Vacation to Oregon - Need ideas(places to stay/eat and things to see)

GrizzlyBeer

Hi all,

Just as the title says my girlfriend and I will be traveling to Oregon flying into Eugene June 22 and flying out of Portland back home June 29. We will be renting a car, the current. "Plan" is to drive to Crater Lake National Park from Eugene the first day and spend couple days in that area. Then we will drive towards the coast and spend a couple days traveling up the coast towards Seaside arriving in Seaside on the 27th and hanging in that area until we go to Portland to fly home. So keeping that loose itinerary in mind what are some cool things to see/eat/drink/stay? Only thing booked so far is the flight. Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Letti

http://www.sealioncaves.com/
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/willamette/recreation/recarea/?recid=4391 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_M._Honeyman_Memorial_State_Park

All of these places are a lot of fun. The hotsprings in Willamette are incredibly beautiful and amazing, you just have to be okay with public nudity, because clothing is optional.
Sea lion cave is very touristy, but right on the coast and I found it interesting. Smells like fish though:) You get to ride down an elevator to this cave area and see a bazillion sea lions.
Honeyman Park has really fun sand dunes. There are a couple other park areas that have sand dunes as well. You also can see the town of Florence nearby, which is pretty.

Letti

Also there are wonderful hikes into cloud forests along the coast. They aren't too far from sea lion cave area I think, because we did both the cave and a cloud forest hike on the same day.

GrizzlyBeer

Awesome I'll check those out, how about places to stay? Any B&B's or hotels you recommend?

Letti

http://www.oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=reserve.dsp_cabinsyurts

I have family in Oregon so I stayed with them, so I'm not too sure about lodgings. However, one of my family members said that camping in yurts along the coast is really neat. You have to reserve them beforehand, so I linked the website for you. They also have cabins you can stay in as well. For fancier things like B&B's I have no clue.

Zenitram

Stretching the trip out to see the coast is a great idea, much better than I-5. I would recommend going through Bend on your way to Crater Lake, the area is very scenic and you can hike Smith Rock or the South Sister (the most accessible of the Three Sisters).

Going from Coos Bay to Florence has a lot of coastal dunes and you would probably have a lot of fun renting some ATVs or going on a sandrail tour.

Bend and Portland are both big craft beer towns, so be sure to hit the brewery scene. Deschutes in Bend, and maybe Rogue if you go through Newport.

Cannon Beach near Seaside has Haystack Rock (the Goonies rock) and a lot of expensive touristy shops.

As for Portland itself, it really depends on what kind of touristy stuff you're looking for. Family friendly? Physical activity?

schuss

2 things.
1. Go to Bend. Especially if you love beer. Something like 20 breweries in a city of 30k, with 75% of them being rad breweries.
2. Stay at McMenamins if you can swing it. They have these sweet converted buildings for hotel. In Bend it was a catholic school they turned into a hotel with outdoor firepits, a movie theater with a bar and a salt soaking pool in the basement.

DoctorArch

schuss wrote: »

2 things.
1. Go to Bend. Especially if you love beer. Something like 20 breweries in a city of 30k, with 75% of them being rad breweries.
2. Stay at McMenamins if you can swing it. They have these sweet converted buildings for hotel. In Bend it was a catholic school they turned into a hotel with outdoor firepits, a movie theater with a bar and a salt soaking pool in the basement.

Your info on Bend is a little out of date. It's about 76K now in population with a metro of 170k.

I'll think of some more and post later, but while Crater Lake is great to visit, spending a few days there might be too much, especially if you're not camping (that isn't clear if you are or not).

schuss

Whatever, it felt like only 30k, such an awesome little town.

GrizzlyBeer

Thanks for all of the ideas, we are really looking forward to the trip and getting as much in(while enjoying it) as possible.

DoctorArch

When you go south to Crater Lake it's worth checking out the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. Link.

While you say you're planning on going up via the Coast, which is great, you might want to consider going up through Bend.

Route 97 will take you to Bend, which is awesome. And the town of Sisters, which is also fun to walk around. There is also Smith Rock and the South Sister. Continuing up route 97 will take you into the Columbia River Gorge, where you can then head west to Portland. For the Record, the Columbia River Gorge is amazing. Take your time.

Dehumanized

If you're driving up the coast it probably wouldn't be a stretch to swing by the Tillamook dairy factory (in Tillamook) and get some amazing ice cream!

DoctorArch

Visit this site: Oregon State Parks. Request a map. Visit all the parks on the coast because they're great and often have lighthouses.

schuss

DoctorArch wrote: »

When you go south to Crater Lake it's worth checking out the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. Link.

While you say you're planning on going up via the Coast, which is great, you might want to consider going up through Bend.

Route 97 will take you to Bend, which is awesome. And the town of Sisters, which is also fun to walk around. There is also Smith Rock and the South Sister. Continuing up route 97 will take you into the Columbia River Gorge, where you can then head west to Portland. For the Record, the Columbia River Gorge is amazing. Take your time.

Smith Rock is pretty rad.

Other fun things involved in the above - Sisters bakery is delicious, also look up the headwaters of the Metolius river. You get to see a river literally pop up out of nowhere, pretty neat.