Local guide

Things to Do in Port Orchard

The best things to do in Port Orchard fit in one waterfront day: walk Bay Street past the marina, ride the foot ferry across Sinclair Inlet, tour three small museums on one hill, shop a farmers market that has run since 1978, eat at a brewpub that started in a 185-square-foot room, and finish with a forest hike or a state park beach. Port Orchard is about 15 minutes from Olalla Bay by car.

The county seat with a working waterfront, and the closest town to Olalla Bay.

By Assaf, the Olalla Bay editor. Updated October 2026.

Bay Street in Port Orchard, with the Orchard Theater marquee, covered sidewalks, and colorful storefronts
Bay Street in Port Orchard, with the Orchard Theater marquee and covered sidewalks. Photo: Joe Mabel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Port Orchard is the town Olalla Bay guests will reach first. It is the Kitsap County seat, it sits on Sinclair Inlet directly across from Bremerton, and its downtown is a single walkable strip: Bay Street along the water, Sidney Avenue climbing the hill behind it. The town was platted in 1886 as Sidney, named by Frederick Stevens for his father, and incorporated on September 15, 1890, the first town in Kitsap County to be both platted and incorporated. The county seat moved here from Port Madison after a vote in 1892. A postal mix-up with Charleston, which had also asked for the name Port Orchard, kept the town officially called Sidney until 1903, when the legislature finally made the name Port Orchard official. The older name survives in Sidney Avenue, the Sidney Art Gallery, and the Sidney Museum.

Before the town, there was the bay. Captain Vancouver named Port Orchard Bay in 1792. William Renton and Daniel Howard set up a sawmill here in 1854. By 1889 the town had a pottery works, a shingle mill, a sawmill, and its first wharf, where the steamers of the Mosquito Fleet stopped. In December 1890, three months after Sidney incorporated, the federal government approved Sinclair Inlet as the site for a Pacific Northwest shipyard, the installation that became the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard across the water in Bremerton. Port Orchard has lived next to that shipyard ever since. You see it from the waterfront: cranes, dry docks, and gray hulls across the inlet, with the Olympics behind them.

This guide covers the places worth the drive. For dining, see the companion guide, Where to Eat in Port Orchard.

Practical tips before you go

Downtown Port Orchard is walkable. Park once near the waterfront and walk Bay Street, then climb Sidney Avenue to the museums. Parking downtown is free, including the waterfront lot near the foot ferry. On farmers market Saturdays and event days, arrive early for a spot close to the water.

Two of the three museums cost nothing: the Log Cabin Museum is free, and the Veterans Living History Museum runs on donations. The Sidney Museum sits on the second floor of its building; check hours before you go, since the three museums keep different schedules.

Hours change by season. The farmers market runs April through October. The Log Cabin Museum is open May through October. Ferry schedules change. Check the official site before you drive over if a specific stop matters to you.

Downtown Waterfront

Bay Street and the Waterfront Boardwalk

Start here. Bay Street is Port Orchard's main street, a waterfront strip of shops, restaurants, and museums with covered sidewalks and a boardwalk along the marina. The Bay Street Pedestrian Path runs along the water, and the Port Orchard Marina has room for more than 80 visiting boats. The observation deck near the marina looks across Sinclair Inlet to the shipyard. The walk from the foot ferry dock at the west end to the farmers market lot at the east end takes about fifteen minutes at a stroll. The whole downtown is small enough that you can cover it on foot and still have time for a museum and lunch.

Practical details: Bay Street waterfront

Ride the Foot Ferry to Bremerton

The twelve-minute crossing is the best view in town. Kitsap Transit runs a foot ferry between Port Orchard and Bremerton across Sinclair Inlet. The boat leaves from the dock at 85 Sidney Avenue, at the foot of Bay Street, and lands in downtown Bremerton next to the boardwalk, the Navy Museum, and the USS Turner Joy. On a clear day you see the shipyard, the Olympics, and Rainier from the deck. The ferry that often works the route, the MV Carlisle II, was built in 1917 and is one of only two operational survivors of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. Riding it is a piece of the history in the paragraph above, still in daily service. If you want a longer day, pair it with the Things to Do in Bremerton guide: ferry over, walk the Bremerton waterfront, ferry back.

Practical details: Port Orchard foot ferry

Museums: Three on One Hill

Sidney Art Gallery and Museum

Two museums in one 1908 building. The Sidney Museum and Arts Association, founded in 1970, runs three museums in Port Orchard. The first two share a building at 202 Sidney Avenue, a block up the hill from the marina. The building was the first Masonic Temple in Port Orchard, built in 1908. The Sidney Art Gallery on the ground floor shows monthly exhibitions of Northwest artists: stained glass, watercolors, paintings, prints, pottery, sculpture, wood carving, blown glass, and jewelry, plus creative gifts. The Sidney Museum upstairs reconstructs a general store, a school, a doctor's office, and a hardware store from the town's early years. The gallery is the place to see what working artists in the region are making right now; the museum is the place to see how the town looked when it was still called Sidney.

Practical details: Sidney Art Gallery and Museum

Log Cabin Museum

A love letter in logs. The Log Cabin Museum at 416 Sidney Avenue was built in 1914 by Allen Bartow for his wife Louise. Bartow was a Civil War veteran, a newspaperman, and a retired Indian agent for the Suquamish reservation. Louise had wanted all her life to live in a log cabin, but Bartow's transient work had never allowed it until his retirement. He built her one from logs pulled up Sidney Hill from the log boom in the bay. The Bartows lived in the cabin until 1922, when failing health moved them into the Washington State Veterans Home in Retsil. In 1971 the Sidney Museum and Arts Association saved the cabin. The roses in front are from the roses Louise planted. Inside, the current exhibit stages the Orchard family at home in 1914: Lewis in the kitchen, Emelia and daughter Emily in the living room with a new sewing machine, son Charles at the piano, grandmother upstairs getting her hair done. It is a small museum, under an hour, and it tells you more about how people actually lived in early Port Orchard than any plaque on Bay Street.

Practical details: Log Cabin Museum

Veterans Living History Museum

Dense, personal, and run by one man. The Veterans Living History Museum at 825 Bay Street packs an astonishing amount of military history into a small storefront: uniforms, artifacts, and personal stories from every branch, assembled by Dale, who runs the place and will answer any question you bring. Visitors consistently call it the coolest thing in Port Orchard and the best small museum in the area. A curious walk-through takes fifteen minutes; a military history buff should set aside an hour and a half. The museum runs on donations, with no entrance fee. It is a labor of love in the literal sense: one person preserving and sharing a collection because nobody else would.

Practical details: Veterans Living History Museum

Shopping on Bay Street

Josephine's Mercantile and Gathered by Jo's

The anchor shops. Josephine's Mercantile at 701 Bay Street is a vintage market of one-of-a-kind treasures: vintage decor, reclaimed goods, repurposed furniture, and curated local artisan gifts, with Mercantile Coffee Co. in the back for a bakery item and a coffee while you browse. Across the street, Gathered by Jo's at 702 Bay Street is the lighter, brighter extension: local makers, vintage goods, hand-crafted furniture, pop-up markets, and art classes. Between them they will take an hour of your morning without trying.

Practical details: Josephine's Mercantile

Olde Central Antique Mall

Forty vendors under one roof, steps from the foot ferry. The Olde Central Antique Mall at 801 Bay Street is one of the best places to go antiquing on the Kitsap Peninsula. More than 40 vendors fill the space with rare, vintage, and antique items and collections. You never know what you will find, which is the point.

Practical details: Olde Central Antique Mall

Port Orchard Public Market

An indoor market hall on Bay Street. The Port Orchard Public Market at 715 Bay Street gathers several small businesses under one roof: The Dock Bar and Eatery, Sue's Fresh Juice Bar and Sandwich Shop, Salmonberry Books (books, gifts, art, and records), Good Stuff Grocery (a bodega with sandwiches and sourdough), and rotating vendors. It is a good rainy-day stop and a good lunch stop in one.

Practical details: Port Orchard Public Market

The Candy Shoppe

The sweet stop. The Candy Shoppe at 833 Bay Street makes fudge and treats fresh in the shop: more than 500 fudge flavors, 60 varieties of saltwater taffy, 75 kinds of licorice, plus truffles, chocolates, and a toy nook. It is a family business, and the shop hands out samples. Kids remember this stop longer than the museums.

Practical details: The Candy Shoppe

Other Bay Street shops worth a look: Mainline Music (702 Bay St) for instruments, C-Side Records (823 Bay St) for vinyl, Crow's Curiosities (140 Harrison Ave) for jewelry and whimsical gifts, and Find the Path Books (710 Bay St). The full shop list is on the Port Orchard Bay Street Association site.

Farmers Market

Port Orchard Farmers Market

Kitsap's longest-running market. The Port Orchard Farmers Market was founded in 1978, and its mission from the start has been to preserve the agricultural identity and quality of rural life by giving local farmers a place to sell. The Saturday market sets up on the waterfront at Harrison and Bay, next to the foot ferry, Marina Park, the playground, and the walking path. Vendors offer in-season fruits and vegetables, shellfish, honey, eggs, cheese, baked goods, plants, soap, arts and crafts, and prepared foods. All farm products must be produced in Washington State. The market accepts credit and debit, SNAP, SNAP match vouchers, and WIC. A Wednesday market runs July through September at South Kitsap Helpline.

Practical details: Port Orchard Farmers Market

Food and Drink

Peninsula BevCo

The brewpub that started in a closet. Peninsula BevCo began on July 4, 2017, in a 185-square-foot room in Manchester, selling craft beer, wine, cider, kombucha, and home-brewing supplies on weekends. After a year it moved to downtown Port Orchard, spent nine months renovating an old building, and opened in January 2019. Three months later the building's new owners gave it a 90-day eviction notice and tore the 115-year-old building down. The business survived, crowdfunded a relocation, and now sits at 110 Harrison Avenue, just off Bay Street, with a patio over the water, a rotating tap list, a bottle shop, and a food menu built around flatbreads, tacos, and sandwiches. The Banh Mi tacos get mentioned by name in review after review. The patio looks across Sinclair Inlet to the shipyard.

Practical details: Peninsula BevCo

For the full dining list, see Where to Eat in Port Orchard.

Parks and Outdoor

Manchester State Park

A fort that became a beach park. Manchester State Park sits on Rich Passage a few miles east of downtown Port Orchard. The land started as the Middle Point Military Reservation, a Coast Artillery Corps fortification built to protect the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, paired with Fort Ward on Bainbridge Island. Its main weapon was not guns but a minefield in Rich Passage, with mines electrically controlled from a mining casemate. In 1901 the Army built a brick torpedo warehouse to assemble and store the mines. Battery Mitchell, the gun battery, was designed for two 3-inch rapid-fire guns that were never fitted. The Navy kept the site through both world wars as a fuel depot and fire-fighting station until it was decommissioned in 1958. Washington State claimed the land in 1970, and the park opened to the public on May 22, 1981.

Today the 111-acre park has 3,400 feet of saltwater shoreline, 1.9 miles of hiking trails, and a campground with 35 standard sites and 15 partial-hookup sites. The 1901 torpedo warehouse, with its stone fireplace, weathered beamed ceiling, and windowless arches, is now a reservable picnic shelter and a sought-after wedding venue. The beach looks across Rich Passage to Bainbridge Island. Bring a Discover Pass for parking.

Practical details: Manchester State Park

Banner Forest Heritage Park

635 acres the community saved. Banner Forest sits between Olalla and Port Orchard, and it exists because neighbors fought for it. The land was Department of Natural Resources trust land, managed for timber revenue for local schools. In the 1990s developers nearly bought it for a 320-home neighborhood. Community members formed the Olalla Community Council, spent hundreds of hours advocating, and convinced the county to rezone the forest to stop the sale. The rezone was eventually struck down in court, but the public opposition convinced the developers to walk away. In 1999 the state legislature approved a Trust Land Transfer, and Kitsap County acquired the land in October 2000 after ten years of community effort. Today the park has 29 miles of rustic trails through second-growth forest, ponds, and wetlands, for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, birding, and mushroom hunting. The main loop is an easy 2.7 miles. The trails can get muddy; wear waterproof boots. Pack it in, pack it out: there are no trash cans.

Practical details: Banner Forest Heritage Park

South Kitsap Regional Park

The big family park. South Kitsap Regional Park is a 209-acre county park established in 2008, with three athletic fields, a 7,000-square-foot skatepark, a playground, picnic areas, horseshoe pits, batting cages, and a trail network through second-growth forest. The Forest Explorer Trail is a 0.3-mile semi-loop built for young children, with interactive nature stations along the route. The signature draw is the miniature railroad: Kitsap Live Steamers runs a 7.5-inch-gauge line through the park, with real steam engines, on select weekends and holidays. The ride lasts 10 to 15 minutes. Two entrances: SE Lund Avenue for the skatepark and fields, SE Marbeth Lane and Jackson Avenue for the playground, picnic shelter, and miniature railroad.

Practical details: South Kitsap Regional Park

Events Through the Year

Port Orchard's calendar runs on the waterfront. Fathoms O' Fun is the summer anchor: a Grand Parade down Bay Street in late June, food trucks, craft vendors, live music, and fireworks over Sinclair Inlet on July 3. Concerts by the Bay brings live music to the Marina Park gazebo on Thursday evenings from June through Labor Day. The Port Orchard Night Market sets up on the waterfront one evening a month from June through September. Halloweekend takes over downtown in late October. Holiday on the Bay closes the year in early December with lights and a run. The farmers market runs Saturdays April through October. Check the Port Orchard Bay Street Association and the City of Port Orchard event lists before you go; dates shift year to year.

Questions people ask

How far is Port Orchard from Olalla Bay?
About 15 minutes by car. Downtown Port Orchard, the waterfront, and the museums are all in one walkable area along Bay Street and Sidney Avenue, so one drive covers the main sights.
What is free to do in Port Orchard?
Walking the Bay Street waterfront and boardwalk is free. The Log Cabin Museum is free. The Veterans Living History Museum runs on donations. The farmers market is free to browse. Banner Forest and South Kitsap Regional Park are free. Parking downtown is free.
Can you take a ferry from Port Orchard to Bremerton?
Yes. Kitsap Transit runs a foot ferry between Port Orchard and Bremerton in about 12 minutes. The Port Orchard dock is at 85 Sidney Avenue, at the foot of Bay Street. Check Kitsap Transit schedules before you go, as they change.
Is Port Orchard good for kids?
Yes. The farmers market, the waterfront playground, The Candy Shoppe, the miniature railroad at South Kitsap Regional Park, the Forest Explorer Trail, and the Log Cabin Museum all work well with kids. Manchester State Park has a beach and easy trails.
Where do I park in downtown Port Orchard?
Downtown Port Orchard has free parking, including a waterfront lot near the foot ferry and street parking along Bay Street. On farmers market Saturdays and event days, arrive early for a spot close to the waterfront.

Come see it yourself

Port Orchard is fifteen minutes away. The hot tub is out back. All that is missing is you.

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Keep exploring

01

Where to Eat in Port Orchard

The dining companion to this guide: brewpubs, bakeries, and Bay Street tables.

Read the guide
02

Things to Do in Bremerton

A free Navy museum, a destroyer you can board, a boardwalk, and a ferry to Seattle, one foot-ferry ride away.

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03

Things to Do in Gig Harbor

The postcard town up the road: waterfront walk, kayaking, the free museum, and winter draws.

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