Oregon
Hotels, destinations, activities and restaurants in Oregon that offer kid-friendly deals, family packages and children's options.
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Cannon Beach Guide: Family-friendly picks
Oh, the Oregon Coast — golden beaches, great food, and thriving coastal communities full of art galleries and cool toystores and bookstores. Enjoy a misty morning tidepooling adventure with a hot coffee in hand. Or recline in a beach chair with a new book — while the kids create turreted castles from crystals of warm sand. Your choice. One of my favorite destinations along the Oregon Coast is Cannon Beach, only about an hour west of Portland. Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock offers probably one of the most-photographed scenes in Oregon: Sundown, when the skies turn impossible shades of pink and purple, and the sun sinks behind the basalt monolith. Keep…
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High Desert, Kid Friendly: Bend, Oregon
Have you been around the Bend? Bend, Oregon’s warm, dry air is the perfect prescription for rain-inflicted doldrums. As a kid, I loved going to Bend and rubbing scented sagebrush between my fingers, riding bikes along flat (flat! really!) paths and hiking the twisted trails by the Deschutes River. So why don’t we ask a local family for their favorite Bend locales? Bend resident Sarah Laufer and husband Justin met while they were both guiding whitewater rafting trips in Colorado. They soon moved to Bend, where they’ve been raising their two kids, 5-year-old daughter Chloe and 3-year-old son Avery. Sarah’s also the co-founder of PlayOutdoors.com, an online store specializing in…
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7 Don’t-Miss Oregon & Washington National Parks for Kids
Desert sands, old-growth forests, mountain glaciers, spooky caves, dino bones and pig wars. There, I’ve summed up the National Parks for you — but your kids need to see these sights for themselves. Here are seven don’t-miss National Parks in Washington and Oregon, in honor of National Park Week. Can you visit all the parks by the time your offspring turn 18? John Day Fossil Beds (Oregon). Can you imagine dry Eastern Oregon covered with rainforest? It was in prehistoric times. Three separate land areas – or “units†as the NPS calls them – make up the John Day Fossil Beds, a window into the past. Dino bones are still…
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Free and Cheap Portland Museums, Zoos and Attractions
Make your trip to Portland even cheaper! Portland’s a good deal already, with all those kid-friendly, affordable restaurants. But the Rose City knows that traveling and local families can’t always spend $50 bucks on admission — even if it is a really cool museum. Here’s a whole month full of discounts, so you can visit Portland attractions for free, cheap and a little less. Free museums and cheap museums in Portland, Oregon: OMSI: Admission is $2 on the first Sunday of the month; kids 2 and under are always free. World Forestry Center: Admission is $2 on the first Wednesday of the month; children 2 and under are always free. 3D Center…
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Families Travel: Oregon Coast’s Astoria with Kids
Last year, in August 2009, Seattle-based photographer Alex Nguyen and her husband took their two boys (then 1 years and 4 years old) to Astoria, Ore. Here’s what they enjoyed about this oceanside city founded back in 1810 – shortly after Lewis and Clark spent a winter at the nearby Fort Clatsop. All photos are provided by Alex — and were taken by her as well. Q. Was Astoria, Oregon very family-friendly? Overall the town of Astoria was very kid-friendly. It was walkable, there were some great hikes just a short drive away (we ended up driving back across the Washington for some hikes), and there was a cute children’s museum in…