HWY 101
The Barbey Maritime Center, which showcases Astoria’s boatbuilding legacy, debuted in January, just east of where Hwy 101 enters Astoria.
Packed with walnuts and loaded with cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake we’ve ever tasted (sorry, mom) lives at scruffy Peter Pan Market, off Hwy 202.
Discover one of the few places where you can drive right onto the sand at Del Rey Beach.
Have a beer behind bars at Seaside Brewing Company, a year-old nanobrewery housed in the city’s former jail.
Sitting gets political at Cannon Beach’s Mariner Market, where you’ll find republican and democrat benches on the porch outside.
Accessible only at low tide, Hug Point State Recreation site is worth the wait: basalt cliffs, caves, and even its own seaside waterfall.
You can’t take a spoonful of the cioppino at the Fish Peddler in Bay City without running into a clam, mussel, crab leg, or shrimp.
On rainy days, the colorful wooden murals making up the Tillamook Quilt Trail offer a unique driving tour.
Uncover four miles of beautiful empty on the Bayocean Spit, a finger of sand and salal near Tillamook.
Spy the tallest waterfall on the Oregon Coast (319 feet) at Munson Falls.
The $59 rate at Lincoln City’s Historic Anchor Inn includes more kitsch on its walls (and ceilings and decks) than you’ll have time to properly take in.
Bring an appetite and a framed pic of your pooch to Beach Dog Café, where after you’ve gorged on the famous stuffed french toast, your photo might join the hundreds of others on display.
Salmon candy from the South Beach Fish Market: get some.
The Ya-Hots Video Country Store, a wacky little Yachats shop that has everything from organic honey to seed starts, makes an easy stop for good-for-you-and-the-planet road food.
Avoid the hordes huddling over Cape Perpetua’s tide pools at nearby Strawberry Hill State Park, an equally striking but less visited spot.
Get an up-close view of Heceta Head Lighthouse via the Hobbit Trail, an otherworldly path through giant spruce and rhododendrons.
Only open for a few evening hours Thursday through Saturday, Wakonda Brewing’s tasting room warrants a visit. Order the Beachcomber Cream Ale.
Florence locals get their coffee at Siuslaw Roasters, right next to the new interpretive center garden. So should you.
Score an Instagram-able shot of the dunes without getting any sand in your boots at the dunes overlook.
Take a 24-mile detour inland and work out the road kinks on a hike to pretty Golden and Silver Falls in Alleghany.
Miller’s at the Cove in Charleston boasts some mean clam chowder, and a “bought you a beer board” that lets you leave a pint for a friend the next time they’re in.
The stark and stunning contrast between Shore Acres’ formal gardens and the frothy Pacific beating against stone monoliths just steps away makes the side trip worth it.
Coos Bay boasts the state’s biggest wine walk. Join in on a first Friday.
One of the few structures to survive Bandon’s two massive fires (in 1914 and 1936), the Riverhouse lives on today as a five-bedroom waterfront vacation rental.
Ocean debris becomes a masterpiece at Bandon’s Washed Ashore exhibit.
$2.50 buys you lunch at Lanlois market, a general store that peddles some damn fine franks made with beef from Pendleton’s Hill Meat Co.
Discover a coastal version of Seinfeld’s “soup nazi” at so-worth-it Anna’s by the Sea in Gold Beach.
Your iphone won’t seem like enough to capture the beauty at Natural Bridge. And it isn’t. Commit it to memory on a hike through the area’s network of trails.
Picturesque Harris Beach State Park owns a pretty perspective on Bird Island, Oregon’s largest coastal island.
Wake up face to face with the Pacific Ocean at Brookings’ by the Sea B&B.
Housed in an old gas station, Brookings’ Cielito Lindo doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside you’ll find tasty, authentic tacos, warm smiles, and window seats.
Alfred A. Loeb State Park holds an opportunity to stand among giants: it’s the only grove of redwoods in Oregon.
