Last week, my family and I went to the Oregon Coast and it was truly one of those family vacations we will never forget. There were so many elements that just worked out well, so I thought I would share them with you today in the event you may be planning a trip to the coast.
Below I am sharing my top 15 tips for making your trip an enjoyable one!
1. Location location location. We stayed RIGHT on the beach and I now can not imagine it any other way. It was so nice to be able to walk down the little path from our house to the beach at any moment, and our kids appreciated it, too. In fact, there were several times the adults stayed up by the house overlooking the ocean while the kids went down to play, and everyone was happy. We stayed at THIS vacation rental, and it slept 14, which also included a room full of bunk beds for the kids. And the view was incredible!
2. Make sure you either bring a TON of clothes or that your house/hotel has a washer and dryer. I cannot tell you how much I loved having this. As you can see below, the kids somehow managed to go in the water in their jammies, and they loved every second of it. Being able to wash and dry wet items allowed us to continually have all the clothes we needed after they got wet, and believe me, they continually got wet.
3. Even though we were there in July, the majority of the time we were in shorts and a long-sleeve or zippie of some sort. So, bring layers. The evenings get cool and you will want to bundle up.
4. Having a hot tub at the house was a bonus. When the littles would come in from the cold water, they really enjoyed warming up in the hot tub. Some of us even enjoyed it, too, while watching the sunset at night.
5. Okay, okay, this one is a little lame, but having a huge couch like this was really nice! There were a few times we were all squeezed in on this to watch a movie or to just chat, and it was fun having a large central location to hang out in.
6. Go out looking for sealife! THIS WAS MY FAVORITE THING WE DID on the entire trip. If you can get out on the beach around 7-8 am, you’re set. Once about 10:00 am rolled around, the tide started to come in and we weren’t able to see as much. By 11-12, everything was mostly covered up. Look for the giant rocks covered in clams, starfish, sea anemones, and you will be sure to find much more if you look close.
I was absolutely fascinated by all of this and could have spent hours exploring it all.
7. Bring little nets and buckets like the ones pictured below for the kids. They were amazing for catching crawdads, crabs, or anything just out of reach and for bringing treasures back to the house with.
8. And if you look closely near the rocks where all the sea life is, you are sure to see some crabs! They may not be noticeable at first, but if you poke your nets in around the seaweed in the little pools of water they will likely be hiding against the rocks. We saw at least one every time we went looking, and the kids just thought this was the best thing.
9. Bring water shoes. When out exploring, the rocks can get slippery and water shoes allow you to check everything out without the worry of falling.
10. Bring kites or a little extra spending money to buy one in town. There is usually a little breeze going at all times which makes for the perfect kite-flying weather.
11. Check online before you go for any events that might be happening while in town. Since we were there for the fourth of July the little town about 10 minutes away from us was having a parade, so we brought some gear and enjoyed that.
12. Bring games! I know this one seems obvious, but it’s nice to have some games to play during any downtime, or even on the beach. We played Catch Phrase around the campfire two of the nights we were there. PS- Can you tell what game we were playing below? And if so, can you see the exciting thing in my hand?!
13. Treasure hunting- Bring a couple of Ziplock bags for any treasures you might find while out hunting. We saw several people out searching for things on the beach, so I stopped to ask two people what they were hunting for, and I learned all about these agate rocks. People like to collect these to put in jars in their homes, or to make jewelry out of. Agates are clear rocks that when held up to the sun they are see-through, so my husband and I had fun collecting these on a few occasions.
14. If traveling with a larger family or friends, trade off making the meals! We each took a day planning and making the breakfast and dinner for everyone (with lunches being simple- sammies or leftovers) and it was the best I have eaten in a long time!
15. Now I hope I don’t get in trouble for this one, but there are signs around stating you can’t have fire or fireworks on the beach. Well, there were fires and fireworks EVERYWHERE. So, we followed suit and having a fire by the ocean was so nice.
I hope this list helps you plan your vacation. These were the top little tidbits I took away from our trip and things I would be sure to do or look for again.
As always, thank you for stopping by!
<3 Shannon
