The breakfasts may be served in sandwich form, but they’re no one-handed meal. The café opened in 2024 with Southern-style biscuits loaded with eggs or fried chicken, or, of course, topped in gravy: sausage or an onion-y veggie option.

The family team behind the peninsula’s only cidery wanted a space for the whole community—hence the minors- and pets-welcome policies. Ciders often incorporate Northwest flavors, like cranberry from local bogs.

This best views in town—for many towns, really—come from the Adrift Hotel restaurant, whose top-floor perch allows for sight lines over the dunes. Wood-fired pizza sprinkled with Dungeness crab grabs the most attention, but one starter combines crackers, veggies, and, per the establishment’s name, pickled rockfish.

This newly launched bar and restaurant is easily confused with the food truck court just outside, which shares its name, but the indoor space offers full-service seafood and American classics. A weekend-only sushi menu has a popular following already. Pro tip: Sometimes supplies for the crispy rice sushi pieces last through Monday.

Nautical themes rule in a beach town. This restaurant leans more captain’s quarters than sailor’s bunk, with pricy but sophisticated entrées—though the simple fish and chips rivals anyone’s in town. Kids are welcome on the non-bar side, but the whole place has a grown-up vibe.

The Australian theme isn’t subtle in a space where high-top tables are shaped like boomerangs and a kangaroo statue stands near the door. The menu is less international, leaning on burgers and seafood like the rest of town, but a big patio and lofty ceiling make it feel as spacious as Oz. 

The simplicity of beer and pizza meets regular live music, sometimes even set up in the large yard outside when the weather is right. The oyster pizza isn’t even the strangest combo available—that would be the cream cheese–based pickle pie.

Located far from the touristy hubbub, it’s one of the few places around that takes—and often requires—reservations. The menu is pretty straightforward with Italian classics, served in a cozy cottage.

Look, it is what it says it is: a very long beach. Most measurements put it at 28 miles of sand, and cars (but not camping) are allowed on most of the beach via select access points—but don’t get caught in the sand when the tide rises. More than eight miles of mostly paved trail run through the dunes that separate town from the waves.

The long, thin peninsula has crashing Pacific waves on one side but the quiet shores of Willapa Bay on the other, a spot renowned for oysters. The historic buildings of Oysterville recall the days when the oyster industry ruled the region, and Oysterville Sea Farms’ outdoor patio has one of the area’s best views—while also serving one of the best local clam chowders.

What Washington beaches lack in warmth, surf waves, or snorkel spots they make up for in sheer wind strength. Every August the Long Beach sands host the massive, line-tangling party that is the Washington State International Kite Festival, but the museum shows off fliers from all over the world year-round.

When state regulators give the thumbs up, the low-tide beach fills with hunters on the trail of the elusive burrowing razor clam. Equipment, including a “clam gun” that is in no way a firearm, is rentable at some shops and hotels, and local shops sell licenses. It takes a lot of wet sand and elbow grease to find the delicacies, but a unique social scene blossoms along the peninsula whenever clam season opens up.

It’s like calling a big guy “Tiny”—this park at the mouth of the Columbia is hardly disappointing, given its lighthouse, beaches, and a visitor center devoted to explorers Lewis and Clark. Cabins, yurts, and historic homes are available for rent. (Blame a British fur trader for the name; he got lost and was bummed he couldn’t find the river.)

Oysters and clams may be the peninsula’s unofficial mascots, but the crisp, tart cranberry seems to flavor Washington’s whole southwestern coast. The bogs, including a few outside the small museum, are at their most dramatic in fall when they’re flooded for harvest. The gift shop serves all things cran, of course, but the ice cream might be the best.

As an alternative to all the sand and wind, two nature-filled pockets of the peninsula offer quiet trails and wildlife spotting. Leadbetter, to the far north, is famed for its bird-watching, with sections closed to protect endangered snowy plovers.

Have you met your friend Jake? The half-alligator, half-human mummy, a curiosity purchased by the Marshes in the 1960s, poses in a glass case at the back of what’s more a shop than museum, behind aisles of saltwater taffy and personalized key chains. It’s the kind of kitsch that fuels a beach town’s soul, even if an alligator sighting in Washington would make about as much sense as the hybrid creature. 

Half of this historic building once sat across the street, dragged to its current site by a team of horses in 1911. Stairs creak and some steps are slightly askew, and the snug parlor was made for stormy beach days. Inside, it still feels like the Clamshell Railroad days of yore, when tourists traveled up the peninsula by a steam locomotive that met arriving steamships, the timetables dependent on the tides.

Everything about this tiny village of vintage trailers leans to the offbeat and artistic; one of the midcentury campers is even half recording studio for musicians. Individual cabins and a central lodge have more traditional accommodations, and the whole compound shares a dry sauna and tearoom trailer. It hosts free public concerts most Saturdays.

As part of a lodging group that specializes in beach-adjacent properties down the Northwest coast, these rooms have a minimalist but beachy vibe. With a game room, free bike rentals, and a soaking pool, it’s a hotel ready for the (not uncommon) rainy day. Though the waves are too far for easy viewing from the rooms themselves, it’s only a few steps to reach the sand. 

Camping, but make it easier. The Japanese outdoor brand opened its first American campground to showcase its products and offer overnights where someone else sets up the tent. True indoor comforts come in the form of sleek tiny cabins, but guests and day visitors alike can soak in the warm waters of Campfield’s Ofuro Spa, covered but open to the surrounding woods.

The peninsula’s southernmost town feels more like a working fishers’ port than a straight tourist trap, and this adults-only property stays calm and quiet. There aren’t many restaurants in Ilwaco, but the first floor of the hotel has one serving elevated pub fare.