The next time you’re craving an island vacation, remember that you don’t have to leave the country—or even the state of Washington. According to a recent travel survey, Seattleites are lucky enough to live near one of the best islands in the U.S. The San Juan Islands topped the list thanks to high scores in natural beauty, friendliness, food, and more.
Read on for all the details!
The San Juan Islands is an archipelago located northwest of Seattle. Although San Juan County is home to a total of 172 named islands and reefs, there are three main islands where you’ll easily find restaurants, lodging, and tourist attractions. These are San Juan Island, Lopez Island, and Orcas Island. Each one offers something special for visitors, from whale-watching to film festivals.
The entire San Juan Islands archipelago landed at number five on Travel + Leisure’s “Favorite Islands in the Continental U.S. of 2025” list thanks to a reader score of 84.36. This particular ranking was part of their 2025 World’s Best Awards survey, in which about 180,000 T+L readers participated. To deliver the scores of U.S. islands, readers were asked to choose ratings between excellent and poor for five categories: natural attractions and beaches, activities and sights, restaurants and food, people and friendliness, and overall value.
To get to the San Juan Islands from Seattle, you can drive to Anacortes and then take a ferry the rest of the way. There are also sea planes such as Kenmore Air—the fastest and most direct route from Seattle but also more expensive. Normally you’d also be able to take the San Juan Clipper that goes directly from Seattle to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, but it’s not operating in 2025.
The Travel + Leisure list included a total of 15 islands. That means that Washington’s San Juan Islands beat out 10 other popular island destinations in the U.S. If you’re curious, Mount Desert Island in Maine was the ultimate winner with a reader score of 87.13.
You can see the full list on Travel + Leisure.