Park – the fast-flowing waterway between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands, with over 4,100 acres of forest, beaches, campsites, trails, and scenic vistas. During low tides, the swift current can lead to standing waves, large whirlpools, and roiling eddies underneath the historic Deception Pass Bridge.
• Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve – preserves and protects an unbroken historical record of Puget Sound exploration and settlement from the 19th century to the present. Historic farms, still under cultivation in the prairies of Whidbey Island, reveal land use patterns unchanged since settlers claimed the land in the 1850s.

Get in

By ferry

Washington State Ferries (WSF) operates two routes to Whidbey Island.

Port Townsend / Coupeville route

This route connects Whidbey Island to the Olympic Peninsula.

Reservations are recommended for vehicles. The small ferries required for the narrow Keystone Harbor mean that vehicle space is often limited, and drive-up motorists may have to wait several sailings for a space. Advance reservations are all but essential on Friday afternoons, weekends and holidays. There's always room for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Mukilteo / Clinton route

This route connects Whidbey Island to the Puget Sound mainland and the Seattle metro area.

Fares are one-way for vehicles, and round-trip for passengers. Fares are calculated based on sailing time and season, type and length of vehicle and the amount and ages of passengers. For example, fares during a summer weekend in 2025 are:

• $13.90 for a standard 14-22 ft car and its driver
• $6.25 for additional adult passengers and walk-ons from Mukilteo (free from Clinton)
• $1.00 for each ride-on bicycle from Mukilteo, in addition to the passenger fare (free from Clinton)

This run is popular with commuters as well as weekend vacationers. There may be a wait of a few hours for vehicles during peak times.

By car

Whidbey Island is connected to the mainland via State Route 20 (WA-20) across the Deception Pass Bridge, on the northern end of the island.

State Route 525 (WA-525) leads from the Clinton ferry terminal in the south to its junction with WA-20 halfway up the island.

WA-20 and WA-525 form a continuous north-south thoroughfare through Whidbey Island, connecting to each ferry terminal.

From Interstate 5, access Whidbey Island from WA-20 in Burlington (exit 230), or WA-525 north of Lynnwood (exit 182) via the Mulkiteo-Clinton ferry.

By boat

Whidbey Island is a nice stopping point when traveling between Seattle and the San Juan Islands.

• Coupeville Wharf, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Penn Cove in Island County.
• Langley Marina, in Langley.

By plane

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is the closest large commercial airport to Whidbey Island.

Alternatively there are additional general aviation airports for private pilots to fly into Whidbey Island with their own aircraft with limited services:

By bus

Community Transit, Everett Transit, Jefferson Transit and Skagit Transit have buses connecting Whidbey Island to Seattle, Everett, Port Townsend, Anacortes and other nearby places. Except Skagit Transit, their buses stop at the ferry terminals where ferries from Whidbey Island arrive into their respective counties. Nearest transfer point to Skagit Transit is March's Point Park & Ride north of Deception Pass, near Anacortes:

* 117 connects Mukilteo with Lynnwood via Mukilteo Speedway and Alderwood Mall Blvd. Passengers transfer to the Link Light Rail 1 Line train, in Lynnwood, to go towards the airport in SeaTac through Northgate, U-District, Downtown Seattle and South Seattle. The 117 bus operates daily throughout the day and on weekends.

* 18 travels between Everett Station and Mukilteo Station.

* 40X travels between March's Point P&R and Mt Vernon via WA-20 & WA-536. * 410 serves as a local connection from March's Point P&R to Anacortes, Guemes Ferry Terminal and the San Juan Ferry Terminal * 615 connects March's Point P&R with Mt Vernon through La Conner. * Island Transit 411W connects Whidbey Island to March's Point P&R via Deception Pass.

* 11A/B loops around Uptown and Downtown from Haines Park & Ride. Actually two routes, in opposite directions: #11A is counter-clockwise, and #11B is clockwise. Take the 11A bus to go into town from the stop in front of Port Townsend Plaza or the 11B going the opposite direction, from across the street (Water Ave) to get to Haines Park & Ride and transfer to other Jefferson Transit buses.

Nearest transfer points to Amtrak, Greyhound and Flixbus are in Mount Vernon and Everett. Connections to additional intercity bus companies and public transit buses are in Seattle.

Get around

Whidbey Island is nearly 50 mi long and best navigated by car. It is well served by highways WA-20 and WA-525, which runs its entire length and connects all the ferry terminals.

By bus

By taxi

By boat

The section of Puget Sound east of Whidbey is known as the Whidbey Basin and usually provides calmer water than traveling on the open sound.

Stay safe

Keep wildlife wild. Though many of the animals in the Whidbey Island area are used to seeing humans, they are nonetheless wild and should not be disturbed.

• Do not feed wild animals.
• Regulations require boaters to stay 200 yards away from orcas and other marine mammals, and keep the path of the animals clear.
• Do not disturb seal pups. NOAA recommends at least a 100-yard buffer around seals. Seal pups 'haul out' to get much needed rest when they are young and are often alone for many hours. They are extremely vulnerable at this time and should be left alone. Only about 50% of Puget Sound seal pups make it through their first year, so please help to protect their health. Report harassment or sightings of injured/stranded marine mammals to the NOAA Fisheries hotline at (800) 853-1964.
• Deer are prevalent on Whidbey. Be careful driving around blind corners. They travel in herds; if you see one, there are more.

Low-flying military planes are an everyday occurrence, occasionally creating a lot of noise. Whidbey Island is a strategically important location, and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island is a large training base. (It is also the largest employer on the island.)

Go next

By ferry

• Port Townsend is a popular tourist Victorian-themed town, easily accessible by ferry from Coupeville.
• Seattle and the rest of the mainland are accessible by ferry from Clinton.

By car

• Anacortes, and onward to Guemes Island and the San Juan Islands.

Whidbey Island is on the North Cascade Loop itinerary.