US West Coast in August - recommendations?

[Tolalola]

My stepfather is dying to get all of us DCs, stepchildren and GCs on a family holiday this summer and has picked Oregon. (His DS and DGs live in Vancouver). He is thinking about booking us somewhere for a week in Newport, Oregon. Anyone have info about things to do/places to see in this area?

Also, since it is a v. long way for us to travel, my DP and I and DS (2) are thinking about adding a week or 10 days onto the trip and exploring the area a bit. Maybe either fly into LA or San Francisco and RV up the coast or head across to Washington/Montana? Anyone have any opinons or recommendations?

My sister has lived in Portland, Oregon for the past 10 years and she loves it. I've been twice. Portland is a fantastic city, very easy to get around on their tram network and is very cosmopolitan. There's plenty to see/do here and lots of good places to eat. The trip to Mount St. Helens is very worthwhile. Also going up the Columbia River gorge is good. It's an hour's drive to the coast with lots of lovely beaches for walks. Don't go to Timberline Lodge (where they filmed 'The Shining') as its a bit of a tourist trap. Seattle is three hours drive away from Portland. A trip to the 'Space Needle' would be a good thing to do with the kids. Have a good time!

Oooh thanks Effjay! That's really helpful. Didn't realise Seattle was so (relatively)close.

www.discovernewport.com

You may find the above website helpful.

Would actually consider flying into Seattle (BA fly direct into Seattle) rather than LA or SF as these are much further south as well as being in a different state. Also some companies would charge a lot more for leaving the RV in another state. Seattle as well is a very nice city to visit.

Thanks for the website, Atilla. Of course you're right about a car/RV costing more to leave elsewhere - hadn't really factored that in... If we do decide to hire one, we'll have to organise to collect and leave it in one place, probably Portland. We're flying from the Caribbean, not from the UK, but we can fly into Portland from Dallas or into somewhere from Miami.

Don't know if this is also helpful, but San Franscisco is about 12 hours drive from Portland and I think LA is about the same again from San Franscisco. In America, the distances are huge!

eek thanks for the info effjay. In that case, realistically we'd need to take several days to do each leg of a journey like that with our manic active LO. Will factor that into the plans...

I live in Portland, and have for my whole life. If you want to CAT me, I could talk to you more in depth. Really, the Oregon Coast is beautiful, but while there are some fun things to do in the Newport/Lincoln City area, you run out of things to do in a few days.

Wow thank you so much dooneygirl - what a kind offer!

Will watch this thread with interest as we're planning a trip to Oregon and San Francisco in the summer too.

You're also welcome to contact me, Fibonacci. I can't tell you much about San Fransisco (except to call every single place you want to visit there to make sure they're open, because even if they say they are on their website, so many of them are just randomly closed for the day for some reason or another) I would be happy to talk to you about Oregon.

Can I join in? We're going in the summer holidays too, flying in/out of Seattle and visiting friends in Portland. DH has been several times, but it will be my and the DC's first visit.
I have a huge list of places to visit, which will need whittling down. Have bought a couple of good guide books covering Washington, Oregon, and (as it's often called)the Pacific North West.