Upon booking a little vacation to Portland we realized four days in the city of Portland itself might actually be too much time there. So what did we do? Channel our inner tourist and sign up for a tour! We picked Wildwood because of all the good reviews and we picked the Oregon Coast tour because we go to California wineries often and have already seen some of their other options, like the Oregon waterfalls and Columbia River gorge. Overall this was a nice tour but I reluctantly have to take one star off for reasons I'll explain later. But first, let's start with the positives:
- Almost all the stops on the tour were AMAZING, and our guide, Hatham, was very informative and friendly. Haystack Rock and Cannon Beach were our favorite stops, and we'd come back to Oregon just to spend a couple of days in Cannon Beach!
- The van itself was comfortable, though we got stuck in the back and as larger people we were fortunate there weren't two other people sitting in the row of four seats since it would've been awfully cramped.
As for the "negatives," you could say for each one I'm deducting half a star since they're relatively minor and might be the result of me being overly picky.
- One of the advertised stops is the town of Manzanita but we never made it there. During the trip Hatham took an informal vote asking if anyone would be opposed to skipping that stop and instead go to what he described as an amazing cove that involved a half mile walk each way. Nobody objected and the cove (Smuggler's Cove) was very nice, but this has created some confusion for me since Smuggler's Cove is advertised as a "time dependent" stop on their website but not even mentioned on Tripadvisor, where we bought the tickets. But on both their website and Tripadvisor, Manzanita is described as a stop (and not "time dependent") so I'm still confused why we couldn't have made both. If anything, their Tripadvisor description of the tour should be more like their website's description.
- We also made a stop that isn't mentioned on either their website or Tripadvisor at the giant Sitka Spruce at Klootchy Creek County Park, and frankly this stop was the only one we didn't care for, especially since (sadly) the giant tree is now just a large stub after a lightning strike. I also suspect this is the reason we didn't make it to Manzanita and we didn't even have a "vote" on this stop so, again, I'm still slightly confused about what happened to the itinerary and think the guides should make every effort to follow what's on their website.
This isn't a reason for me deducting a star, but it would be smart and helpful if the company suggests bringing swimwear and/or towels. The reason for this is at both Haystack Rock and Smuggler's Cove it would've been nice to jump in to the water for a bit, and even though we didn't jump in the water (since we weren't wearing swimwear) it would've been helpful to have a towel to wipe the sand off our feet before coming back in to the van. So if you're still reading this and sign up for the Oregon Coast Tour then you're welcome for the advice! :)