Travel Dates: September 2022
Hotel:
Best Western Inn at Face Rock – selecting a hotel along the coast is dependent on your itinerary and how long you’re willing to drive. We chose this hotel expecting to spend most of the day in Brookings, and needed somewhere to stay before the 5 hour drive up to Cannon. We upgraded to a suite because we wanted a kitchen to cook fresh seafood we had bought from a local market. The hotel was decent for the price–it was near the beach and they provided complementary breakfast. If you don’t mind driving a little further, I’d recommend staying in Coos Bay because it’s a larger town, and will provide more options for food and lodging.
Hallmark Resort & Spa Cannon Beach – although the rooms were a bit small, the hotel is right behind Haystack Rock (the highlight of Cannon Beach), making it worthwhile. Some of the great amenities of the hotel include: in-room gas fireplace, complementary cookies, bike rentals, beach blankets and chairs. The latter were perfect to use at night on the beach, where you can do a small bonfire and s’mores. The hotel sells all the materials for the beach fire for $8, and if you add the s’mores kit, it’s $25 for everything. We definitely recommend the fire pit experience on the beach; it made our stay very memorable.
Food:
Tillamook Creamery – on the way from Bandon to Cannon Beach, we stopped at this cheese factory where you can do a free self guided tour and buy their cheeses, food, or ice cream. We got there near closing time so we only had the chance to buy their ice cream, which was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend you make this quick stop, and it’s also great as a bathroom break too.
Activities:
Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint is another one of Oregon’s overlook of the coast and beach with rock formations–it’s a nice stop if you have the time.
Steve’s ATV Rentals was a last minute add-on for our trip. Oregon has a lot of sand dunes on the coast, so we decided to check one out at Steve’s ATV Rentals in North Bend. You can rent single or double ATVs or UTVs by the hour. And if your hotel has tourist brochures, see if they have one for Steve’s and you can save $5 off (we got one at Best Western).
There’s a 15 minute safety video briefing, then they give you a helmet along with a map, and show you were you can drive/what areas to avoid. Essentially, there are two areas you can drive in: the sand dunes or a trail to the beach. We had one hour with an UTV and were able to cover both, but it does depend on how much time you want to spend in each area.
The sand dune area is spacious with many hills of various sizes, and because it’s vast, the map wasn’t too helpful since there aren’t many distinguishable “landmarks” to know where you are. For the beach trail, there are some signs/posts along the way that points to the direction of the beach, so in my opinion, this was easier to navigate and drive through.
Overall I’d recommend Steve’s ATV if you’re looking for something more adventurous. We didn’t book this in advance and just did a walk-in, granted it was during the week so it was a bit quiet. One thing to note is that it does get very windy so a light jacket is recommended.
Cannon Beach is one of the most well known beaches in Oregon, especially for its famous towering Haystack Rock. As with the other beaches and coastal overlooks throughout the state, it’s a beautiful and quick stop. And if you stay at Hallmark Resort, you have direct access to it.
Ecola State Park offers more scenic hiking trails along the coast and viewpoints of the beach. We didn’t have the opportunity to explore much of this park except the quick overlooks which were similar to the ones we saw throughout the trip. If you do come here, I would recommend looking into the hikes.
There is a parking fee (you pay at the kiosk in the parking lot) although it didn’t seem like many people were following the honor system.
Globe Trotter 