Seaside Promenade and Turnaround

Seaside has drawn beachgoers since the Victorian era, and its earliest oceanfront walk was a wooden boardwalk with a pier reaching out over the surf. The ocean was hard on it, battering the timbers and eventually claiming the pier, which finally gave way to the waves in 1914, right where the Turnaround stands today.

In the early 1920s the town replaced the failing boardwalk with the concrete promenade that endures now, finishing the Prom in 1921. More than a century later it is still doing its job, a durable, gently curving ribbon of pavement along the dunes that has become one of Oregon's most recognizable coastal landmarks and the stage for the town's whole summer life.

The Turnaround sits at the foot of Broadway, where the town's main street runs straight to the sea and cars once needed a place to circle back. Today it is a gathering spot as much as a road feature, a place to meet friends, take a photo, and watch the beach, framed by the wide Pacific and the headlands beyond.

At its center stands the statue of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, commemorating the end of the Oregon Trail and of the explorers' long westward journey. The choice of spot is no accident. During the expedition's wet winter on the coast, three of their men, the salt makers, set up an operation a short walk from here to boil seawater down into the salt the party needed to preserve meat for the return east. Their reconstructed salt cairn still stands a block off the Prom, open to view, tying this cheerful beach town to a pivotal moment of American exploration.

The pleasure of the Prom is its ease. It is flat, paved, and free, welcoming to walkers, runners, cyclists, skaters, and wheelchairs alike, and it runs a full mile and a half along the beachfront so you can go as far as you like and turn back whenever. On one side the wide, gently sloping beach spreads to the surf, with Tillamook Head rising to the south, and on the other the beach cottages and hotels give way, near the center, to the arcades and shops of downtown.

Time your walk for sunset and the whole Pacific sky puts on a show; come in the morning and you may have the boardwalk nearly to yourself. Where the Prom meets Broadway, the town's old-fashioned seaside fun spills out, so it is easy to fold the walk into a full day of beach, browsing, and people-watching in a town built for exactly that.

The Prom runs the length of Seaside's beachfront, with the Turnaround at the foot of Broadway right in the center of town. It is open at all hours and free to enjoy, though parking near the Turnaround fills fast on summer weekends, so it is often easiest to park a little farther out and walk in along the boardwalk.

Bring a windbreaker even on bright days, since the coast can turn cool and breezy in a hurry, and give yourself time to detour a block off the Prom to the reconstructed Lewis and Clark salt cairn. Just to the north lies the quieter beach village of Gearhart, and a short drive south brings the iconic Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, so the Prom makes a perfect anchor for exploring the whole of Oregon's north coast.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.