cap218

Planning to fly into Portland for a few days and then head to the coast. Traveling with young kids and teen. Thinking Lincoln City for diversity in activities (beach, hikes, lake). Considering another stop to see as much as we can. Suggestions? Mt Hood area worth a two day stop? Also trying to keep driving to a minimum..

tomfuller

Welcome to Fodor's! What month are you planning on coming to Oregon? How many days do you have to see Oregon? I've lived in Oregon for over 15 years and still haven't seen it all.
My suggested route after landing at PDX would be to go east on I-84 with a stop at Multnomah Falls. It has a left exit for a parking lot in the median. There is a pedestrian walkway under the eastbound lanes to get over to the base of the falls. Leaving Multnomah Falls continue east to the town of Hood River. Kite surfing on the Columbia River is popular there. Explore Mt. Hood from there. Leave Hood River on Rt. 35 on the east side of Mt. Hood to US 26. Take US 26 west all the way to US 101. There are several good choices for places to stay on the coast. Among them I like Cannon Beach, Seaside and Astoria.
What is your draw to Lincoln City? A couple of the attractions kids like are the Evergreen Air and Space Museum near McMinnville and the Oregon Coast Aquarium just south of Newport.
The Evergreen has the Spruce Goose in the larger building. If it should rain during your trip, a good place to check out is Powell's World of Books in downtown Portland.

Fodorite018

When is this trip? That will make a difference.

Overall I agree with Tom, but I would get off of I-84 at the Corbett exit (#22) and go up the hill and take a left onto the old scenic highway. This way you can see the views from the Portland Woman's Forum which looks down onto Crown Point Vista House, then continue on to the Vista House itself then on to Multnomah Falls. You can stop along the way at various points of interest until you get back onto 84 heading towards Hood River. Timberline Lodge is interesting, but right now with Covid it is only open to people staying overnight. If you are coming from an area without mountains, you might still want to go up and even outside of the lodge itself, you are free to play in the snow.

Multnomah and Clackamas counties (Portland and east of there a bit) have been turned back to the high risk category for Covid, so things are only open at 25%, FYI.

Born and raised in Oregon, our family favorite was Cannon Beach, and we carried that on with our own kids. The only issue is that it is very popular (along with Seaside and Astoria) so many places in this area require 2-3 night minimums during high season, so that may affect your plans as well. I would book whatever coast lodging asap, regardless of where you are thinking. Lincoln City is fine, but that isn't much right there so most people stay in Newport which is close by and has more attractions such as several light houses, the bay front etc.

AustinTraveler

If you do stay in Cannon Beach, be sure not to miss eating at Cannon Beach Hardware. Quite possibly the best fried fish sandwich and onion rings I've ever had. And yes, it really is a hardware store.