Newport Oregon Sights and Attractions

Newport has been a vacation destination since 1856. Attractions include the ones listed below but other sights along Highway 101 aren't far away. Highway 20 starts here running all the way to Boston in 3,365 miles, it is the longest road in America. The Yaquina Bay Bridge with its dramatic soaring steel arches make it one of the most photographed of McCullough's bridges on Highway 101. It is high enough for most boats to pass under and has both steel and concrete arches. When in port, the vessels of NOAA's Pacific Ocean research fleet can be seen across Yaquina Bay.

Oregon Coast Sights

While still a working bayfront, visitors can browse shops and restaurants, watch the commercial fishing fleet come in with their catch, see the U.S. Coast Guard Station, charter a boat, view galleries, or see family attractions like the Ripley's Believe It or Not, the Wax Works and the Undersea Gardens.

Newport's original oceanfront resort area was developed in the 1800's. A pedestrian-friendly historic community, Nye Beach features fine and casual dinning, unique lodging, shopping, performing and visual arts venues, as well as easy access to four miles of sandy beach between Yaquina Head and Yaquina Bay lighthouses.

Often listed as one of the nation's top ten aquariums, to get an up close encounter with wildlife, this is the place.

Due to the six major bridges built by Conde B. McCullough in the late 1930s on the Oregon Coast, the bridges left a unique art deco legacy on the coast. As the new highway-oriented culture took root, the modern progressive design of the bridges affected new construction in places like Newports City Center business district. This resulted in a distinct pocket of art deco style, one with its own unique history and culture.

This center is part of Oregon State University and home to researchers studying the ocean and estuaries. The visitor center offers exhibits, live marine animals, a touch tank, interactive puzzles and games that demonstrate current marine science research and an estuary trail with ideal shorebird viewing ops.

Oregon's tallest lighthouse that continues to use its original lens. Find easy walking trails and one of the largest common murre colonies on the coast.

The only wooden lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, and the only one with living quarters attached. It was lit only from 1871 to 1874, but in 1996 became a working lighthouse again.