The Long Beach resort area is located on the Pacific Coast in Southwestern Washington State. It goes by several names including; Long Beach, Long Beach Peninsula, North Beach Peninsula, Cape Columbia, Grave Yard of the Pacific, and the Discovery Coast.

All the names give some insight into the long, varied history of the area and nature of the peninsula. The main attraction in the area and the reason for the name Long Beach is of course the wide sandy ocean beach that stretches the entire 26 miles of the west side of the peninsula.

If you are coming from the north, upon arriving on the Long Beach Peninsula by car you will feel like you are in a rural area, not at the beach. Recently we spent some time on the Long Beach Peninsula and found that there is no “motel-row” or “restaurant district”. There are six small communities on the Long Beach Peninsula and all of them have some tourist facilities. Unique attributes of each of these communities are described on individual pages. In the table below click on the community hot link to go to that community’s page.

You will also find information about restaurants, lodging, museums, shopping, and more on each page.

The Communities of the Long Beach Peninsula

From north to south on the peninsula

Oysterville	Oysterville is located on the east side of the peninsula on Willapa Bay.
Nahcotta	Nahcotta is just south of Oysterville on Willapa Bay.
Ocean Park	Ocean Park is on the west side of the peninsula facing the Pacific Ocean
Long Beach	Long Beach is the largest community on the peninsula. It is located on the west side of the peninsula facing the Pacific Ocean.
Seaview	If you are arriving from the north on US-101 Seaview is the first community on the peninsula that you will see. At the junction of US-101 and WA-103 you will find the Visitor Center.
Ilwaco	If you came over the bridge from Astoria and are headed north on US-101 then Ilwaco is the first city you will see. Ilwaco’s claim to fame is its historic downtown and new Harbour Center Mall.

LongBeachArch As you can see to the right, they have erected a gateway over the beach access road in the community of Long Beach. There are so many accesses to the beach that the community of Seaview erected a gateway showing you this access road leads to Seaview.

The beach is most important here with many beach activities including kite flying, beach walking, and all kinds of fun in the never ending ocean surf.

In our past travels we had driven through the Long Beach area and looked around but never spent any time there. A simple drive-through won’t give you an appreciation of this area.

ShelborneInn02 Lodging on the Long Beach Peninsula

The first community you will come to on the highway onto the peninsula from the north is Seaview. You will find the historic Shelburne Inn (shown to the left) right downtown on Pacific Highway.

The Shelburne Inn

SunsetView02 Further up the peninsula you will find lodging in a park-like setting with a view of the ocean like the Sunset View Resort (shown to the right). If you go west toward the beach your find tower-like facilities built right on the sand dunes, like the Inn at Discovery Coast (shown below) that offer a commanding view of the dunes and the beach.

This is only a thin view of the lodging facilities on the peninsula. If you search them out there is a very wide variety of different kinds of lodging on the peninsula.

Visit our Lodging on the Long Beach Peninsula page.

InnAtDiscCoast01 Restaurants

When you first enter the peninsula from the north on Pacific Highway you will encounter a few restaurants in the communities of Seaview and Long Beach, but don’t think that what you see is the limit of your available restaurants to select from. Some of the best restaurants are located out of the downtown areas of the peninsula. There are restaurants in and around all of the seven communities on the Peninsula.

Visit our Restaurants on the Long Beach Peninsula page.

Cape Disappointment State Park (formerly Fort Canby State Park)

visit their web site.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

http://www.fortcanby.org/visit/lcic.html

This park offers Pacific Ocean Beaches, two lighthouses, an interpretive center, hiking trails, and camping. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center tells the complete story of Lewis and Clarks epic journey to find a route to the Pacific Ocean. You get of wonderful view of the coast and the ocean from the deck of the Interpretive Center which sits on a bluff about 200 feet above the sea.

From 1862 to the end of World War II this was Fort Canby and the gun batteries which defended the Columbia River are still in place in the park. In 1856 the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was built and it still operates guiding ships into the mouth of the Columbia. This is the oldest lighthouse on the West Coast The North Head lighthouse was built in 1898 to guide ships headed to the Columbia from the north due to the increased number of ship wrecks to the north in the “graveyard of the Pacific.” The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse rarely has tours but the North Head Lighthouse has tours daily during the summer and on weekends in the winter.

Long Beach Peninsula

Visitors Bureau

http://www.funbeach.com/index.html

Map – They have a good map of the Long Beach Peninsula on their web site

http://www.funbeach.com/maps/local.html

Driving on the Beach

Driving information

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