Archive for the 'Oregon' Category
Before Winter Olympics, travel to Vancouver via 25%-off Amtrak
November 20, 2009 5:57am
If you’re heading to Vancouver, B.C. for the 2010 Olympic Games, you’ve probably (hopefully) got your travel plans in place. But if you’d prefer a quieter visit, get there well before Feb. 12, which is when the Games begin and crowds descend.
Amtrak’s Cascades service provides an especially enjoyable means for pre-Olympics travelers to reach this “freewheeling and offbeat” destination. Direct services link Portland, Ore., and Seattle — among other places — to Vancouver, but the discounts currently on offer for the route may provide Southern California travelers incentive to craft together a trip too.
Deal: Amtrak is offering 25% off coach fares for Cascades passengers traveling between now and Jan. 31, 2010. You must book by Dec. 31, 2009. Discounted one-way fares from Portland are as low as $34.50 total per person; the trip takes about eight hours. I easily found availability on certain dates at this price. Read the rest of this entry »
JetBlue 1-day sale: $24 to $49 one-way fares from Long Beach (LGB)
October 15, 2009 6:20am
If you thought Wednesday’s $44 airfare sale wasn’t cheap enough, you weren’t alone. Apparently, JetBlue also thought that was hardly impressive. The JetBlue Sample Sale has fares as low as $24 one way, pre-tax. Even better, of the seven flights on sale from Long Beach, none of the fares are over $49 each way. So, what will it be, a quickie getaway to San Francisco for $29 each way, or how about Seattle for $10 more?
Starting fares in the JetBlue Sample Sale from Long Beach, CA (LGB) :
$29 to Oakland, CA (OAK)
$49 to Portland, OR (PDX)
$39 to Sacramento (SMF)
$49 to Salt Lake City, UT (SLC)
$39 to Seattle, WA (SEA)
$29 to San Francisco, CA (SFO)
$24 to San Jose, CA (SJC)
When: Book by 10:59 p.m. Oct. 15 for travel between Oct. 22 and Dec. 16 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
For Pinot, go to Willamette Valley, one of North America’s best wine regions
October 12, 2009 1:02pm
It being harvest season, good wine has been on the minds of many of us. If you’re thinking about a real wine-tasting getaway, you’ve probably already considered Napa Valley and Sonoma, popular spots that rank No. 1 and 2, respectively, on TripAdvisor.com’s recent list of top 10 wine destinations in North America.
But for something more adventurous, head farther north, to Oregon’s wine country. Willamette Valley, which ranks No. 3 on the list released by the user-generated-review site, boasts the largest concentration of wineries and vineyards in the state, according to the Oregon Wine Board.
The 150-mile-long valley, sitting between the coastal mountain range and the Cascades, is “a lush rural area” with a “gently curvaceous landscape shaped by volcanic events, then polished by abundant Pacific moisture,” said writer Patrick Comiskey in his article “Oregon’s lush Willamette Valley offers a vintners’ bounty.”
In the region’s 200 or so wineries, many of them small, you can sample wines produced from cool-grape varieties. And if you’re a fan of Pinot Noir? Read the rest of this entry »
Super-cheap hotels: TripAdvisor lists top 10 under $19
September 18, 2009 12:36pm
Remember when the Rancho Bernardo Inn got all the attention for its $19 “Survivor Package” in San Diego? The resort was dropping its room rates based on what kind of amenity you “didn’t need.” At the cheapest rate, you got a tent instead of a bed. It was amusing, and definitely got a bunch of buzz around its promotion. Now, TripAdvisor has put together a list of “Top 10 Hotels Under $19.” Before you start wondering which of your favorite hotel chains are considering taking away their toiletry amenities and linens, rest assured that these bargains are global treasures, not necessarily luxury resorts in Southern California.
The hotels on the list ranged from $6 per night (El Panchan in Palenque, Mexico) to the Tod Motel & Hostel in Las Vegas ($17 per night). Although it would’ve been nice to not have any hostels on the list, because many hostels offer beds for less than $19 per night, I found the list to be a good reminder for travelers to think outside the box for budget travel. I thought that the Shiva Guest House (pictured) in Kathmandu, Nepal, for $9 per night, and the Dai Hoang Kim Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, $12 per night, looked plenty comfortable for vagabonders and backpackers.
TripAdvisor always has intriguing lists for travelers. One is “2009 Dirtiest Hotels.”
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
Photo: Shiva Guest House in Kathmandu, Nepal. Credit: TripAdvisor
Alaska Air fall sale lists cheap flights to Mexico, Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Washington
September 1, 2009 8:02am
It might make for a tough decision: Head up to the Pacific Northwest before it gets too wet, or take advantage of cheap flights to Mexico. But wait — if you’ve always wanted to see Alaska in the winter, or visit friends in Montana, this could be a good time too. Alaska Air has a sale on right now with flights to Bend, Ore.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Seattle and Santa Rosa, Calif. out of Los Angeles (LAX) starting at $69 one-way, pre-tax. If you feel like skipping the drive, Mammoth Lakes is also on that list. (Remember, service to Mammoth Lakes begins Dec. 17).
Several cities in Mexico are included in the Fall Sale. Flights from Los Angeles to Mexico start at $75 for Los Cabos and cap off at $139 each way for Manzanillo. But flights to popular south of the border cities such as Puerto Vallarta start at $109 and Cancun, Mazatlan and Mexico City all start at $119 each way. Note: The low-fare calendar wasn’t working for Cancun, La Paz, Puerto Vallarta, and it made it hard to search for the cheapest fares. You might want to call if you have a tough time finding sale prices online.
September marks the shoulder season for Alaska. If you have questions about when to go to Alaska, Frommers breaks down what you can expect weather wise by seasons and months. December through March sounds like a lovely time to visit Alaska if you want to see the Aurora Borealis or try some winter outdoor activities like skiing, snowmobiling or dog sledding. But note that the Alaska Air Fall sale is only good for flights through Feb. 10.
Mexico: See monarch butterflies in their wintering grounds
August 13, 2009 9:52am
Every year, millions of monarch butterflies journey roughly 2,500 miles from Canada and the northern U.S. to central Mexico highlands, where they spend the winter around local flowers, mating and feeding.
Visiting the butterflies en masse in their wintering grounds is said to be a remarkable experience. You may get a chance to see so many butterflies at once, in fact, that “you can actually hear the beating of millions of tiny wings,” according to a trip announcement by nature-expedition operator Natural Habitat Adventures.
The travel company’s six-day “Kingdom of the Monarchs Adventure,” offered 14 times between January and March 2010, is one way to visit the butterflies in an environmentally sensitive manner while contributing to their conservation. And a recent promotion by the operator offers extra incentive to book for a couple of the tour dates.
Deal: The “2010 Economic Climate Change Stimulus Plan” offers a one-time $500 discount per person, for monarch-butterfly trips departing Jan. 10 or Jan. 18, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
Horizon Air: Why drive when you can fly to Mammoth?
August 5, 2009 9:19am
If you are still making the long five-hour or more drive to Mammoth during ski season, you might consider trying a quickie 70-minute flight this winter from LAX. Horizon Air, which had one flight a day from Los Angeles-Mammoth Lakes Yosemite airport last year, has added a second daily non-stop flight for this coming winter season. If you can plan ahead, rates start at $69 each way, pre-tax, out of Los Angeles. The big news for skiers and snowboarders all over the West Coast is that Horizon Air has also added new non-stop service from Reno ($49) and San Jose ($69), and direct one-stop service from Seattle ($149) and Portland ($144).
This year’s schedule beginning Dec. 17, 2009, through April 11, 2010:
Depart Los Angeles/Arrive Mammoth
8:40 a.m./9:50 a.m.
2:40 p.m./3:50 p.m.
The OrWa diaries, Day 7: Finish line
July 20, 2009 2:10pm
Hey, I finally connected the highway dots between California and Canada today. That is, a little after 3 p.m., I rolled into the public park at the north end of Blaine, Wash., which happens to border another country.
Nice little border crossing they have here - lots of grass (of the fescue variety), picnic benches, a man selling ice cream and a lone U. S. Border Patrol SUV sitting in the shade of a tree, waiting and waiting for action.
Weird, if you’re from Southern California. Also wonderful. And that, I figured, would be an ideal final note for this week-long road trip, and for the day, which began with a ferry ride from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island and a concession-stand lunch at Deception Pass. But we don’t really get to choose when our trips end. The trips tell us, sometimes days before the return flight is scheduled. And this trip said: “Not so fast, buddy.”
I had a night to spend in Bellingham before flying back to Los Angeles, so I invited Gil, a buddy from Seattle, to come on up and join me for dinner. Killing time, we first ran into a serious bike race, for which several downtown streets were closed. Then we wandered down to the public dock in time to see a fine sunset and a couple of local young men flinging themselves repeatedly into the sea (pictured below).
Now that I was done chasing fun, fun was coming after us.
And then we finally sat down for that dinner — in a pub resounding with the strings and whistles of an Irish folk group. Turns out they play every Sunday night at Skylark’s, in the Fairhaven area of Bellingham. And that’s where this coastal adventure came to its proper ending, at the bar, with a hunk of cod at the end of my fork, a lilting note hanging in the air.
Of course it wasn’t a comprehensive trip– neither Washington’s shoreline nor my department’s budget would allow one. But I started at the Oregon-California line, clung to the coast as closely as I could, and slept every night in a hotel or trailer or lighthouse-keeper’s home that was right on the ocean. The cheapest night was $81 (the Port Townsend room above the Grateful Dead cover band). The costliest was about $225 (the Heceta Head lighthouse B&B in Oregon). Put this trip next to my January journey from the Tijuana border to northernmost California and you get a snapshot of the West Coast, and maybe an idea for a trip of your own. More details and advice on the Oregon-Washington findings will follow soon, when I pull together a proper story for the Travel section.
And by the way, what’s all this nonsense about people needing umbrellas and raincoats in the Northwest? Seven days, something like 900 miles, maybe two dozen beaches … and not a drop of rain.
– Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times staff writer
Photos: 1. Far below the big bridge at Deception Pass, Wash., two kayakers work their way around a corner. 2. The seaside Washington-Canada border crossing, which includes a fenceless park, grassy expanses, a sculpture garden and ornamental horticulture, is remarkably like the California-Mexico border in that, um, never mind. 3. On the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island, Wash.,, a small dog braves the stiff breeze. 4. They closed off several streets for a Sunday afternoon bike race in downtown Bellingham. 5. Down at the dock in the Fairhaven area of Bellingham, some of the boys like taking flying leaps. Credit: Christopher Reynolds
The OrWa road trip diaries, Day 6: Stacked stones, bared fangs and the end of the new world
July 19, 2009 1:07pm
About now, you may be thinking, we’re due for a reference to that old Grateful Dead lyric, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” So here it is. And here’s why.
I’m sleeping tonight — well, I may not be sleeping; I may just be lying down — in a Port Townsend, Wash., hotel room, directly above the town’s leading brew pub. My room was quite affordable, about $81, and when I got here I remembered the proprietress saying something about the bar having live music sometimes.
Well, what it has is a Grateful Dead tribute band, Jack Acid. The band members have already covered “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia” and a bunch of other favorites. And it’s clear they’re far from done. Which probably means that I’m far from sleep.
So, the day. It was long — something like 250 driving miles. And because of the way 101 is routed through Washington, there’s been a lot of jogging out to the coast, jogging back to the highway, then jogging out to the coast again. But there have been rewards.
A few miles north of Kalaloch Lodge, I stepped down to Ruby Beach, the last easily reached beach before the 101 veers inland through the Hoh Rain Forest. It was filled with massive driftwood — not so surprising, given Kalaloch beach. But over the months and years, visitors had covered this driftwood with little cairns — pebbles and stones stacked everywhere, on trunks, branches, sea stacks. I’d seen cairns in plenty of other places. But this setup was otherworldly.
An old guy with a fancy camera sidled up.
“Down in San Diego, they sell flat river rocks like this for a fortune,” he said. “A friend of mine put some in his frontyard. Cost about $1,000. I don’t dare tell him he could have gotten all he wanted.”
The man wandered off, and so did I. To Forks, where popular culture is rewiring the town.
Every since writer Stephenie Meyer set a 2005 vampire novel in this small, hardscrabble lumber town (after she went looking on Google for someplace dark and wet), entranced strangers have been showing up, often teenage girls. But now that the novel has grown into a series of books, and a movie series, among other things, the vampire pilgrim phenomenon has gone out of control.
The OrWa road trip diaries, day 5: Long Beach to Kalaloch
July 18, 2009 2:09pm
Before blasting off from Seaview and Washington’s Long Beach peninsula this morning, I had time for a rib-sticking bowl of oatmeal and marionberries at Laurie’s Homested Breakfast House and another chat with my innkeepers, Len and Miriam Atkins, who don’t like any guest’s biography or psychology going unexplored.
I told them what I was up to. They told me they’re both 80 and came to this damp corner of the world by way of South Africa, Israel and Chicago. Len’s background is in education and counseling, so before they had the Sou’Wester Lodge running full bore, he occasionally traded therapy for fish.
But the problem with a road trip such as this is that you always have to tear yourself away, because there are miles to cover. I have four days and three nights to reach the Canadian border.
“You know,” said Len thoughtfully and amiably, “what you’re doing is just about the exact opposite of what we’re trying to do here.”
I had to agree. And drive. Cape Disappointment. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (because right around here, at the mouth of the Columbia, is where they finally hit the Pacific back in 1805). South Bend, Cosmopolis (which is not cosmopolitan), Aberdeen, Hoquiam.
