Ferries from Friday Harbor

Friday Harbor is the only incorporated town in the San Juan Islands and the busiest island terminal in the group — 110 active sailings, and the one place in the archipelago where the ferry lands you directly in a working town centre.

Where the ferries go

• Lopez Island — about 40 minutes, 18 sailings.
• Anacortes on the mainland — about 70 minutes, 17 sailings.
• Shaw Island — about 55 minutes, 11 sailings.
• Orcas Island — about 55 minutes, 11 sailings.

Operated by Washington State Ferries.

⚠ Westbound is free, eastbound is not

Within the San Juans, vehicle and passenger fares are collected in one direction. Interisland sailings and the westbound legs are handled differently from the return to Anacortes, which is where the charge falls.

The practical effect is that island-hopping westward costs less than the map suggests, and the bill arrives when you head back to the mainland.

Landing in the town

The terminal is at the foot of Spring Street with the shops, restaurants and the whale museum immediately up the hill. Of the four island terminals this is the only one where arriving on foot is genuinely practical without onward transport.

San Juan Island

Larger than it looks, with Roche Harbor at the north end, Lime Kiln Point on the west coast for shore-based orca watching, and the two halves of San Juan Island National Historical Park — American Camp and English Camp, left from the 1859 Pig War standoff that nearly started a shooting conflict over a shot pig.

Season

Year round, but summer is a different route in practice: reservations gone weeks ahead, and the walk-on queue reaching along the dock.