At a Glance: Harbor town with history & a good food and beer scene
Driving to Astoria from Portland: 98 miles / 1 hour 50 minutes
This quaint seaside town on the very northern edge of the Oregon coast has a special, unpretentious kind of charm. We’ve heard people describe it as a “small San Francisco”. Now, I think that’s quite a stretch in many ways, but I can understand the comparison.
Both are harbor towns with a strong tie to fishing. Both have hills and green space… but Astoria lacks San Francisco’s diversity, lively nightlife, and well, culture.
If you prefer your coastal towns a bit more sleepy and with some faint eighties vibes mixed in for good measure, Astoria has an undeniable allure that we think you’ll dig.
With a pretty decent food and brewery scene, as well as lots of things to do, Astoria makes a great first stop on your Oregon coast road trip (especially if you’re coming from Portland, as it’s not a long drive).
The town of Astoria has a few different “layers”:
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Waterfront: There’s the gritty harbor town feel when you’re near the ocean.
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Main Street: Just a few blocks up from the water, the main drag feels a bit stuck in time, but not in a bad way.
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Duane Street: We got a few more streets up from the main street and found an area that actually felt a bit more lively, and for lack of better word, cute. This is the town’s historic district, and in addition to some cool breweries and shops, you’ll find some of the city’s most beautiful architecture.
Astoria’s Interesting History
While you might know Astoria as the filming location of eighties classic The Goonies, the town has a history that spans far before the 1980’s and carries more weight than the Truffle Shuffle…
Did you know that John Jacob Astor (the first multi-millionaire in the United States) had big plans for developing the land at the mouth of the Colombia River? His vision was to create a city on the same scale as NYC, using the river for trading.
Astor funded one team of explorers to travel overland and one team to travel by sea, with the intention of beginning a settlement. Problems arose and, in short, the city of Astor’s imagination was never built. (Can you imagine if it had been?!) While present day Astoria is a far cry from what Astor had envisioned centuries ago, it was the first settlement on the West Coast. And it still retains part of his name, paying homage to his dream for the region.
Psst! If you’re a history buff, we’d highly recommend reading Peter’ Stark’s Astoria. The true adventure tale is complied from journals of some of the first explorers moving overland with the goal of settling what is now modern-day Astoria. The book can be slow and dry at times, but it gives you a deep dive into what went into exploring the West Coast…
Things to do in Astoria:
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