Experience the best of Astoria

Astoria sits on a hillside at the mouth of the Columbia River, where the great river meets the Pacific in north-western Oregon. John Jacob Astor's fur company founded a post here in 1811, the first American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, and the port grew on salmon canning, timber and shipping. Victorian houses climb the hill, and the 6.6-kilometre Astoria-Megler Bridge crosses the river to Washington State.

The Astoria Column, a tower of 1926 with a spiral painted frieze, tops Coxcomb Hill with views of the river mouth. The Columbia River Maritime Museum tells of the dangerous bar, known as the Graveyard of the Pacific, and Flavel House is the Queen Anne mansion of a river pilot. Fort Clatsop, a replica of the winter camp of Lewis and Clark, lies nearby, and films including The Goonies were shot in Astoria. Fort Stevens State Park has an old shipwreck on its beach.

Dungeness crab, salmon and albacore tuna come off the boats, and craft beer and coffee are served in old canneries and warehouses. Rain is frequent, summers are cool and often foggy, and winter storms roll in from the Pacific.