In June 1859 an American farmer on San Juan Island shot a pig belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. The pig had been eating his potatoes. Britain and the United States both claimed the island under an ambiguous treaty, and within weeks there were 461 American soldiers with fourteen cannon on one end and five British warships carrying over two thousand men on the other.
Nobody fired. The two sides settled into a joint military occupation that lasted twelve years, during which the garrisons visited each other for dinner, and the dispute was eventually arbitrated in 1872 by Kaiser Wilhelm I, who found for the Americans. The only casualty of the Pig War was the pig.
Both camps are preserved as a national historical park, at opposite ends of the island, and the British one still flies a Union flag — one of the very few places on American soil where that is done officially.
No bridges
The San Juans are reached only by ferry or small plane. Washington State Ferries run from Anacortes to four of the islands, vehicle space is limited and reservations open in batches that go quickly in summer.
That constraint governs everything. It keeps the islands quiet, it caps the day-visitor numbers, and it means a car is often more trouble than it is worth — walking on as a foot passenger and using bicycles, taxis or the island shuttle is usually simpler.
San Juan Island has Friday Harbor, the ferry terminal, the whale museum and most of the beds.
Orcas Island, the largest, is horseshoe-shaped with Mount Constitution at 734 metres and a state park covering a third of it.
Lopez is flat, agricultural and known for everyone waving at passing cars.
Shaw has around 240 residents and nothing else.
The whales, and an honest note
The southern resident orcas are the reason many people come. They are a distinct population that eats only fish, primarily Chinook salmon, and they are endangered — the count has hovered in the low seventies for years and the salmon decline is the principal cause.
Vessel regulations now require boats to stay several hundred metres away and there are proposals to increase that further. Land-based watching from Lime Kiln Point on San Juan Island is free, legal at any distance and genuinely good. Transient orcas, which eat seals and are doing better, are seen more often than the residents now.
The four below are grouped by island, and the count is short because the inventory is.
San Juan Island
Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor.
Friday Harbor House occupies a bluff above Friday Harbor with rooms facing the water, a good restaurant and the ferry a few minutes below.
Friday Harbor House
Friday Harbor, San Juan Island · 4★ · $$$
A bluff above the water, minutes from the ferry
Check availabilityRoche Harbor Resort sits at Roche Harbor in a nineteenth-century hotel beside a marina, on the site of a lime works whose company town buildings still stand around it.
Roche Harbor Resort
Roche Harbor, San Juan Island · 4★ · $$$
A nineteenth-century hotel beside a lime works town
Check availabilityEarthbox Inn & Spa occupies a property in Friday Harbor with a spa, a small room count and the town on foot.
Earthbox Inn & Spa
Friday Harbor · 4★ · $$
A small spa property with the town on foot
Check availabilityOrcas Island
The larger island.
Rosario Resort & Spa occupies a 1906 mansion built by a Seattle shipbuilder on East Sound, white-painted and set in gardens, with a spa in the old house and the water below.
Rosario Resort & Spa
East Sound, Orcas Island · 4★ · $$$
A 1906 shipbuilder's mansion with a spa in the old house
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The inns, cabins and bed and breakfasts across all four islands are excluded, and they are the overwhelming majority of the accommodation here. Several are excellent and this is a place where a guest house is often the better answer.
What to do
Book the ferry before anything else, and consider walking on without a car.
Watch whales from land at Lime Kiln Point, which is a lighthouse park on the west side of San Juan Island with the deep channel close inshore. Take a folding chair and wait.
Drive or cycle up Mount Constitution on Orcas for the view over the whole archipelago to Vancouver Island and, on a clear day, Mount Rainier and Mount Baker.
See both Pig War camps, which takes half a day and is funnier and stranger than it sounds.
Eat what the islands grow. There is a serious small-farm culture here and the Friday Harbor and Lopez markets are the place to find it.
Practical notes
Ferries run from Anacortes, about ninety minutes north of Seattle. Kenmore Air runs float planes from Seattle directly to the harbours, which is expensive and spectacular.
June to September is the season and the ferries are at capacity. May and October are quieter and still good. Winter is wet, dark and very quiet, with reduced services.
The islands sit in the Olympic rain shadow and get substantially less rain than Seattle, which surprises people.
Every hotel bookable in the San Juan Islands
Was there really a war over a pig?
A twelve-year joint military occupation followed one shot pig in 1859, arbitrated by the German Kaiser in 1872. The pig was the only casualty.
Do you need a car?
Often not. Ferry vehicle space is limited and booked far ahead; walking on and using bicycles or shuttles is usually simpler.
Can you see orcas?
From land at Lime Kiln Point, free and legal. The southern residents are endangered and boat distances are regulated.
How many nights?
Three. Two on one island and one on another.