Winter Fun in Bend, Oregon
gijoolee
Must find ways to de-stress from work!
16 Jan 2007
based on 5 votes
Quick weekend getaway for the mildly active person, fun for couples and friends, for people who are looking for tame adventure - must like the dark, small spaces, and cold weather.
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Explore locations featured in this Traveler List:
Bend
- Category: Recent trip
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Traveler type: Sightseeing, Shopping, Active/Outdoors, Never been before, Repeat visitors, Sports buffs
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Appeals to: Couples/romantics, Honeymooners, Singles, Families with small children, Families with teenagers, Large groups, Students, Budget travellers , Active/adventure, Tourists, Pet owners
- Seasons: Winter
- Tags: bend, oregon, snow, winter, BendOregon
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1. Fairfield Inn and Suites By Marriott
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| A relatively new two story hotel/motel in a convenient downtown Bend location. We had a king suite - room was very clean, impressed with bathroom size, liked small sitting area, found microwave and mini-fridge useful. It was worth $99/night. Positives: Small continental breakfast served, small pool, jacuzzi, and work-out room (although it was temporarily closed during our stay), computer in lobby for guest use (free of charge), Drake park across the street, within walking distance from shops and restaurants. Negatives: You'll hear traffic from almost every room (even with windows closed) due to the fact that 3 sides of the hotel are surrounded by either busy main streets or ramps. |
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| Outdoor shopping mall, great place to get last minute gear (REI located in the building with the 3 smoke stacks), lots of familiar shops and unique shops as well, movie cinema, and places to eat - would recommend NOT eating at Bella Cucina. Over priced and horrible food. The worst meal we've eaten in a long time - seriously. We barely finished our meals and we didn't even take any of our leftovers with us. |
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3. Wanderlust Tour - Guided Cave Tour
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| A guide will pick you and other tour participants up in their van (not more than 7 people per tour) and will take you to a "remote" lava cave. They provide helments, headlamps, and gloves (they are like gardening gloves, so you may want to bring your own because it gets really cold down there in the winter). We were taken to Boyd's Cave - I would recommend asking the reservationist which cave they plan on taking you to & I would steer clear of Boyd's Cave. It was an extremely cool experience but Wanderlust claims these are "remote" caves which made me think they were not well known. When we got to Boyd's Cave there were 3 cars parked there, one couple was at their car, we passed at least 3 people coming out of the cave (and they had been drinking), and a family with small kids and a dog were entering the cave when we were starting our tour. This is not to say it was not a very cool experience - don't get me wrong. I would do it again but request a more remote/less well known cave. What was cool was our guide Tania - she was awesome. And we got to crawl on our bellies at least three times. It was only about 3/4 of a mile one way, easy for someone who isn't horribly athletic. Size of person does make a big difference as bigger people will not fit through those crawlspaces - so if you're a bigger person, ask for a bigger cave. It's cold down there in the winter! Dress warm! Don't wear your favorite shoes - the lava rock will mess them up. ($42 per person) |
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4. Sunriver Stables - Sleigh Ride
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| Always wanted to go on a sleigh ride but this wasn't quite what I was expecting. First, let me tell you that Sunriver Resort offers short sleigh rides during winter months through Sunriver Stables which is free for guests and $5 per person for non-guests/public. For some reason Sunriver Resort stops offering the rides during the last week of December, and since our trip was planned for New Year's weekend, we had to go through Sunriver Stables direct for our sleigh ride. We had to reserve our own sleigh for a 45 min ride. A few things that bothered me - there wasn't a whole lot of snow on the ground, maybe just enough to cover the ground. So technically it wasn't a sleigh ride, it was a chariot ride because the sleighs all had little wheels and the runners were just for show I guess. I wish I would have known this in advance as it dashed my high hopes for a real sleigh ride. Then to make matters worse I was quoted $75 for sleigh rental when I made my reservation (seats about 4 adults comfortably, but we saw one sleigh fit 3 adults & 3 kids - at least one kid was on a lap), and when we arrived we were told it was $90 because our ride was on New Year's Eve (special holiday rate). The employee didn't care that I had not been informed of the higher rate. The negatives aside, if you have kids or you want a really mellow 45 minute ride along the Deschutes river against a winter backdrop, then this activity is probably good for you. The kids on the sleigh in front of us were giggling non-stop and they were obviously having a ball. And it was a truely beautiful ride with beautiful scenery - we even saw a coyote. |
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5. Inn of the Seventh Mountain - Ice Skating
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Ave price:
$237
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This is a small outdoor ice skating rink - great for kids. We had fun during public skate time. Once you get past the skate rental desk/area and out on the ice it is a relaxing way to spend your day. The skate rental area is extremely tiny, there isn't a whole lot of places to sit and put on/take off your skates, and they only have about 10 lockers if even that and they're so tiny - you might be lucky if you can get your winter boots and purse in it (you can also store your shoes in cubbies under the seats if you want). So don't bring a lot of things to you to the rink - leave it in your car. We went during the day but I bet it would be really fun during night too. ($5 admission, $2 skate rental) |
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| Easy to find, right off one of the main streets in downtown Bend, street parking. We wanted to take a tour of their brewery but didn't have time and they only offer tours on Saturday (brewery is at another site nearby). Beer - not bad, food so-so. Our table ordered wings (spicy - yay, but greasy), large house-baked pretzel (tasty but slightly undercooked like all the bread products were for some strange reason) - ate it with their homemade honey mustard (good but runny), french dip sandwich, regular burger, and jalapeno burger. Burgers are actually pretty good, especially the jalapeno burger. Prices $3-$9. They don't take reservations. |
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7. Wanderlust Tours - Bonfire Snow Shoe Tour
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| This was the highlight of our weekend Bend getaway. We went on their New Year's Eve snow shoe tour from 9:30pm-1:30am. Snow shoes provided, headlamps provided to just women for some reason. I think the light made a big difference (I wore it on the trek in & gave it to my husband to wear on the trek out) so if I were a guy I'd either insist on a headlamp or bring my own. We snow shoed on trail for a little while and then went off trail into powder that was up to our thighs! It was awesome! It's about a mile trek to the bonfire site, which is a hand-carved snow ampitheater. They think of all the details - including snow steps up to it, a table where they laid out hot beverages, liquers, champagne, and dessert, and the seats were lined with foam mats (nicer on the rear). An employee greets you with a fire going (not exactly a bonfire - it's contained in a weber grill), offers you dessert (we had small cheesecake - but they usually only offer 1 small one per couple to share) and drinks. The snow shoe guide took us to a lava tube where he taught us to jump off into the powder - tons of fun. We rang in the New Year under the moonlight and snow-covered pines surrounding the snow ampitheater, with a cup of champagne. It was absolutely perfect. For first time snow shoe-ers and not very athletic people it might be a little on the difficult side. Walking on trail is totally easy but you will feel the burn when you're trying to make it through powder up to your thighs. This is something my husband and I would happily do every New Year's Eve! ($82 per person - just for special New Year's Eve snow shoe tour - cheaper for regular tours) |
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8. Good Resource - Bend, Oregon Visitor and Convention Bureau
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| Great place to start if you've never been to Bend. Very thorough website, great photos, helpful information. |
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Compliment gijoolee
