Off the Beaten Path - Oregon

Off the Beaten Path

by Myrna Oakley

Unique attractions abound in this update which offers nearly two dozen new major and minor sites of interest. Discover such oddities as the Queen Bess Tea Room in Manzanita, or go Yurt camping in domed circular tents with wood floors and all the comforts of home (well, almost); sample the produce at one of the region's best markets in Grant's Pass, or go wild turkey hunting on a scenic stretch of the Umpqua River.

Genres: Travel

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reviewing the 10th ed. 2013, a different cover. Unsure if still more printings followed, but this is what my library had. The ebook is very bare bones. It does list plenty of restaurants, accommodations, and sights. Along the coast, there's not much off any beaten track in this heavily touristed long strip.

But inland, in the lesser-known southern interior and especially eastern stretches, the guide lives up to its title. However, prices are lacking. On one hand, this doesn't date the contents. Yet, it doesn't allow a planner to judge realistic budgets. Instead, you do find ghost towns, remote hospitality on tap, and dirt and gravel road accessible, or maybe not, attractions. It's not a hipster compendium, note...

For instance, Bend gets barely a nod and that for breakfasts, Portland for gardens rather than gauche hangouts, which may be refreshing for those of us of a certain age, and byways to such as the Trappist and Brigittine monasteries selling tasty goods (I recommend both) and a side road off 99N at Canby typify family-friendly sights suitable for children or grandparents, which other books tend to skim.

If data are inevitably superseded by Fodors or Moon for Oregon, or Lonely Planet for the entire Pacific Northwest (see my reviews), the beauty of painted desert hills, mountain peaks, foggy shores, and verdant farms doesn't fade--we hope as population increases, Instagram hype, and heightened traffic all threaten the peace for those seeking respite from cars, bars, congestion, and camera-toting and phone-obsessed throngs. May havens apart from big-box this, retail chain logo'd that, or pop-up fads remain in the Beaver State. Not all of us, settled or roaming, demand incessant stimulation via screen.

So there's that balance despite the plain-wrap presentation. Writing this thirteen years at least since this information came out (and odds are much of it wasn't revised or fact-checked for what'd closed), it's beyond my largely armchair perspective to judge. But for the GR reviewer ticked off that City of Books aka Powell's didn't get a shout-out, I remind that the premise of this is to discover what's not been already praised, overrun, hyped, or done to death already by the millions residing or passing by.

[Jennifer]

Did not finish. Review on 2016 edition on 11/11/19.

After reading/scanning Vermont: Off the Beaten Path a few days ago, I decided to borrow the Oregon version from my library. I figured I’d see if it was just the Vermont version of the book or it is was the series itself that just didn’t sit well with me. It is the series.

Organizing the book geographically is helpful to a point. But to not include items on the section map? And then the descriptions of attractions are sparse with some warranting more words than others. Places to go, sleep, and eat seem chosen at random and do not really seem “Off the Beaten Path.” These three things are all jumbled together too: you have to want to research via a geographical path, rather than finding things to do THEN stay then eat. As for the attractions included … The Oregon Sand Dunes on the coast? Um, duh! The Oregon Aquarium in Newport? Again, duh. Multnomah Falls? Big huge DUH. And, if the writer mentions these things, why eliminate Powell’s Bookstore? That is an attraction I tell every friend going to Portland to be sure to carve out a chunk of time for as well as the food trucks in downtown! Those trucks weren’t even given a general mention. The section on Astoria was 100% devoid of any mention of Goonies – and so many folks have told me I need to go there and see all of the haunts that appeared in the film.

So glad I didn’t spend money on this guide. I’ll spend the cash on a delicious breakfast or sandwich at Café Stephanie in Newport (not mentioned in the guidebook, BTW). And, I will be avoiding other books in this series

** Did not include read dates so it would NOT count to my annual Goodreads challenge. **

[HeavyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just mooched this book off Book Mooch. I found it while looking for
Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis A. McArthur. I'm looking forward to learning about the wacky and unusual attractions in my new state.

Update: I flipped through this book pretty thoroughly last night, read up on the Oregon Coast and the Portland area. I thought this book would include wacky and unusual attractions, but instead it just covers the usual type of tourist attractions that maybe the average tourist hasn't heard about. It doesn't seem helpful at all in the Portland area, but maybe it offers suggestions for places in other parts of the state that I would have missed.

Unfortunately, the copy I mooched is an edition from 1997, ten years old. My friends laughed at me for getting a ten year old book, but I think it will offer suggestions that I can follow up on via the internet.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

How I miss Oregon! This is a 2012 edition, so the information should be fairly reliable.