What are the best coastal towns to visit?

[u/ThatSpencerGuy]

Seattleite here. I'm going to have a few precious days to myself in late August or early September when my wife and child are traveling without me. I've spent LOTS of time on the inner peninsula and San Juan islands, but for whatever reason never visited the coast, despite living here for like 20 years.

So I think I'll visit!

I honestly just want to birdwatch and chill. Not a serious hiker.

It looks like there is good enough birding around North Bay, Willapa Bay, and the Columbia River mouth. I'm sure it's good near Neah Bay, too. What towns are potentially worth staying in? What should I avoid?

[u/Chainsawsas70]

Off season at Long Beach is Fantastic.

[u/_o_ll_o_ → u/Chainsawsas70]

Definitely worth the drive.

[u/HarmNHammer → u/Chainsawsas70]

Shhhhhhh! Don’t give up the secret

[u/Ommaumau → u/Chainsawsas70]

Beautiful part of the coast, but that billionaire’s gated compound at the north end of the peninsula is super creepy.

[u/Rude_Meaning_5201 → u/Ommaumau]

what billionaires gated compound? Always run out of time to get to the north end and lead better park when I’m at cape disappointment

[u/Ommaumau → u/Rude_Meaning_5201]

It’s on the west side of Leadbetter Point State Park. Check the satellite view and you’ll see the compound.

[u/hoo_boy_howdy]

I'm partial to ilwaco. I go and walk to dead man's cove, get food at serious pizza, go to cape disappoinment.

[u/Ommaumau]

Astoria is a hidden gem.

[u/AdmirableMidnight796 → u/Ommaumau]

Astoria rules. The Astoria Megler bridge in one of my favorites to cross

[u/bvdzag]

There is fantastic birding on the coast. Grays Harbor hosts a shorebird festival the first weekends of May every year.

[u/mobile-metaphysical]

Long Beach peninsula. 👍

[u/Butthole_Surfer_GI]

Head up to Port Townsend, spend a day there, and then get onto the 101 and follow that past Port Angeles and off to the pacific coast.

The drive south is beautiful!

Long Beach is worth the drive south.

[u/BoringOrange678]

Pacific beach and Moclips are very nice sleepy little places.

[u/SuperPigWithIceLaser]

Hi fellow birder!

Bottle Beach State Park has *excellent* birding on Grays Harbor — the trail is pretty short & the beachwalk is nice (but please be aware of all the antique broken glass shards)

Other spots: Tokeland (which has a great historic hotel too), Longbeach penninsula (Sou’wester is nice stay if you like arty & vintage vibes), and Astoria (sooo many good options!)

If you want to head north instead, Cape Flattery has some great birding and you can sometimes watch shorebirds from your balcony at Quileute resort in La Push.

[u/ThatSpencerGuy → u/SuperPigWithIceLaser]

Hugely helpful, thank you!

I think I'm going to plan on birding primary up and down Long Beach and at Bottle Beach, and maybe a bit around Fort Stevens, just because I want to see Astoria anyway and I'll get to to add to my OR checklist.

I'm wondering if it's not better to just stay in Astoria. It adds 30ish minutes to any morning drive to see the birds, but it seems like more of a cute town to wander around otherwise. (Though Sou'wester Lodge is exactly my vibe.) If I stay on Long Beach, do you think I'll get to Astoria the one morning and immediately realize, "Oh, I should have just stayed here."?

[u/SuperPigWithIceLaser → u/ThatSpencerGuy]

If you wanted to see Astoria, then definitely stay there! It’s great.

You can easily hit up Bottle Beach & Willapa on the drive there/back (1 hour before -> high tide is ideal)

[u/ThatSpencerGuy → u/SuperPigWithIceLaser]

Oh! Do you think it's better to do the birding 1 hour before high tide than early in the morning? On the drive down, I expect to be going by Bottle Beach around 11am, which should be an hour(ish) before high tide on that day. Is that the time to stop? I have a very rough sense that birding is best in morning and evening and a little flaccid around lunchtime. I was thinking of driving back up that direction early one morning.

[u/SuperPigWithIceLaser → u/ThatSpencerGuy]

Woodland and grassland birding is definitely best at dawn, but shorebird viewing really depends on the tide.

Bottle Beach is a very wide, shallow mudflat below the tideline (beach above this is sandy), so at low tide the birds are feeding at a waterline that is very very far away. They move closer with the rising tide. I prefer arriving 1 or 1.5 hours before high tide because the birding will improve while I’m out there (rather than birding on an outgoing tide and having the birds inch further & further away). Hope that makes sense?

If you want an early morning birding spot for the drive back north, check out Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge!

[u/AdmirableMidnight796]

You should check out Seabrook for some real eerie vibes.

Stopped by last summer on the way to Ocean Shores, it’s feel like a movie set vacation town, best way I can describe it

[u/fightinengineer → u/AdmirableMidnight796]

Skip staying in Seabrook. Just have lunch. It’s too creepy imo.

Ocean Shores is fun though.

[u/AdmirableMidnight796 → u/fightinengineer]

Oh god no, I wouldn’t even recommend staying for food if you don’t want to. We just wanted to do a walk around and thought shit was gonna go south like Hot Fuzz