HELP!! We are planning a 2 week trip to oregon some time in August....we don't have any reservations as yet. How easy is it (or not ) to travel making last minute reservations.....we plan on flying into Portland and renting a car...like to go from Portland to Astoria , down the coast, Colombia river, crater Lake, and the willamette area. Is this too ambitious?

You should have reservations at that time of year - all popular destinations - and Portland being a big convention city frequently is pretty booked up

It sounds like a do-able trip with 2 weeks but you definitely want to make advance reservations and you may have trouble for August at this point--so I'd get on it ASAP.

Why Astoria as opposed to, say, Cannon Beach?

Summer, especially August in Oregon/Portland is very busy, hotels are booked solid and Coast hotels are booked and have 2 night minimums in many areas.

You should reserve asap.

Fly into PDX... ( my favorite airport in the US)
take a taxi to a downtown hotel, stay a few days.
Explore Portland, rent a car when you want to see the Gorge, winery area and just do it in day trips.
They are all within an hours drive from downtown.

The Coast (Cannon Beach) is 90 minutes from downtown...Astoria is not on the Coast/Ocean.

You can do that as a day trip or stay over but you will have to stay somewhere most likely 2 nights.

Portland is not only a big convention city but they have great Festivals all the time, music, beer etc .. so you had better start getting reservations soon.

At the Coast, I only know Cannon Beach hotels and Arch Cape.
Here is my TA List of hotels in downtown Portland>>


1. Hotel Monaco Portland
http://www.5thavenuesuites.com
Great location, cheerful suites, great room service. A health club and internet room keep you in touch and in shape.

2. The Heathman
http://www.heathmanhotel.com
Elegant lobby, small rooms that are comfortable and excellent service. The restaurant and bar are busy and serve very good food. Great location.

3. Hotel Vintage Plaza
http://www.vintageplaza.com
Kimpton sister of the 5th Avenue Suites Hotel, comfortable rooms, complimentary wine tasting and nice restaurant..Pazzo.

4. The Govenor Hotel
http://www.govhotel.com
Grand old building in downtown Portland with large guest rooms and very good restaurant, Jakes Grill.

5. The Paramount Hotel
http://www.portlandparamount.com
Trendy hotel in good downtown location. Large rooms and very large marble bathrooms. Dragonfly Restaurant downstairs is popular with an excellent bar.

** Construction going on indefinitely making the hotel area quite noisy and congested with traffic. **

6. The Westin Portland
http://www.westinportland.com
A standard Westin property with a large health club and great for business travelers, in a good downtown location.

7. Hotel Lucia
http://www.hotellucia.com
A charming hotel in downtown Portland, located next door to the Vintage Plaza Hotel. Charming and quirky, with a great Thai restaurant ( Typhoon) downstairs.

8. Mark Spencer Hotel
http://www.markspencer.com/
Right on the streetcar line, blocks from Powells, Whole Foods and the Pearl.

9. Inn at Northrup Station
http://www.northrupstation.com
Boutique Hotel..modern, convenient and affordable. Enjoy rooftop deck and easy access to Streetcar which stops right outside the hotel.

10. The Ace Hotel
http://www.acehotel.com/portland/
Very different, really interesting hotel, at the edge of the Pearl District in downtown Portland.
The original building was an old hotel, it covers the whole block , with a coffee shop, a deli next door as well as the Streetcar stop on the corner.
Very artistic and different rooms and theme. Young and "hip" might be the description as well as light hearted.
There are 4 Ace Hotels, one in Seattle, one in Portland, one in NY and one in California.

Okay, I'll pile on! ;-) Yes, you should make reservations, particularly for the north and central coast - where you're likely to encounter those minimum stay requirements Scarlett mentioned - and most definitely for Crater Lake. If "Willamette area" means wine country, you'll want 'em there too.

Two weeks is a fair amount of time for your itinerary. I'd allocate 5-6 nights to the coast, and the balance inland. You can easily do the Columbia River Gorge and/or wine country as day trips from Portland to make things simpler. You've not mentioned it, but see if you can't fit in a night in Ashland; see a play. It might be your best option anyway, if you can't find a place near Crater Lake.

I agree with Scarlett, except for one small thing: Don't take a taxi from the airport to your hotel. Take the Max instead. It's cheap, clean, only slightly longer than a taxi would take and it's very easy.

Author: nakra
Date: 06/12/2008, 03:56 pm
forgot to mention we will fly back home from Portland.

vlcgoddess,I only spoke from what I know/do - I always take cabs from airports because I don't want to deal with new town, new area, big heavy suitcases and getting on a train.. I have enough trouble managing lol

But yes, the Max is a wonderful thing..

Don't know if you're local, vicgoddess, but the story in today's news and radio talk shows is about increasing incidents of crime on MAX, particularly on the east side.

Yes beachbum, I'm local. I saw the story on the news this morning. The woman who was attacked engaged in banter with the group of boys beforehand.
There has been a push by Tri-Met to increase security presence in certain areas. I think if people are smart and cautious, as you should be anywhere, they will be fine. I still think the Max and Tri-Met are a great asset to Portland, and I love to use them whenever I can.

As I heard it, the aim of the beaten woman's "banter" was in defense of the group's initial target, an elderly woman. And the attack apparently occurred in broad daylight.

I don't disagree that MAX is a good asset for the city, but it's not without its (potential) problems. And with already huge deficits resulting from sharply rising fuel costs, I'm not sure how Tri-Met can afford to effectively address them.

We are spending 4 nights in Portland (with day trips) and fly back from Portland......and we have 2 nights booked in Crater Lake....in total we will have 14 days( fly days included). How to apportion the rest of our time...Cannon Beach? Yachats?Bandon? Ashland? Willamet? Other? Driving appears to be easy but we want to enjoy where we are rather than zipping around. Suggestions from the pros would help. The first time I used this format was for Costa Rica and we had a great time.