Oregon Highlights

Start exploring Portland, Oregon’s largest city, home to many microbreweries and overlooked by the looming peak of Mount Hood. It’s also home to a number of diverse neighbourhoods, including the Pearl District, filled with the latest arts and fashion. While you’re here explore Portland’s most delicious home-made food and drink. Taste your way through chocolate, coffee, charcuterie, tea, sea salts, honey and craft spirits, so come hungry (and thirsty!).

4* Royal Sonesta Portland Downtown

Set off for Astoria, named after John Jacob Astor. Set between the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, Astoria has an old-fashioned flavour here, apparent in the Victorian architecture. Start your orientation at the Astoria Column, 125 feet tall and offering fantastic panoramic views over town. Afterwards, take a look around the Fort Clatsop National Memorial, the site where the Lewis and Clark Expedition stayed between 1805 and 1806, and check out the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

3* Hotel Elliott

Your next stop is Tillamook, known mostly for its cheese, which has been made here since 1890. Be sure to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where you can learn all about the cheese making process and of course sample various cheeses (and ice cream!) too. It’s not all about the dairy products through; Tillamook also has a diverting Air Museum housed in a World War II military hangar as well as the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, which tells the history of the North Oregon coast.

3* Three Arch Inn

Continue on to Florence, most famous for its Sea Lion Caves, the world’s largest sea cave. Inside the cave, you’ll find many wild sea lions and birds clambering over the rocks. Also nearby is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, a place for dune buggying, sand boarding or ATV riding among towering sand dunes. Back in town, take a wander along the pretty waterfront and explore the delightful harbour, where there are plenty of tempting restaurants to try too.

3* Best Western Pier Point Inn

At the southern end of Oregon’s Rogue Valley, Ashland is just a few minutes’ drive from the border with California, and shares its sunny climate. The city is best known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which takes place from February to November and shows a rotating repertoire of plays. It’s very popular, so do book your tickets in advance. When not immersing yourself in Shakespeare, head to Lithia Park for pretty riverside walks or spend a half or a full day getting wet and wild among the rapids of the Rogue and Upper Klathman Rivers.

4* Lithia Springs Resort

Set off for the impressive Crater Lake National Park, home the bright blue waters of Crater Lake, encircled by cliffs. This is the seventh deepest lake in the world and best appreciated via the 33-mile Rim Drive, which offers plenty of photo opportunities. Later, continue on to Sunriver, an outdoorsy place offering a range of activities from white water rafting to fishing, biking and hiking, with skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling in winter.

4* Sunriver Resort

You last stop is Mount Hood, the highest mountain in Oregon and home to many an outdoor adventure. Spend your time exploring Trilium Lake, or the Mount Hood National forest, or sign up for skiing and snowboarding on the mountain itself. In summer you could try the fun-filled Alpine Slide, or perhaps follow some of the excellent Pacific Crest Trail hike (which leads all the way to Mexico – although you won’t be going that far!).

4* BW Premier Collection Mt Hood Oregon Resort