Don't miss de Garde

Crater lake

Seaside OR is great! Lots of restaurants and feels like Cape Cod before it got too built up. Lots of cute Air BnBs.

Don't miss the dunes.

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford it, I'd consider flying into SFO and out of PDX. On the way, do the Redwoods in Northern Cali, then maybe a stop in Bandon, then north to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. North to about Cape Lookout, and then Tillamook (tour the cheese factory!). Then cut east to Portland over the terrifying highway.

If you do this, I recommend considering Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta in California. Then go to Ashland, OR, and then to Crater Lake and then on to the coast.

Keep an eye on the weather if you're adding Crater Lake or any of the other mountains (Lassen, Shasta, Mt. Hood, other mountains in the Cascade Range), as you can encounter snowstorms even in the summer.

If you can afford it, I'd consider flying into SFO and out of PDX. On the way, do the Redwoods in Northern Cali, then maybe a stop in Bandon, then north to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. North to about Cape Lookout, and then Tillamook (tour the cheese factory!). Then cut east to Portland over the terrifying highway.

A quieter alternative to Cannon Beach is Rockaway beach, which I thought was just beautiful. I agree that, while you should focus on the coast, you should spend a day doing the waterfalls outside of Portland. They are east of the city, but only a 30-45 minute drive. There are 11 within the span of a few miles on a scenic drive. Multnomah is the most famous, and you should stop there, but my favorite is actually Bridal Veil falls, which you have to take a short hike (10 minutes or so) to get to. So it's less visited. Love all the drive-through coffee stands up and down the coast. Also highly recommend Sea Lion caves near Florence. A little touristy, but done well and the kids will love it. One thing of note. When we did this trip, we took two extra days and went over to Crater Lake. While it was beautiful, I'm not sure I would tack it onto an Oregon Coast trip again. It's a lot of driving and unless you're going to stay there for a day or two I'm not sure it's worth it, because there is not a huge amount to do there with kids aside from drive around the rim.

Cannon Beach, Coos Bay and Astoria. All great.

Anonymous wrote:If you love books, before you head out to the coast, stop by Powell's book store in downtown Portland. It's a book-lovers dream.

There are some fun places on the Oregon coast. Cannon Beach is a little too popular, but you can't beat a trip to visit Haystack Rock. Our twins were 2.5 and we stopped by late in the afternoon on a low tide day and were able to walk out to the base of the rock. They loved playing in the little puddles and walking out to the rocks and seeing all the dogs running up and down the beach). You can get a good diner style breakfast and lunch at the Pig N Pancake and it's very family friendly.

We stopped by and visited the aquarium and carousel in Seaside. Be warned that the aquarium is not a big fancy aquarium like Baltimore, but a small-to-medium sized warehouse type building with a lot of aquariums set up inside. But there was a huge tank where you could buy fish and feed to the sea lions (which the kids enjoyed). And there were touch tanks for the starfish. We had a nice lunch at the Crabby Oyster.

My inlaws love to vacation out at Manzanita because it's less discovered and overrun. If you head down that way, make sure to stop by Bread and Ocean bakery as early in the morning as you can. They bake fresh daily and the best things are gone by mid-morning.

We went to Cannon Beach and loved it, although our DC was a bit older. What I would have done differently is try to take beach toys so we could just park ourselves on the beach for a while. I didn't think to do this because it wasn't hot beach weather, but families were hanging out on the beach with their windbreakers, and kids were playing in the sand.

Haystack Rock is gorgeous, and when the tide is low, the tidepools are great to explore. The kids can see sea anemones and starfish up close - it's so cool!

I second the suggestion for Powell's. Also a few blocks from Powell's at 10th and Alder is an entire parking lot filled with food trucks. The food truck scene is huge in Portland, and actually you'll see food trucks in many locations. Check them out - there is a lot of delicious stuff to be had.

Multnomah Falls is in the Columbia River Gorge, and there are lots of sights to see on the way. I recommend stopping at Bonneville Dam, where your kids can see salmon swim upstream. We may have enjoyed that more than Multnomah Falls!

Portland itself is a really cool city and great for kids, so if you have time to bookend your trip there, do it. I got some good recommendations on here a while back and tried to do as many of them as we could!

We also hit up Multnomah Falls and some of the other less well-known falls near there, too. Absolutely gorgeous (if not a little crowded at the big ones).

OP here, thank you for all the great tips so far. I just googled Powell books, it's huge! My kids could probably spend a whole morning there on our first day just picking out books to read for the week. Thanks, everyone.

If you love books, before you head out to the coast, stop by Powell's book store in downtown Portland. It's a book-lovers dream.

There are some fun places on the Oregon coast. Cannon Beach is a little too popular, but you can't beat a trip to visit Haystack Rock. Our twins were 2.5 and we stopped by late in the afternoon on a low tide day and were able to walk out to the base of the rock. They loved playing in the little puddles and walking out to the rocks and seeing all the dogs running up and down the beach). You can get a good diner style breakfast and lunch at the Pig N Pancake and it's very family friendly.

We stopped by and visited the aquarium and carousel in Seaside. Be warned that the aquarium is not a big fancy aquarium like Baltimore, but a small-to-medium sized warehouse type building with a lot of aquariums set up inside. But there was a huge tank where you could buy fish and feed to the sea lions (which the kids enjoyed). And there were touch tanks for the starfish. We had a nice lunch at the Crabby Oyster.

My inlaws love to vacation out at Manzanita because it's less discovered and overrun. If you head down that way, make sure to stop by Bread and Ocean bakery as early in the morning as you can. They bake fresh daily and the best things are gone by mid-morning.

The beaches are beautiful and interesting. There are not a lot of restaurants, and not much action. It is a lower key place for sure.

The Oregon coast is a beautiful place. Assuming you'd be flying into Portland which is in the north, southern Oregon has the beautiful coast line that people visit. Almost easier to fly into SFO and take in the Northern California while your at it. Either way a fun trip during the summer.

I'm considering doing a summer trip to the Oregon coast this year. Kids range from age 2-12 and I'm looking to stay about a week. Anything we shouldn't miss while we're there? We love beaches, bookstores and amazing breakfast places.