Mt. Rainier Day Tour from Seattle
Description
No Minimums! Visit Mt. Rainier with our professional, enthusiastic and informative tour guides. Travel in our clean, comfortable mini-coaches with large windows, high back seats and heat + A/C. The season will determine the route and accessibility of your tour! In the summer, experience old-growth forests, wildflower-filled meadows, and thundering waterfalls on this tour of glacier-clad Mt. Rainier. Winter tours spend more time at Longmire with complimentary snow shoes. Hike and walk a little or not at all: there are options for all abilities. Enjoy lunch at a Mt. Rainier cafe or buy a picnic lunch along the way. No two tours are the same! Your guide will provide the best tour available on any given day. Return to Seattle through memorable PNW scenery. Bring a camera on this spectacular Mt. Rainier tour as well as comfortable walking shoes. Layer both warm and cool weather clothing as mountain temperatures can vary from rainy and cold to sunny and hot during a single day.
Tour Options
Itinerary
No 2 tours are the same! Our goal each day is to showcase as much of the national park as possible during our time in the park. Routes and stops look different depending on the season.
Longmire, home to the original park headquarters & more recently, the National Park Inn, Longmire museum & Wilderness Information Center, is a popular stop on all tours. Opportunity for restrooms, short hikes & photos here.
Tours mid-April through mid-October stop here for guests to get a view of the top of the falls. When weather permits, some tours are able to hike to the lower falls for more photo opportunities!
Christine Falls is a 69-foot waterfall with 2 drops located on the road to Paradise. Tours will often stop here for photos of the lower falls including the bridge which helps frame a perfect waterfall photo! (Accessible seasonally)
Visitor Center - Have lunch at the restaurant, cafe, or bring your own sack lunch. Hiking opportunities available. Scenic views and wildlife. This is a popular stop on tours mid-April through mid-October.
While this is not a guaranteed stop, tours will try to stop here during peak season (July/August) for the postcard-worthy photo of Mt Rainier & it's reflection in the still lake. This is not always an accessible stop.
Some tours (not all) will visit Tipsoo Lake, a subalpine lake within Mt Rainier National Park
Drive through the picturesque mountain town of Elbe, WA en route to the national park
This is a popular stop on tours year round!
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Please contact local service provider to arrange pickup from a nearby location after you have received your confirmation
- Tour cannot pickup from hotels or private residences
- Enjoy lunch at a Mt. Rainier cafe or buy a picnic lunch at our grocery store stop (own expense)
- Layered clothing and comfortable shoes are recommended (temperatures can vary from rainy and cold to sunny and hot in a single day)
- Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
- Traffic and road conditions may alter tour route
- Please allow up to 11 hours for pickup and drop-off service
- We may ask that you walk a couple blocks for pickup or drop off due to traffic or road conditions
- This tour does not have storage space for luggage, strollers or wheelchairs without advance arrangements
- Ongoing construction at Mt Rainier National Park may cause tour delays
- The seasons and weather play a big role in what is available and accessible at Mt Rainier National Park. Tours mid-October through early May will be limited in number of stops & services available.
- November 12 - Spring 2026: Paradise is only accessible based on road conditions day-of
Reviews(1,949)
Our driver/guide-Andreas is wonderful, we have enjoyed the your very much and highly recommended the tour
Great tour. John provided excellent narration of sights along with historical context. He was knowledgeable about the sites we saw. Worth the time and money. The size of your was small and easier to get into small neighborhoods like Queen Ann hill and Fremont’s trolley under the bridge
The experience was great from start to finish! The pickup/drop off was super easy and quick. Our tour guide John was super friendly and knowledgeable and my Dad and I really enjoyed our time. The views were exceptional and John brought us to the most gorgeous spots. I highly recommend bringing warm clothes to wear and layering. This was a last minute excursion for us, so I unfortunately wasn’t prepared for the cold temperatures at the top of the mountain.
Thanks for joining us, Alyssa! The summer heat is just around the corner but the colder temps stuck around a little longer this June - we lovingly refer to this time of year as "Junuary" for that reason. Enjoy the rest of your stay!
John was a very informative and entertaining guide for this tour! I had a great time meeting new people and taking in wonderful scenery during this day trip.
Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about Mt. Rainer geography, wildlife, plants and history of the park. This info added a lot to our enjoyment of the park.
The private full day tour of Mt Rainier National Park with John was amazing. My entire family enjoyed learning about the park and surrounding area. From pickup to drop off the experience was well planned and ran smoothly. John knew all the little spots to go see all that the park had to offer. A quick stop for ice cream at the end based on our route was a nice touch. I would highly recommend this group for your private tour needs.
As Dubai residents visiting Seattle, we really missed being close to nature, and Mount Rainier tour was the perfect choice. The mountain and surrounding national park were absolutely beautiful. I would definitely recommend this experience. Gary, our guide, was awesome. If every tour had guides like Gary, I would book again without hesitation.
This was a very well-curated excursion! We saw many of the best parts of the park, and had time to explore a bit. Mark was an awesome guide!
Guide was knowledgeable and funny but he did not handle drop off well. He was trying to be nice and accommodating to some of the tour participants, and as they were requesting to be back in time to watch one of the soccer matches he did them a favor be dropping them off first at a different location. The issue is that this caused the rest of the participants to be dropped off later, including myself and travel companion. And we were also trying to get somewhere by 5pm. In the future this guide needs to check with the other participants if he plans to change drop off logistics. Additionally, he kept changing the stops we were going to make. By this, I mean he would announce that we would do stop X, Y, and Z. Later after stopping he changed to other stops. Now, I did not mind where we stopped as long as Paradise was included, but once guided states that a stop will be made it sets an expectation. Guide should only announce stops that are definitely being made. For example, “we will stop at Paradise and a few places on the way” works much better and ensures ppl don’t form a. expectation that is later not met.
Hi Stefani, We really appreciate this feedback. This was your guide's first time guiding during a major event in Seattle and while we strive to go above and beyond for our customers, we need to be mindful of how that impacts all customers on board. We have shared this with your guide and his manager and agree 100% he could have handled this better. As a note for all customers, this tour is 10-11 hours in the summer months so we return to Seattle between 5 and 6pm each day. We don't recommend making any plans ahead of 7pm that evening, just to be safe! Lines within the park and/or traffic coming back into Seattle can be unpredictable so we ask for a little wiggle room there. Again, we really appreciate this feedback and hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay in Seattle.
Mark was a phenomenal tour guide! He thought of every detail. We got to see so much and it was all well organized! Couldn’t have asked for a better day trip to Mt. Rainer🗻
Thanks so much, Rachel! We're glad to hear you enjoyed your day at the mountain with Mark!
