Experience the best of Seaside

Broadway, an avenue of arcades, taffy shops and cafés, runs straight down to the sea, where a concrete promenade follows the beach. A statue of Lewis and Clark stands at its end, and a reconstructed salt cairn in the south of town recalls the winter of 1805–06, when men from their expedition boiled seawater here to make salt.

South of town, trails climb Tillamook Head through spruce forest to the cliffs above Ecola State Park, and the sea stacks of Cannon Beach lie just beyond. Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, is to the north, close to the reconstructed Fort Clatsop, where the expedition spent that winter.

Clam chowder, razor clams, Dungeness crab and fresh salmon fill the menus, and salt-water taffy is the local sweet. The sea stays cold all year and the weather on this coast can change within the hour; the beach is busiest in summer, while winter storms draw people to the promenade to watch the surf.