Good morning,
My fianc茅 and I are thinking of going to Portland for our honeymoon. We get married on August 22nd and the dates were thinking about for the honeymoon are September 4th though the 13th. Is this a good time of year weather wise?
We would like some ideas of things to see in and around Portland. We like to do day trips and usually stay the night in the vicinity or our day trip. Things we would like to see or do are the ocean, wine tours/tasting, brewery tours/tasting, hiking, possible white water rafting or kayaking, and general sight seeing of local interests. Any hotel recommendations would be great as we plan to just kind of roam around the Portland area staying at a new place each night. Nothing too fancy as its more of a sight seeing/adventure type honeymoon.
We did this same type of thing in Denver about a year ago and it was great.
Thanks You!
Jason
Honeymoon Suggestions
Hi, I would go to Cannon Beach and stay at the Stephanie Inn there. We have enjoyed nice stays at The Benson, The Heathman and the Riverplace in Portland. I am on the coast now in Seaside and we are having beautiful weather! www.cannon-beach.net is a nice website for the Cannon Beach area. I would go to their restaurant there also even if you don%26#39;t stay at Stephanie Inn.
I hope you have a great time and congrats! :)
Honeymoon Suggestions
September, especially early in the month, is usually a great time of year weatherwise. And pretty much everything on your list is within a couple hours of Portland, so could be done in ';day'; trips. But, with nine days, I suggest a point-to-point itinerary to minimize driving.
Maybe start with a few days in Portland, visiting local sights, wine country (45 minutes southwest of the city), Mt. St. Helens (a couple hours north), possibly the Columbia River Gorge (or save that for the point-to-point), and returning each night for dinner. Then, head to the coast, and go south, spending a night or two in a few of the many nice coastal towns. Along the way, there is breath-taking scenery, hiking, tidepools, dune buggy rides, jetboats... If you drive the entire coast, you could dip into northern CA and see some redwoods before turning back north. And, if you did that, Crater Lake becomes an option. The Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, too.
Best white-water river near Portland is probably the White Salmon in WA, but the Deschutes, in central OR is great too, and might fit better into a loop itinerary.
Lots of possibilities here.. But I%26#39;m not sure you could fit them all into a 9-day trip. Maybe you could provide more feedback before we suggest a specific itinerary (any priorities and/or ';must sees/dos? Redwoods of interest? Crater Lake?). Suggest you make plans quickly, especially if they involve popular coastal towns. Labor Day is late this year, so it%26#39;ll still be very busy during most/all of your time here.
A day trip out of Portland that we did when we lived there was to the Columbia Gorge. I was amazed at the beauty.
While driving through the Gorge you could stop in at Mcmenamins winery. We received some wine from some dear friends who went wine tasting there and it was superb.
Well we definitely want to do some wine tasting/tours and brewery tasting/tours. But we also would like to do some walking on the beaches, river adventures, etc.
Yup, the Columbia River Gorge; great for waterfalls and other scenery, hiking, windsurfing, and now in the last several years, winetasting. There are a bunch more wineries there now than just McMenamin%26#39;s, suzie, which is best known as a brewpub. Those guys have turned what was a small brewing operation into quite an empire now.
So... sounds like Crater Lake and redwoods are out? Then how about a loop that looks something like: Portland - Cannon Beach - south to Florence - Bend - Hood River - Portland. That covers beaches, river adventures, a dune buggy ride... And with wineries near Eugene and Hood River, you could taste in those areas, or as a day trip from Portland. Brewpubs are easy; there are great ones in Portland and all along the route.
Is this closer? ;-)
That sounds pretty good. I know its probably clitche but i would love to see the Goonies house up in Astoria since i grew up with the movie when it was new in the theater :)She is the wine fan and im the beer fan so a mix of both would be great. Im not too familiar with the bigger brewerys in OR as i am with the CO ones since CO is right next door to us we get a lot of their beers in KS.
Yes,the Goonie%26#39;s house is cool, there are some nice places to wine taste in Astoria. The Cellar on 10th, the Flying Dutchman adjacent to the Bridgewater Bistro where we ate last night, Shallon Winery and the Silver Salmon Grille would all be nice places to samnple some good local wines. :)
you mention the goonies house.
I did a little research a while back (I too have a picture in front of the house!) but and I can%26#39;t find the astoria visitor webpage now. I recall it stated as long as you are respectful you can walk up the little side road and take pictures from the road, the owners don%26#39;t mind. The house is very close to the football/cheer field at the beginning of the movie.
the house is off of Franklin Ave up a little side street (I believe it is 38th or 39th?).
Bonus: When you drive up Franklin you will see the elementry school in filmed in %26#39;kindergarten cop.%26#39;
It%26#39;s just as easy to start your drive down the coast from Astoria. But, I suggest that, unless your wife is into fruit and berry wines, you pass on Shallon. And I think even syrahgirl would agree that Flying Dutchman isn%26#39;t worth your time if you%26#39;re planning a wine country visit at some other point in the trip.
I%26#39;m not sure I know the bigger breweries in Oregon either. You%26#39;ll see McMenamin%26#39;s all around the Portland area. Widmer is another higher volume place, I think. But mostly it%26#39;s smaller brewpubs like Bridgeport, Rogue Ales, Lucky Lab, Pelican, Deschutes....
Don%26#39;t know if we%26#39;ve answered all your questions.
