Freezing on the Beach

The very best thing to do on the beach in Oregon is look at tide pools. If you go out at low tide, you can see where the ocean has left little pools of water. These are full of starfish, crabs, mollusks, and sea anemones. Kids (and adults too!) have a great time gently poking the anemones to watch them curl up.

The ocean water is really cold, but it's fun to roll up your pants (no shorts or swimsuits at the Oregon beach!) and dip your feet in. There are some places along the coast where you can rent wetsuits, and that's the only way to really get in the water.

Oregon beaches are entirely public land, so you can wander up and down the coast as much as you want. You'll see lots of other people out walking dogs and flying kites.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Having a car is really the best way to get around. Bandon is pretty small, so when you're downtown you can park and walk everywhere, but most of the hotels are on the edge of town. Plus, you'd need a car to drive to the different beach access places, if you're interested in more than the part right outside your hotel.

While Sunset Hotel may not be the most luxurious or the cheapest, it's a nice middle of the road accomodation. The reason we stay here every time we come to Bandon, though, is because of their beach access right onto the best part of the shore!

The rooms are fairly small--just a couple beds, a tiny kitchen, a bathroom, and a TV. The kitchen is good for making a little breakfast or heating something up. It has a little fridge, stovetop burner, and a toaster. There are also plates and utensils provided, which is nice. The bathroom comes with a full bathtub instead of just a shower, which is great, because I love being able to soak off all that salt and sand!

The beach is down a long flight of stairs, since the hotel is up on a bluff overlooking the beach. Even though I'm young and consider myself to be in fairly good shape, I had to take a couple breaks when I'd come up and down the steps. There's nothing to be embarrassed about! It's expected, and there are benches provided on the landings for people to take a break at and chat with the other hotel guests.

Even though the ocean's too cold to swim in, don't forget to pack your swimsuit! Sunset Hotel has a pretty nice indoor pool, which is kept nice and clean and is usually pretty quiet too.

On Main Street driving into town you'll see a big brown building, usually with a large group of people out front eating ice cream. This is the cheese factory. Along with ice-cream cones and root-beer floats, you can go through the store and sample little cubes of all their different kinds of cheeses. It's fun and yummy. It gives you a chance to try different types of cheese when you may not want to go and buy a whole block of it. It's fun and a good way to spend half an hour or so, but not much more than that. It's a good indoor activity for those rainy mornings, and a little different than just trinket shopping.

Face Rock is the most famous feature of the beach at Bandon. There's a Native American story about the rock that says it's the face of a chief's daughter who drowned in the ocean. It's a huge rock that is easily recognizable as a face (as opposed to the rocks around it, which are supposed to be a howling dog and kittens). It's too far out to climb onto, even during low tide, but there are other large rocks around that are more accessible.