Small Towns of the West Coast

Small Towns on the West Coast

From California’s cypress-lined coves to the sea stacks of Oregon and the islands of Washington’s Puget Sound, the West Coast’s small towns are built around the view.

California

Carmel-by-the-Sea is known for storybook cottages, art galleries and a white-sand beach; Mission San Carlos Borromeo and Point Lobos State Natural Reserve are nearby. On the north coast, Mendocino perches on headlands above the Pacific, with trails through Mendocino Headlands State Park. Inland near Santa Barbara, Solvang was founded by Danish immigrants and still looks the part, windmills included. On the Central Coast, Pismo Beach has dunes, a pier and a monarch butterfly grove in winter. Best of NoCal and Best in SoCal go deeper on both halves of the state, including Catalina Island’s town of Avalon.

Oregon

Cannon Beach is built around Haystack Rock, where tide pools appear at low tide and puffins nest in spring and summer. Up the coast, Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, has the Astoria Column, the Columbia River Maritime Museum and Victorian houses on its hills.

Washington

Leavenworth, in the Cascades, remade itself as a Bavarian-style village and is famous for its Christmas lights and Oktoberfest. La Conner, on the Swinomish Channel, is a waterfront town of galleries at the heart of the Skagit Valley, where tulip fields bloom each April. Friday Harbor, reached by ferry, is the main town of San Juan Island, with the Whale Museum and orca watching from Lime Kiln Point State Park.

Linking West Coast Towns on a Road Trip

The coast road makes it easy to string these towns together. In California, Highway 1 runs from Carmel south through Big Sur toward the Central Coast and Pismo Beach, and north of San Francisco it winds up to Mendocino. In Oregon, US 101 hugs the shore past Cannon Beach to Astoria. Allow more time than the map suggests: these are slow, curving roads with constant reasons to stop.

• Check Highway 1 status before driving Big Sur; landslides have closed sections for long periods.
• Book coastal inns early for summer and holiday weekends; many towns have only a handful.
• Pack layers. Coastal fog can keep summer days cool even when inland towns are hot.
• Pair the coast with an inland town, such as Solvang with the Santa Ynez Valley, or Leavenworth with the Cascades.