The Best 3-Day Northern Oregon Coast Road Trip
Are You looking for a summer getaway with gorgeous beaches, tons of wildlife, and lots of adventure? I highly recommend the Oregon Coast! We just got home from an epic 3-day Oregon Coast Road Trip and documented everything to show you exactly where we went and what we did. I’ll tell you what I would do again, plus what I would skip.
For this trip, we started in Seattle and headed south. It was about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to the Washington/Oregon border and the first spot on our agenda was Astoria, Oregon which is right past the border. This trip can easily be done from Portland as well! If starting in Portland, I would go backward and do Astoria last.
Where to Stay on the Oregon Coast
For this 3-day road trip, we decided to stay in Seaside. Seaside has more affordable hotels and is centrally located in this specific area that we were exploring. Our hotel was the Rivertide Suites Hotel and we loved it there. It was the perfect location right on the river, and super close to Seaside’s famous Broadway street.
Day One: Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is a fishing town in the very northwest corner of Oregon. It’s known for being a port city that sits on the Columbia River. Astoria has close historical ties to the Lewis & Clark Trail. And it’s the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.
When you are driving south towards Oregon, it’s important that you choose the correct course that will take you over the Megler Bridge to get into Astoria (the 401 to the 101). You’ll definitely want to experience driving over it at least once.
Astoria-Megler Bridge
This impressive bridge stretches 4.1 miles across the mouth of the Columbia River. The bridge’s main span is 1,232 feet in length, the longest “continuous truss” in the nation. You can’t miss it, with views of the bridge throughout the whole city, it’s a majestic focal point. In the morning, you can find dozens of fishing boats near the bridge getting the day’s catch for local restaurants and markets.
Once you get into Astoria there is so much to do! They have a unique boardwalk with pubs and shops, and there are tons of seafood restaurants. Here are the stops that we made:
Bowpicker Fish and Chips
Remember the morning fishing boats? Every morning the Bowpicker Fish and Chips food trailer catches fresh fish for their famous fish and chips! This is easily the busiest restaurant in Astoria, with a line that can stretch a few city blocks! The Bowpicker catches the fish in the morning, and sells out every single day! When they are out of fish, they close up shop and start the process again the next morning. We had to try it and waited about 20 minutes to get our food. Definitely worth the experience! Make sure you bring cash.
Astoria Goonies Locations
If you’re a bit older and watched “The Goonies” as a kid (like my husband, lol). Or if you like me and love 80s nostalgia, you will want to hit up some of the filming locations throughout the Oregon coast! “The Goonies” was based in Astoria, and there are a lot of sites there, but there are also some more down the coast that we will get to later in this post. For Astoria, Mikey’s house was our first stop.
This home is easily findable with a Google search and sits on one of the most picturesque hilltops overlooking the Columbia River. It was recently purchased by a “The Goonies” super fan. The home looks the exact same as it did in the 1985 film, and there are signs to tell you where to park and arrows pointing the way up to the house.
After you see the house, you’ll want to hit up the Jail that they break out of at the beginning of the movie. This small building is hard to miss and has the same black Jeep Cherokee parked outside! You can go inside and take a self-guided tour of the jail, and there is a small gift shop there to buy some Gonnies souvenirs.
Peter Iredale Shipwreck
The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran offshore in 1906. For over 100 years it has sat on the shore deteriorating to the point of it being a rusted shell. It’s a popular tourist attraction on a soft sand beach in Fort Steven’s State Park close to Astoria. At low tide, you can walk right up to it.
Day 2: Seaside and Cannon Beach
The morning of Day 2 was spent walking down Seaside’s famous Broadway Street. It was cloudy and raining, but luckily we planned for the rain and had umbrellas and waterproof shoes.
Seaside, Oregon Broadway Street
We walked straight from our hotel to Broadway Street, which was just the next street over. Broadway Street has lots of cute little shops and restaurants. It extends across the Necanicum River all the way down to the beach. At the end of the street, there are steps that go down to the sand. We popped in and out of the cutest shops and walked the entire length down to the beach and then decided to head back.
Finn’s Fish House
For Lunch, we went to Finn’s Fish House for fish tacos. It’s right on Broadway so it’s easy to find. We ate outside on their expansive patio because the rain had cleared up and the sun was out! It was a nice and relaxing setting and the food was so good!
Cannon Beach
After our lunch, we got in the car and headed to Cannon Beach. Only a 15 minute drive from Seaside. we found free parking behind the library and headed straight to the beach. We walked along the beach in the water down Haystack Rock. Cannon Beach is really flat (It’s the beach that is in “The Goonies” where they are driving down it in the black jeep!) and there are lots of sand bars that make playing in the water a lot of fun for kids.
There was also a watering hole where a bunch of pelicans had come to chill. It was so wild how many pelicans we saw on this trip! I could watch them for hours.
Ecola State Park
After our walk on the beach, we wanted to see another Gonnies spot, so we looked up Ecola State Park and drove to the viewpoint. After parking there’s a walkway to the point where you can take a look over Cannon Beach and the “Bird Rocks”.
Day 3: Tillamook and Tunnel Beach
After breakfast on day 3, we hit the road on our Oregon Coast Road Trip down to Tillamook. The coastal road is so beautiful with lots of places to stop and take pictures and see the incredible views.
The Three Graces
We stopped once on our way down the coast and then again on our way back up to Seaside. I highly recommend stopping at the scenic lookouts! Our first stop was at The Three Graces where there were lots of rock outcroppings in the ocean and hundreds of Pelicans were on the rocks! It was really cool to see so many of them in one spot.
Neahkahnie South Viewpoint
The other stop we made was on our way back when the fog had lifted and it was nice and sunny. This spot is called Neahkahnie South Viewpoint. We Stopped here and spent quite a bit of time taking in the views. There’s a sidewalk that you can walk down to get different viewpoints. The site is unreal, and I would highly recommend stopping here!
Tillamook Cheese Factory
One of the highlights of our Oregon Coast Road Trip was taking a tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory! You can take a self-guided tour or pay to get a tour guide to take you around. We opted for self-guided, and just took our time and walked around. You can see all of the mechanics and read tons of information about how they make cheese and the aging process, and then you can see them packaging the cheese for shipment to stores. It’s a very cool process, and at the end, you get to sample some of their cheese.
If you’re hungry and have some time, the Tillamook cheese factory has a small restaurant where they have fried cheese curds and pizza. They also have ice cream! We opted not to get either because the lines were SO LONG!
There is also a huge gift shop where they have everything from cheese and ice cream to tee shirts and socks! We got a few things at the gift shop and then headed out to our next stop.
Tunnel Beach
This beach is about a 20-minute drive from the Tillamook Cheese Factory. At high tide, the only way to get to Tunnel Beach is, through a tunnel! A man-carved tunnel in a huge rock leads the way to a gorgeous beach with tide pools and super amazing caves!
The tide pools have some cool sea life with Starfish, crabs, and Anenomes.
After Tunnel Beach, we started to head back to Seaside and found a cute food truck lot with about 5 different food trucks. We stopped and ate lunch there and it was great! Lots of choices with picnic tables to sit at. Then our Oregon Coast Road Trip was basically finished.
I hope this Oregon Coast Road Trip itinerary was helpful for your next adventure! We absolutely loved it and will be back again! Next time we will go further south to explore more of what the Oregon coast has to offer!
Here are some other travel blogs you may find helpful:
A First Timer’s Guide to 3 Days in Charleston
The Best 5 day New England Itinerary
10 things to know about Secrets Moxche in Playa Del Carmen
The Ultimate Europe Packing Guide- Everything you need
How To Pack A Hat In A Suitcase + More Hat Travel Tips
xx,
Lauren
