Hi,
I need suggestions on what to see and where to stay for a 1 week trip to Oregon. We're thinking of the Columbia River Gorge (is that just a day's trip?), Mt Hood area, and the Coast. How many days to allow for the Coast and driving back to Portland? Thanks for any advice.

Your general question has been asked a few times in the past here and answers are in the archives. Just go to the search at the top of this screen and type in "oregon" or "oregon coast" or "columbia gorge" or "portland" to get a bunch of results. Then feel free to ask more specific questions.

A few quick answers: the Gorge can be done in a day, it's a very easy drive out from Portland. You could even do it in a long afternoon, but if you want to hike instead of just drive the old scenic highway loop, factor in more time.

The Oregon Coast is less than a two hour drive from Portland at, say, Seaside or Cannon Beach. You can drive the entire coast in about two days fairly easily, but you may want more time if you wish to explore anything in detail. I recommend getting AAA's excellent Oregon Coast tour map.

Andrew

Andrew: Thanks for the tip about the AAA map for the Oregon Coast.

Gigi,

This could be done in a week: Portland, and from Portland:

• Columbia River Gorge, including waterfalls
• Hood River for “Fruit Loop” views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams

Return to Portland on the Washington side of the river, starting at Maryhill. On the coast:

• Astoria
• Ecola State Park
• Cannon Beach,
• Hug Point State Park,
• Newport (Nye Beach area and Acquarium),
• Yachats,
• Cape Perpetua area including the Sea Lion Caves

Or do the coast in reverse, driving I-5 to Eugene and Eugene to Florence.

Hi
( I know to my Portland friends, I sound like a broken record but here are my suggestions)
Don't know your budget or likes but...
5th Avenue Suites hotel..downtown Portland
www.5thavenuesuites.com

The Mallory is open now as the deLuxe and I hear that it is beautiful, ..
http://www.hoteldeluxeportland.com/

Mark Spencer Hotel - more budget..on the edge of downtown/Pearl District.
www.markspencer.com

You have your other answers from Andrew and Happy, we get to Cannon Beach in 90 min from our apt. We do it in day trips all the time.

Thanks to you all. Would it be better to stay in Portland and do the day trip to the Gorge and Mt Hood, spend a day in Portland and then head to the beach or would it be better to stay along the Columbia River one night?

If you stay in Portland, you'll have far more hotel and restaurant options. If you stay out in the Gorge somewhere options are limited. I think the only reason to stay out in the Gorge would be for a specific experience (e.g. wanted to stay at the Multnomah Falls Lodge or something). But it's not a bad day trip to do both the Gorge and Hood in a single day.

Andrew

Our choices when we visited here were to stay in Portland using the city as the base. Each trip is a day trip, then you have the hotel and city full of restaurants waiting for you at the end of the day

I agree that the Columbia River Gorge is an easy day trip. Be sure to head out the old highway, though, and not I-84.

But I might differ with others on how to do the coast. Unless you have specific things you want to see or do that are many miles apart - like the Astoria Column and a jetboat trip up the Rogue River - I think you'd just as much enjoy parking yourself in one coastal town, and doing daytrips from there. Much more relaxing, and you really wouldn't be sacrificing too much in terms of scenery, etc. Towns like Cannon Beach or Yachats would both be good considerations for this kind of trip.

Regardless of where you are on the coast, it's a maximum one day's drive back to Portland.