The 5 Best Places To Retire In The Pacific Northwest, According To Experts

"Pacific Northwesterners have it good" — that's the summary of long-time travel guide publishers Lonely Planet, who point out the glut of incredible natural wonders, the fine cultural scene, and the taste-bud-tingling food offerings of this corner of the United States. And there's no denying that it's a tempting place to spend your retirement years, what with wineries that could pass for the Italian countryside, ice-capped volcanoes, oodles of pretty small towns with laid-back charms, and coastlines beset by wild waves and jagged rock stacks.

If you're mulling over swinging by the PNW for some of your golden years — or are on the lookout for a unique new spot to visit — then read on. This guide has scoured the internet to come up with a selection of five places that really stand out from the crowd as potential retirement spots in the region. They've been mentioned in a wide variety of different publications on just that topic, and each offers something unique across a trio of states in the upper left corner of the stars and stripes.

You'll find flower-scented cities that sit in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains, remote Idahoan towns nestled between river valleys and vast national forests, and pitstops on the famous coastal highway, where beaches, dune parks, and sunset hikes are the order of the day.

What better place to retire than North America's lavender capital of Sequim, a town of summer blooms and waterside retreats? Set along the 101 Highway as it cuts below the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula, it's a place that no doubt smells as good as it looks — a dozen lavender farms spread through the surrounding valley, while the nigh-on 650,000 acres of the Olympic National Forest sprawl on the peripheries, hosting soaring peaks, salty fjords, and emerald-green rainforests alike.

With all that in mind, it's hardly a surprise that Sequim got namedropped a full four times across our source blogs, which was enough to make it the overall expert pick as the top destination to retire to in the Pacific Northwest. You certainly won't be alone here. According to data from the United States Census Bureau, more than 45% of people who call Sequim home are 65 and over. Compare that to just 15% in Tacoma and just 13% in Seattle.

A natural highlight of the year will be the Sequim Lavender Fest, which takes place each July. It brings oodles of locavore food to the town park and involves farm tours of the surrounding lavender fields. More generally, Sequim's downtown is an eminently walkable bout of theater houses and local shops, where hearty gathering places like the Oak Table Café — ranked 4.8 stars on Google, no less! — offer up buttermilk pancakes and French-style omelets.

The next destination on our list of sought-after retirement locales in the Pacific Northwest goes to the second-most populous city in Washington. Cue Spokane, which garnered not one, but two separate mentions across all our chosen source blogs, plus a listing on Liveability.com's league table of the top 100 places to reside in the United States. Set along the Spokane River out on the eastern side of The Evergreen State, it's become a bit of a de facto urban hub for folks in both Idaho and Oregon, too, giving it a real buzz and energy all year round.

That's the thing: Spokane is a real city, counting upwards of 230,000 permanent residents. To be more precise, it's Washington's "River City", with one of America's most iconic urban parks up its sleeve. Just picture those Sunday strolls along the riverfront green spaces, where you can whiz on ice rinks come December and even lay eyes on the largest urban waterfall in the states.

According to the PNW-focused food and travel blog Emerald Palate, it'll also be possible to while away those retirement days whizzing between local tap rooms and wineries on a bicycle, or meditating in the peace and quiet of Spokane's Japanese Garden. On top of that, the cost of housing here is reported to be over 13% less than the national average, which should mean more dollars in your pocket for all the above enjoyments.

Not to be confused with the Canadian metropolis that sits more than 300 miles to the north, this particular Vancouver clutches the Washington-Oregon border just outside of the big sprawl of Portland. The location is key, for the town earned plaudits across our source blogs for being a great place to enjoy all the urban energy of the biggest city in the Beaver State, only without the hefty price tag that so often comes with city living.

Yep, according to Apartments.com, the website of one of the largest online rental marketplaces in the United States, day-to-day expenditures are roughly 9.5% higher in Portland than in Vancouver, while housing is nearly a third more expensive overall! That's a hefty jump for a place that's only 12 minutes up the highway from the shopping mecca of Portland's Pearl District. To put it another way: You'll pay less to live or visit here, but you can head across to enjoy Portland whenever you fancy.

That's not to say that Vancouver and the surrounding Washington landscape don't have draws of their own. Probably most notably of all, the town is tactically sandwiched between two of the PNW's great natural wonders: Mount St. Helens, beckoning with epic hikes up the side of a volcano some 1.5 hours to the northwest, and the Columbia River Gorge, which begins showing off its waterfalls and wineries just minutes to the east.

Coos Bay got picked up twice among blogs and articles recommending the best retirement destinations in the Pacific Northwest, and it made the final cut on account of its fine location right atop Highway 101. More specifically, it sits along the gorgeous Southern Oregon Coast, a region packed with enough remote sands and artsy small towns to enchant any traveler or retiree that comes its way.

Indeed, Visit the Oregon Coast, the official site of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, hails Coos Bay as the gateway to adventure. It points out that this is a place of real diversity when it comes to the great outdoors — somewhere you can launch buggy expeditions in the Oregon Dunes one day, and then enjoy forest-fringed coastal hikes to spot seals in the Shore Acres State Park (just 25 minutes' drive from town) the next.

It's not all about the wilds that swirl around, either. Coos Bay's center is threaded together with a boardwalk steeped in historical sites and seafood eateries. There's a seasonal farmer's market that runs from May to October. And you'll find everything from Thai food kitchens to artisan glasswork galleries peppering the downtown between S Broadway Street and Market Ave.

Flying the flag for The Gem State among would-be retirees is the city of Blackfoot, population a mere 13,000 people or so. It was named twice among the articles we researched, and was especially championed by FinanceBuzz (via AOL) for being the "Potato Capital of the World" — spud lovers rejoice! But, of course, there's plenty more than just uber-tasty comfort eats on offer here.

Treasure Idaho hails the place as a vibrant spot amid the farming heartlands of the region. It highlights the loveable town parks, the annual food festivals (heavily potato-themed, mind you), and — perhaps most tempting of all — the proximity of true wilderness in the form of the Snake River Valley and the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The first of those contains reserves like the Massacre Rocks State Park, which thrills with dramatic geology under an hour's drive from town. The latter spills across the ID-WY border to the east, beckoning with extremes — think snowy peaks towering above sweeping grassland prairies.

There's even more good news as well, because the median home value in Blackfoot is reported to be just $262,500, which is well below the national average. That should leave you more cash for potato-based dining, outdoors exploration, and chilled days of picnicking on the lakesides of the city's relaxed Jensen Grove Park.

There's a lot of material out there that talks about the finest places to retire in the Pacific Northwest. This article aimed to create a list of destinations that received regular recommendations from a variety of authoritative sources. To do that, we consulted publications with a particular focus on retirement destinations in the PNW: Money Talks News, HuffPost, TopRetirements.com, and FinanceBuzz.

Every time a particular retirement place was mentioned in those pieces, we awarded it a single point, which created an original list with over 30 potential destinations. To slim that down to just a handful, we prioritized places that were ranked among the 100 best spots to live in the United States according to the official rankings from Liveability.com. We also aimed for variety and chose destinations in different states where possible. To finalize the list, I used my own in-depth knowledge of travel on the West Coast, ensuring only the best of destinations made the cut.