Before every arrival we send a short note, and over the years it's gotten more useful and less formal. These are our Oregon vacation rental tips from hosts who actually stay in these homes, with friends and family and a dog, in every kind of weather. None of it is complicated. It's the stuff that separates a good trip from one where you spent the first afternoon driving back to town for something you forgot.
Read the weather for the place, not the region
Oregon's weather is local. Portland's forecast tells you nothing about Government Camp, and Lincoln City's tells you very little about the fog sitting on Neskowin at two in the afternoon. Check the forecast for the actual town, and on the coast, check the wind; a sunny day with a 25-knot north wind is a jacket day. Pack layers rather than outfits. On the coast in summer, mornings are often grey and it clears by noon, so don't judge the day from the first hour. In the mountains, the temperature can swing thirty degrees between the trailhead and the porch after dark. A rain shell, a wool layer and something warm for your feet cover almost every situation from March through November.
On the coast, live by the tide table
This one matters more than anything else we send. The beaches at Neskowin and Manzanita change completely with the tide. At low tide, Neskowin's ghost forest, the stumps of an ancient forest, shows up in the sand in front of Proposal Rock, and the tide pools open at the rocky ends of both beaches. At high tide, a lot of that is underwater and the walkable beach narrows. Look up the tide table for the day and plan your walk around the low. Never turn your back on the ocean, and keep an eye on kids and dogs near the surf; sneaker waves are real here. Storm season, roughly November through February, is spectacular from a warm room and worth a trip on its own; it's not a beach-walking season so much as a wood-stove-and-window season.
In the mountains, carry chains and buy the permit
From November through April, Highway 26 up to the mountain regularly requires chains or traction tires above Rhododendron, and the sno-parks require a permit to park. Buy the permit at the grocery in Welches, carry the chains even if you have all-wheel drive, and check TripCheck the morning you leave. In summer, none of that applies, but the popular trailheads fill early on weekends, so if Trillium Lake is on the list, be there before nine. Cell service thins out past Welches; download your maps. And the rivers stay cold all summer, which is the point.
Shop before you arrive
Neskowin has a small market and that's it; stock up in Lincoln City or Pacific City on the way in. Manzanita has a good little grocery on Laneda that covers most things, but for a big group dinner we shop in Tillamook or before we leave home. Welches has a proper grocery and it's the last one before the mountain. Eugene has everything, including a bakery at the end of the trail behind the Eugene House. All the homes have real kitchens and enough cookware to make a real dinner; what they don't have is the specific coffee you like, so bring that.
The hot tub, the stove and the dog
Every hot tub works better if you rinse off first and close the lid when you're done; it keeps the water clean and warm for the next person and the next night. The wood stoves at the Weekender and at Wildwood Basecamp are simple, and we leave instructions and dry wood, but the short version is small kindling, patience and an open damper until it's roaring. We travel with our dog, and the homes that welcome dogs are set up for it, with fenced yards or fenced acreage and towels by the door for wet paws. Keep them off the furniture and out of the hot tub, and everyone stays happy. A couple of the homes have occupancy limits set by the town; Puffin Lane in Manzanita is seven people total on the property at any time, and that's a permit rule, not a preference.
Leave time for nothing
Our last and probably most useful piece of advice. People arrive with a list, and the trips that go best are the ones where the list gets abandoned by the second afternoon. Read on the porch. Walk the beach twice. Put a record on and let the fog come in. The homes are designed for that part, and it's the part guests write to us about later.
If anything comes up before or during your stay, call or email; we're around seven days a week, eight to eight-thirty, and we'd rather hear about a question than have you guess. Everything we have is on our rentals page, and the area notes at our guides go deeper on each town.