Where to go within one week?

Fly into Seattle/Portland and rent a car or get a ride. That leaves Olympics, ocean beaches, Mt. St Helens, Rainier, PCT sections, Mt Hood, etc, etc.

You could hike around Mount Hood. There's public transportation to Mt Hood.

http://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Main_Page – click on "public transportation" and "mt hood"

I assume you will be flying from Boston. Fly to England or Scotland. Both should take no longer to get to that California. Once you are there, public transit is easy to use, frequent and goes almost everywhere. From London, take a train west and hike any piece of the Southwest Coast Path. Walk as far as you get and then take a train back to Heathrow.

If you want wilder, start in Glasgow, take a bus north to Fort William and start walking into the hills.

James (for Amy)

[Amy chiming in…]
South West Coast Path is my favorite of the half dozen UK National Trails that we’ve walked. I liked every single day of that trail. It’s a National Trail, which means it’s well documented and exquisitely routed. We’re surprised at the lack of American interest in the European trails – there’s great stuff out there, very different, but great in it’s own way. The South West Coast Path is IMHO tied with the Great South Coast Walk in New South Wales Australia as the best coastal hiking to be found. It’s a “show up and walk” trail and would be great for a one week hike.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_Coast_Path
http://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/South-West-Coast-long-distance-trails/dp/1852843799/

And a more general comment. Jim and I have been wilderness backpacking in the US for a combined 90 years. We love it. It’s great. However… we took our first European hike in 2002, and we’ve taken 13 hikes overseas since then. It’s VERY different out there and not comparable – like trying to decide if you prefer a good chocolate truffle or a perfect juicy ripe peach? For folks who’ve done a lot of US wilderness hiking — take at least one hike in Europe (and not the over-run Camino de Santiago) in the next five years. After the hike you can decide whether it suits you.

OK, off my soap-box and back to planning our next outing :)

Iceland! A continent on its own. Direct flights from Boston (both Iceland Air & WOW Airlines). With only one week available, you'll have to make a choice. My suggestions:
– or Hornstrandir (involves a short domestic flight + boat transfer (other transportation options will take to long))
– or the larger Landmannalaugar area (frequent direct direct bus services from/to Reykjavik). The – by far – most established trail is the Laugavegur, extend to Skogar. A little known extension is the 'Hellismannaleið'. Good public transportion of all these sections. All sections are waymarked.

Youtube will give you an idea of both areas.

Post your questions in this thread if interested – most happy to help you out (but I'll be offline from 17/7 – 28/7).

Wim

PS: I visited the island two weeks ago – fifth time – and was surprised of the amount of US & Canadian citizens (compared to previous hiking trips).

"Looks like flight costs round trip to Fresno (if i were to do HST) are around $400. I would like to keep the costs under this amount. "

Flights into Seattle (Cascades, Hood), Denver (various), or SLC (Uintas) are the options which come to mind. I'd personally favor the later as the least crowded destination with the shortest, least-trafficked drive.