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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Vising Bend/Willamette Valley/Portland - Need advice, please!
DH and I are talking about taking a trip to Oregon this June/July. My aunt & uncle live in Bend, so we will certainly be staying there for a few days. A few questions for you:
-Is June a good time to go (weather, activity-wise), or would you suggest we go early July (around the 4th)?
-How many days do you think we would need in Willamette Valley to do a few wine tastings & enjoy the area? Where is a good place to stay (B&B?) Any must go to wineries?
-Same for Portland - is one day enough? And what kinds of things could we do there? Any suggestion of a reasonably priced place to stay? Any brewery suggestions to check out?
-Any other suggestions/tips for our trip there?
Thanks in advance!!!
Re: Vising Bend/Willamette Valley/Portland - Need advice, please!
How long is your trip going to be? I would stay in Portland for 2-3 days, it's a really fun city. You could even drive from Portland to the Columbia River gorge to go sightseeing for a day and see the beautiful waterfalls and such.
For wine tasting I'd go to the Newberg / Dundee area. I don't have much experience with B&Bs in that area. The only one I know is called MaMere's. My parents stayed there last year after I scored a Groupon for them. It's close to Salem and they had a great time. There are also wine tours out of Portland you can take, so you get driven around in a limo or bus. Perfect for tasting wine and not having to worry about driving.
Check out Visit Portland for more tourist information.
My amateur photo blog
Crater Lake is by far the prettiest thing in Oregon in my opinion, but in June you still run the risk of the rim drive not being open due to snow, especially with the late season storms we are getting. If the rim drive isn't open, it's not worth going.
Bend has some good natural areas including Three Sisters mountains, Smith Rock.
If you are set on wine tasting, I would hit up Newberg/Dundee but stay in Portland and spend time there as well. 1 day is not enough for Portland in my opinion.
I personally would go in early July. June can be unpredictable, although late June is usually very nice.
The number of days in wine country and Portland totally depends on what you want from your trip.
If you want to do a proper wine tasting, then you'll need a whole day. It takes a surprising amount of time and surprisingly exhausting. Do an organized tour so that someone else is driving because you?ll get drunk and lost. Like pp said, you want Newberg/Dundee. On your way, drive up HWY 99W (for the view/route) and stop at Left Coast.
As for Portland: If you mainly wanted to get brunch, walk the waterfront, see downtown, and go out to eat, then one day is fine. I would suggest making it a Saturday or Sunday so that you can go to the Saturday Market, a large craft fair. If you want to see more of Portland, get lost in Powell?s Books, hike forest park, pick strawberries on Sauvie Island, then you'll need a couple of days. For a place to stay, check out Kennedy School. If you want to be downtown, then book early and check TravelPortland.com for deals. As for breweries: Rogue, Bridgeport, or Deschutes are the major downtown spots. For a smaller place, there?s Amnesia, Laurelwood, and Hopworks.
I agree with pp that you should really see the natural areas of Oregon. Go to the coast. See Crater Lake. Drive the old scenic highway to Vista House and Multnomah Falls.
Thank you all for the feedback so far - this is very useful!
Our initial plan is 3 - 4 days in Bend & a trip to Crater Lake. Then up to Willamette/Portland for 3 days. We were originally going to spend 2 nights in Willamette, but now I am thinking 1 night might be enough & then spend an extra night in Portland. We will have a rental car, so we'll definitely plan for hitting some places outside the cities.
I've spent a little time on the VisitPortland site & plan to look through it more.
Are there any specific must visit wineries? And what about restaurants in Portland?
Thanks, again!!
When you are in Bend, hit up Maragas Winery. Yum. It's easily my favorite Oregon winery.
In the Dundee area, go to the Dundee Pinot Station, you can taste a couple different vineyards there (Tori Mor and Dobbes Family Estates/Wine by Joe). We are also big fans of Erath, in Rickreall, but it's another 45 min to an hour south of Dundee.
When we have OOT guests we usually do a day trip where we drive from Portland up the old Columbia highway, stopping at Vista House and various waterfalls along the way. We also stop at Multnomah Falls, of course. Then we cut over to Timberline Lodge and look around there for a while (our OOT guests are from Indiana, they've never seen a real waterfall or a real mountain before). Then we take the main highway home, driving through the gorge. It's a long day, but so beautiful.