Coast vacation

My fiance %26amp; I are planning a trip to Washington %26amp; Oregon in early July. We are flying into Seattle on a Friday afternoon, and then back out of Seattle the following Friday morning so we will have six full days to tour (not including travel days). We want to spend most of our time driving along the Washington / Oregon coast. I’m not sure how much of the coast we will be able to cover, but any suggestions on places to stop, things to do, affordable places to stay, etc. would be much appreciated!

Coast vacation

FYI, several of post both the WA and OR forums, so be prepared for competition but also very good advice.

Since you seem focused on the coasts, and have somewhat limited time, though the days are long, you might consider flying into PDX and take an easy, and incredibly beautiful, trip down the coast and consider, also, a trip via Crater Lake to the Bend, OR area.

There is so much to see and to do here...

BTW, unless you go to Olympic National Park out of Seattle, and then drive the west side via the Hoh Rain Forest, I would emphasize the OR coast as better and more accessible of the two states.

Coast vacation

Meant to send these pages:

Oregon, Central

http://www.visitbend.com/

Oregon Coast

www.visittheoregoncoast.com

Meant to send these pages:

Oregon, Central

http://www.visitbend.com/

Oregon Coast

www.visittheoregoncoast.com

Six days is not much time! Unless your airline prices / schedules are far more convenient to fly into Seattle, I%26#39;d also suggest Portland.

If you do fly into Seattle, you could probably get to Astoria, OR for the first night, depending upon your arrival time. It%26#39;s on the river, not the ocean though. From there, do you want to spend 2-3 nights in a town, or keep moving? Some northern towns such as Cannon Beach have two night minimum stays.

What sort of things do you like to do? Many of the coastal towns have different ';personalities'; and appeal to different people!

Please note, virtually everyplace will be very, very busy, so you%26#39;ll need to make your lodging reservations early.

What do you consider ';affordable'; places to stay? If you give us a budget, it will help, as some posters here have been known to suggest extremely expensive hotels . . . but not me, LOL;-)

p.s. We spent a week in DC in early March - flew in during that snowstorm. Enjoyed ourselves, but didn%26#39;t have enough time to see everything!

Thank you both so much for taking the time to respond!

I already booked the flights to %26amp; from Seattle about a month ago (I got a really good deal). I called to see if we could change to Portland but it would cost more to change the flights than the actual flights cost, so we’ll be sticking with Seattle! We’ve never been there and will be arriving early enough in the day to do some things in the city before heading toward the coast the next day.

We’ve seen MANY places online that we would love to visit, but we know we can’t go to all of them because of our limited time, so I’m hoping you can help eliminate some of the places, and tell me if there are any “must see” places we have left out.

This is our “wish list” of places to visit… so far (continuously growing):

Dungeness Spit, WA

Lake Crescent %26amp; Sol Duc Falls, WA

Olympic National Park, WA (Hoh Rain Forest %26amp; Rialto Beach) + Rain Forest Paddlers

Ruby Beach, WA

Astoria, OR

Cannon Beach, OR

Manzanita, OR

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, OR

Gold Beach, OR

Again, I know we won’t be able to cover them all so any suggestions you have would be much appreciated.

You asked what types of things we are interested in. We really like old / historic downtown areas and quiet beaches. We really want to see some sea stacks, and the rain forest.

As for hotels, we were hoping to keep moving and not stay in the same place more than one night. I didn’t think of the two night policy, so I understand now that we might have an issue with that. We would like to keep our budget to $150 or less each night if we can.

We have been to Portland before, so we can skip it if we don’t have time to stop there, but I’m assuming we will be driving through it anyway on our way back to Seattle. We’ve also been to Cannon Beach before and loved it, so we definitely want to stop there again.

Thanks again for all of your help!

P.S. half-Brit – I’m glad you had fun in DC. It’s an amazing city, but it’s not much fun in the snow. I hope you come back sometime in better weather!

Looks very fun, if you do stay in Astoria, the Cannery Pier Hotel is a beautiful property right on the Columbia River, the Holiday Inn Express is also in this area, a little bit less pricey and you still have beautiful views. There is an indoor pool at the HIE and both properties are right on the trolly run. www.oldoregon.com is a nice website for this area. Have a fun trip! :)

Your wish list hits some fantastic areas, but with six days there is no way to hit all that. I would focus on the Olympics and down to Manzanita. Even that will really be pushing it. The Olympics is a huge area and the roads are not one that you can go real fast on.

I%26#39;ve pasted some of your last post here and added my comments.

Dungeness Spit, WA

I%26#39;d skip this or, at most, go to the parking lot, walks the short trail down, see the spit. There are much more scenic things to see, however.

Lake Crescent %26amp; Sol Duc Falls, WA

These are not in the same location, perhaps you know that. The former is en route to the west side of ONP; the latter is well described by a TA expert on ONP: kaleberg.com/portangeles/solduc/index.html

Olympic National Park, WA (Hoh Rain Forest %26amp; Rialto Beach) + Rain Forest Paddlers

Ruby Beach, WA

See more on Kaleberg%26#39;s site, above.

Astoria, OR

Perhaps a quick drive through, considering your

Manzanita, OR

Just a very small village, nice to stay there, nothing special to see.

I%26#39;d drop down, literally, to the old towns of Newport (which has a lot to see) and Florence.

Consider staying in Yachats (make sure you see Cape Perpetua just south of there), and lodge at either Fireside or Overleaf, sister and adjacent properties.

I think a key element to enjoying the coast is to take it easy, pull off at the scenic viewpoints and the state parks. Walk Devils Churn and other trails at Cape Perpetua. See Depoe Bay. Skip, IMO, Sea Lion Caves; you can see them from the viewpoint just south of there, as well as in Newport swimming around or, even, on the docks.

When your time runs out, head east for I-5 and return to Seattle.

This is all great advice, and thanks for the hotel suggestions.

I think we will pass on Dungeness Spit, Crescent Lake %26amp; Sol Duc Falls. We will just go to the Olympic National Park in Washington for the rain forest %26amp; the beach %26amp; then head south to Oregon.

We will try to get as far south as Florence with a stop at Cape Perpetua, which looks amazing.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions!

Next challenge; finding decent lodging along the coast in early July. Best to firm up the itinerary and make reservations ASAP. And understand that many/most of the nicer places in popular coastal towns will have two-night minimum stay requirements, which might work against your tight itinerary.