Pam1951

We will be arriving in Portland on Feb 17 (Tues) and leaving on Feb 25. We have never been to Oregon and would like to see Columbia River Gorge, wineries and beaches. Would also love to see Crater Lake but I understand that may not be possible due to roads/snow?

We are considering spending three nights in Portland and driving to CR Gorge during one of those days. Then possibly up to Astoria and Cannon Beach and spending two nights, then driving down the coast and spending one night enroute. Then on to wine country where we could spend one night and then back to Portland for last night.

Several questions:
Is it going to be too crazy to drive down as far as Bandon? We do like beautiful rides and I understand that would fill the bill.

We are definitely on a budget and I am going to try Priceline for Portland rooms. Any suggestions on bidding?

Will shops and galleries be open during FEbruary?

Would it make more sense to be in wine country over the weekend and reverse the order of our trip? Any suggestions as to wineries and places to stay?

Also is there a Columbia sportwear outlet in Portland?

And finally, any suggestions for cheap restaurants and hotels, microbreweries, etc would be much appreciated!

Thank you so much

Pam

kimamom

Hi Pam! I hope the weather warms up a bit before your visit!! I'm assuming you will stop somewhere on the drive down to Bandon. (?) Newport would be a nice half-way point and worth exploring. You will love all the beautiful scenery along the coast. The lighthouses have always fascinated me and you can pick up info on them at Visitor centers along the coast.

One of our favorite wineries is the Willamette Valley Winery outside of Salem. They have some amazing Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. The views from the terrace are also very nice there and the tasting is complimentary.

I don't know about the Columbia Sportswear outlet. We shop at the ones in Seaside but I don't recall one being there. (I'm usually in the Wine Haus or the Liz Claiborne outlets!!) Any other questions, feel free to ask!! I hope you enjoy your trip. ***kim***

noryglory

Hi Pam,

Do you ski? The gorge is a good spot to get up to Mt. Hood from. Be advised that I-84 (currently closed due to the ice and snow) can be an icy mess during this time of year. Windy windy windy and cold!!

We love Hood River. It's such a neat place, but honestly we go in the summer so I can't advise on winter fun.

We used Priceline last March and got a room at the Portland 5th Avenue Suites on a Saturday night for about $50, which when we got there they upgraded for not much more $$ into a nice King suite. I'd check out biddingfortravel.com and see what the bids are going for. Priceline will try to tell you to bid too much. We always check out what hotels are taking bids and how much they are going for for the dates we want.

Cannon Beach is super cute, I recommend dinner at The Bistro. Not cheap but very good. There's a cute pizza place on the main drag also that is really good, can't remember it's name.

As for all the driving you are proposing, that's a LOT of driving in potential rain and stormy weather. Not too scenic or fun in my book. I'd skip the Bandon trip and stick with wineries no further than Salem/McMinnville from Portland. You could head down the coast from CB and drive back on Highway 18 at Lincoln City toward Salem, that will dump you off near lots of wineries on the way back.

Crater Lake is not possible at this time of year; it's only open from about June through mid-October as far as I understand. There can be snow at the rim yearround. Pretty trecherous. Perhaps that can be a summer trip someday, and you can see Bandon then and do a southern Oregon loop and go rafting on the Rogue also.

Let me know if you have any questions...have fun!

Wendy

Hi Pam,

I live in Seattle and we head to the wineries just west of Portland once a year for a weekend away. The area is about 30 mins. outside of Portland:

http://www.yamhillwine.com/

You can check out the hours of different wineries, not all are open even on weekends.

We have bid for hotels in Portland with the help of www.biddingfortravel.com

Have fun!

beachbum

Your thought of visiting the wineries during the weekend is a good one; you'll find more tasting rooms open. You'll find the highest concentration in the Newberg, Dundee, Yamhill, Carlton area. The bistro in Dundee (can't miss it) has a tasting room with a number of area wineries represented. You may decide not to stay in "wine country" as most of them are within 60 minutes of Portland.

An alternative to a hotel in Portland might be one of the several McMenamin's facilities; the Kennedy School and Edgefield come to mind. McMenamin's is a local (not so) micro-brewery that has converted these historic buildings to include a brewery, bar, restaurants, guestrooms, theaters, etc. Edgefield is at the west end of the Columbia gorge; Kennedy School is in a residential neighborhood in NE Portland. I'm sure you can find more info in the internet.

Shops and galleries both at the coast and in Portland are open year round. In Portland, I'd suggest spending time along NW 23rd and 21st, the Pearl District, and along SE Hawthorne. Columbia Sportwear has a large store in downtown Portland, but I don't know of any "outlet" type store.

If you are golfers, you might want to go as far as Bandon just to see Bandon and Pacific Dunes. Otherwise, I'd suggest driving I-5 south to the Drain exit (several miles south of Cottage Grove), and going to the coast along the Umqua River highway (38 I think). This is one of the most scenic drives anywhere IMO. You'll hit the coast at Reedsport, and can go north from there. A shorter alternative would be the noted highway 18 which puts you on the coast just north of Lincoln City.

LaurafromFL

My husband and I were in Portland about 5 years ago and loved it. There is a very big Columbia Sportwear store downtown, but don't think it's an "outlet". One of my favorite things we did was drive from Portland along the Columbia River and stopping at all the various waterfalls, then we drove up Mt Hood to the old ski lodge up there. We also took a beautiful drive from Portland to Astoria and then down the coast to Cannon Beach, etc., and cut back to Portland via Tillamook (the cheese factory there is neat) and a couple wineries. Something else we really enjoyed was driving up into the big city park they have (can't remember the name), it has beautiful tiered gardens, a big historic mansion, and really great views of the city, Mt Ranier, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens. It is really beautiful out there. We were there in mid Oct, so not sure what it would be like in Feb---but you're bound to have a great time!

Pam1951

Thank you so much for all of your replies. I think we will skip the southern part of the coastal trip. I would like to really see several places as opposed to spending too much time in the car. Would appreciate any additional advice on restaurants, etc, or not to miss galleries/stores

Pam

SaraLM

Some other highways from the Valley to the coast you might like: Hwy 20 from Corvallis (my favorite cuz I know it). Hwy 126 from Eugene to Florence a nice drive. I would probably recommend this one since it is fairly straight, pretty and faster. The hwy from Salem (hwy 18) can take a l-o-n-g time! Also I think that Florence to Lincoln City has some of the best scenery from the highway with lots of pullouts.

You will just have to come back for Crater Lake and Southern Oregon.

Enjoy!

kimamom

The summer months would be a great time to visit Southern Oregon. Crater Lake, the Jet Boat Rides, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival!!! Lots of fun in the sun! ***kim***

evansfamilyfive

Crater Lake, no can do, closed. There is a Columbia outlet store in the Lincoln City outlet mall(on the coast)
LOL

sunchip

Your itinerary sounds familiar! But I need help with the WA portion of the trip. I'm also curious where in the Gorge you intend to go.

We are headed from SFO to Portland for a 4 day weekend in early February (Thurs-Mon). I'm thinking we should stay in the city the first night (Thurs)in order to head to the Gorge area for Friday (undecided on where to stay in the city...help!), since we have reservations at the Stephanie Inn for Fri-Mon. Heres the question - I know we'll drive the coast and try to hit a few wineries BUT how far north is realistic to head? I'd love to make it up to Mt. St. Helens and was told the access is limited to the Cold Water Ridge Visitor Center (of course conditions change constantly). I need help with the WA portion of our adventure. We're cool with driving - and we're game to get into the car at 6am and head out for a day of hiking, exploring and I've done enough research to have a sense of Cannon Beach SOUTH, but am much less confident about where we can head into WA. Is it absurd to think we could take 5 North to 12 to 101 and see Olympic NP??

Nuanda99

FWIW, there's also a Columbia Outlet in the Sellwood neighborhood near Portland. It's not that great, however, and I wouldn't recommend a special trip.

The store downtown is the flagship store, not an outlet.

There is a Nike outlet close to downtown on NE MLK near Knott.

TxTravelPro

We just got back last week and visited an air museum/Spruce Goose in McMinnville. Very neat place.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown. Great location and they do participate on PL, though we booked the AAA rate of 116.00
It was supposed to rain the whole time we were there but it was SUNNY almost the entire trip!
Have fun, there is so much to do it is hard to see it all!

ed_jacobson

The Columbia outlet in the Sellwood neighborhood is at 1323 SE Tacoma St. The prices are cheaper than the downtown store and it might be worth a trip if you have a car already, which it sounds like you will. Plus it will give you an idea of what some of the residential neighborhoods are like.

If you are driving down the coast, you may consider stopping in Pacific City at the Inn at Cape Kiwanda. http://www.innatcapekiwanda.com/

It is located on the beach with a view of a beautiful haystack rock. A brewpub/restaurant is across the street. Highly recommended.

Orcas

There is another Columbia Sportswear Outlet store in Mountain Park, in Lake Oswego, just southwest of Portland. It has some great buys. Also, at the same shopping center is a Norm Thompson outlet, which isn't as good as it used to be, but is still worth a look; and a Hanna Anderson outlet, which sells discounted Swedish and Scandanavian clothes, with bright colors and lots of cotton - mostly for children, babies and up.

April

The museum TxTravelPro mentioned is the The Evergreen Aviation Museum (photo at: http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Touri...en-museum.html) and it is first rate. It's not everywhere that you can see the Spruce Goose!