Oregon coast August tips
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Anonymous
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A first visit with 13 and 15 yr olds for our family to Portland, in and out of PDX.
Seeking insights/tips on a couple stops we'll make on our loop through Bend then up the coast.. We are basically driving down to Bend from Portland. It's a free day driving - any places that are particularly not to be missed in terms of sights? We will be driving from Umpqua to Newport later on trip, same question.. heard Depoe Bay and Yachats were pretty - we have all day to drive to Moolack Shores Inn in Newport. Any advice on stops/lunch spots on drive please? Finally, we will head to Manzanita for a couple nights. All day to drive there which doesn't seem too far - expect we can do some activities maybe between these 2 locations? We would then drive back to Portland and thinking of hitting Cannon Beach leaving Manzanita. Kinda unsure worth exploring Seaside area, just focusing on Cannon Beach or focusing on Manzanita - Thoughts? It all looks beautiful so trying to divvy up the coast drive to explore  . We are going to indulge in resort life in Bend with a canoe outing during the meteor showers and rafting in Umpqua.
Thanks for tips! |
Anonymous
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Eat at Sporks in Bend.
Ecola state park is just north of Cannon Beach and has a great lookout. If you're the hiking type, you can hike down to the beach from there. I think Tilamook has a factory out there if you like their ice cream. |
Anonymous
| If you can make a stop at Powell Books do it. |
Anonymous
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You'll have a great time. I have eaten twice at the restaurant Oven and Shaker in Portland and liked it (pizza + cocktails). Good with kids/teens. Powell Books is great. My family liked the Oregon History Museum in Portland. Portland is a great city to walk around especially outside its downtown core.
Pretty much anywhere along the coast will be beautiful. You can just drive and stop when the mood strikes. We stayed near Yachats, which is scenic. Yachats also has a town area which is kind of cute in an Oregon way (arty, libertarian, ramshackle) and you could probably get lunch there. Oregon is very chill. Have a great trip. |
Anonymous
| I would stop at hood river either on your way to or from Bend. It is beautiful! |
Anonymous
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we did the sand dune buggies in Florence--we have done some adventurous things in our travels, but this felt craziest somehow--I was really sore the next day from bracing/holding on! Teens loved it!
There is a place in Newport to go at low tide that has wonderful tidepools to wander. https://www.discovernewport.com/post/head-down-to-the-tidepools |
Anonymous
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OP here - thanks so much everyone! really looking forward to this as it all looks so pretty. We do quite a bit of travels incl global but we always enjoy our west coast adventures.
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Anonymous
I double dog dare you to wear a MAGA hat and a camera.  Please post the videos if you take the challenge.
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Anonymous
Plenty of MAGA here in Oregon outside of Portland. |
Anonymous
| Are you us? Kids same ages and also planning a trip to Oregon with half the time on he coast/cannon beach and half in hood river area. |
Anonymous
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LOL - OP here. I suggest that we are great planners! We get the beauty of the coast and the resort/R&R of the Bend/Mt Hood/inner OR area, right? It's a loop driving so we fly in/out PDX. We're timing it to coincide with the meteor shower for a canoe ride in the Bend area. Hoping we both have a great time out there in Aug! Happy to share 411 if you're interested too
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Anonymous
| You could check out the McMenamin hotels. There are several but we stayed at the former school one in Bend. The restaurant was good too and there were secret rooms that the kids loved exploring. We also went to a Bigfoot museum near Mt. Hood and a volcano park just south of Bend. |
Anonymous
| Bring a fleece jacket as my experience on the coast in August was cold and windy. Could barely dip my toes in little tide pools. (I was prepared for Mt. Hood to be cold but not Cannon Beach) |
Anonymous
| Thor’s Well is south of Depoe Bay so it may be too far for you, but it’s THE COOLEST THING I’ve ever seen. Pictures and videos online don’t do it justice. It’s just massive and mesmerizing. The lava flow cave near Bend is also pretty cool. And yes to the fleece. It gets chilly. |
Anonymous
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OP here - thanks for the Thor tip! We will hit it driving up 101 from Unpqua Last Stand
Unfortunately not sure how high the tides will be  we're not gonna make 1030a nor 930p. I think best we can do is prob hit early afternoon where it's 4/4.5 ft tides. Wonder if that's enough for the cool factor? It does look super neat!
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