Pant-Stretching Portland

[trip style = food & wine + weekend getaway]

If you read Trip Styler regularly, you know we try to take a bite out of Portland,Oregon's pant-stretching food scene at every opportunity—the provisions are that good. 

Completely obsessed with the city's preoccupation with hyperlocal and mouth-pleasing cuisine, I wrote an article in the Expedia Viewfinder Travel Blog about searching for Portland's freshest fare. Here's a taster:

There are conversations you overhear as a travel writer that cause you to grin and thank the heavens you were lucky enough to be within earshot of something so quotable. One such conversation, in Portland, was so perfect, I decided right then and there it would open this tale of the city’s fascination with fresh food (and my preoccupation with packing the right pants).

”Do they sell stretchy pants in Portland?” the guy behind me in the restaurant queue jokingly-yet-seriously quipped. Chortling, his friend replied, "By the weekend’s end, we’ll just want to go pantless.” I laughed out loud and exchanged knowing glances with the chaps because when in the Pacific Northwest’s nosh-central, I purposely pack jeans with a little stretch. It’s survival of the foodie-est.

Oregonians are not obsessed with food because it’s cool to post pretty pictures of plates with artfully arranged fare, or to brag about their culinary institutions that are sweeping the nation. For them, it’s about substance. It doesn’t matter how en vogue eateries or ingredients such as kale or bacon have become; if it’s not good or fresh, it won’t fly....

{Read the FULL article here}

Related
Oregon Travel Diary :: Feasting on Portland
Oregon Travel Diary :: Cannon Beach
That Travel Meal: Best-In-Show Burrata at Ava Gene's
That Travel Meal: Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Gin Rickey

[photos by @tripstyler] 

Roam+Board :: Pacific Sands Beach Resort

[trip style =  beach + weekend getaway]

What
Sprawled across the northern end of Cox Bay, Pacific Sands Resort is so close to the ocean that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. At high tide I could almost reach out and touch the water from my Beach House balcony, while at low tide the water retreats so far into the Pacific that it reveals a sand bar big enough for a jumbo jet to taxi for a mile. 

Located on the western rim of Canada's Pacific coast in Tofino, British Columbia, Pacific Sands is the only all-suite resort in the area. Couple this with its 2,500 feet of coastline and rooms built toward the beach, and it's no surprise why a view of the swell comes standard with every stay. 

Starting with a collection of cottages in the 1970s, the 41-acre property has grown into a well-groomed beach resort with 77 suites—all with kitchens—ranging from one-bedrooms to Beach Houses {sleep 6} perched a few feet from the sand.

The sand summoned me every second: In the morning for a sea-sprayed run or surf session, in the afternoon for beach-combing, in the evening for a bonfire {paired with a glass of BC wine}. This cushy, front-row seat to the sea is why my family has been frequenting the shore-side stay since I was a mere twinkle in my parent's eyes. In keeping with the tradition, now that the Trip Styler crew has expanded, it's one the first places we took Baby Styler.    

Trip Styler approved.

Where
Located in Canada's surf city, Tofino, BC, five hours from Vancouver by car, including a 90-minute sailing aboard BC Ferries. Tofino is a place where waves rush the shore and salt air gives your hair the perfect beachy texture. It's a place where dressed up means jeans and a toque and fish tacos are an acceptable—and delicious—everyday lunch.

When
Year-round. Tofino is cozy in fall and winter, sea breezy in spring and fresh in summer.

Who/Why
This is your motto: "Life's a beach."          

Cost
Rates start at $200/night for a Lighthouse Suite and $460/night for a Beach House. All room categories include a patio or balcony facing the beach, full kitchen, gas fireplace, Pacific Sands rain slickers, WiFi, parking and use of outdoor BBQ gazebos. Bark woof—pets are welcome for $40/stay.

Photos

Cox Bay

A sunset slice of the 41-acre property 

The Beach Houses {each with its own washer-dryer}

When I return, I'll plant myself here to watch the sunset

Coffees from the resort's Beans on the Beach Espresso Bar featuring Victoria-based Caffe Fantastico beans {voted one of Canada's best boutique roasters} 

View from my Beach House

Master bedroom in my Beach House

Each suite comes with a kitchen

The Pacific Sands' CAD $11 breakfast delivery program sources locally-made muffins, granola, etc.

The view, captured from my balcony

Dog Styler striking a pose on the beach

Year-round waves and a soft, sand-bottom shore make Cox Bay a top choice for wave-riding locals and guests 

Heated outdoor showers for Mr. Trip Styler's post-surf warm-up

Storm-watching on a blistery afternoon

Obligatory portrait with Mr., Baby and Dog Styler in tow

A typical Pacific Sands afternoon, best enjoyed with a bottle of BC wine

More Roam+Board
Wya Point Resort - Ucluelet, BC
RIMBA Jimbaran Bali
Villa Samadhi - Kuala Lumpur
Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle
Four Seasons Chiang Mai
Four Seasons Hong Kong
Korakia Pensione - Palm Springs 
La Gazelle d'Or – Morocco
Mandarin Oriental – Las Vegas
Hotel Lone – Croatia

[photos by @tripstyler {except for first three}, taken while as a guest of the resort]

Joshua Tree

[trip style = active & adventure + weekend getaway]

It's hard to explain Joshua Tree to someone who's never been; it's a magical desert landscape that must be experienced because words can't describe this strange and surreal corner of the world.

"Somewhere in America, about two and a half hours inland from the Los Angeles sprawl is another America, a stranger one. There's a long tradition of people coming out here to get away or to simply get weird. And once you're past Palm Springs and into the high desert, people start to vibrate at a different pitch than they do elsewhere." [No Reservations: US Desert]

Joshua Tree is a dusty and desolate community about an hour from Palm Springs, where new age spiritualists, artists, musicians, hippies, hikers and even Marines (thanks to its proximity to the world's largest Marine base) coexist. 

Neighboring Joshua Tree National Park houses the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and is known for its eponymous trees, ancient rock formations and pop culture prominence. You may remember the episode of Entourage in which the gang took a trip to the park for another type of "trip" on a search for clarity. And I have to mention U2's iconic album, The Joshua Tree, which was inspired by American desert landscapes, physical as well as metaphorical and spiritual, though not Joshua Tree itself. Bono chose the title on a trip to the Mojave to shoot album photos. The band came across a single Joshua tree about 200 miles from the park and the tree inspired the title and the album packaging.

Legend has it that Joshua trees were named by Mormon travelers in the mid-19th century who believed the trees looked like Joshua lifting his hands in prayer. These Dr. Seussical trees can live, incredibly, for hundreds of years. 

Driving through Joshua Tree National Park

Visiting Joshua Tree

After three visits to the 800,000-acre park, I've barely scratched the surface and have kept primarily to the paths well traveled. While it's an excellent day trip from Palm Springs, to really experience the park, you need to camp or stay nearby.

If you only have a day, enter from the Joshua Tree gate and explore Jumbo Rocks, Arch Rock, Cholla Cactus Garden and Keys View. The high desert is known for its extreme weather, so remember to pack accordingly {good shoes, a hat, an extra layer, lots of water}. A one-day vehicle pass costs $15.

The Shadow Mountain Band at Pappy & Harriet's

Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace

Drive five miles off Twentynine Palms Highway, down a winding, lonely road, and you'll feel like you've traveled back in time to the Wild West. Built in the late 1940s by Hollywood stars like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, Pioneertown is an 1870s western town that served as both a film set and a small community with a motel, a bowling alley and a cantina. While the film crews have long departed, the cantina remains and houses an epic roadside bar that promises "live music, great barbecue and good times." 

I loved this desert watering hole so much that I visited twice on a trip to Palm Springs earlier this month. The perfect place to cap off a day at Joshua Tree, listen to live music, order a bourbon and eat a rack of ribs with fellow hikers, LA hipsters, bikers, baby boomers and desert dwellers. If you want to sit and eat, reservations are recommended on weekends {there was a two-hour table wait on the Saturday night we visited}. Pappy & Harriet's is a come-as-you-are bar that might be my new favorite place.

Roadside rock formations

Cholla Cactus Garden

A cholla cactus and Skull Rock

Jumbo Rocks and sunset at Keys View

Sunset at Keys View

This post is written by Trip Styler's Assistant Wayfarer/Editor Heather.

[photos by @heatherlovesit & @graceyvr]

Roam+Board :: Wya Point Resort

[trip style =  beach + weekend getaway + glamping]

What
Sitting in a coastal rainforest bordering the Pacific Rim, Wya Point Resort rendezvous you with nature in a way very few stays can. And while the forest-meets-beachfront location is one of the eco-resort's crowning glories, its connection to Canada's wild goes beyond the area's physical features. To me, it has to do with the owners, the Ucluelet First Nation, who have a strong and longstanding reverence for nature, and understanding of the land.

Counting a flock of campsites, 15 yurts, nine lodges and a bevy of private beaches under its wing, the 600-acre Wya Point Resort is a haven; the kind of place where you write a novel, watch the waves, walk for hours or wear the same sweater four days in a row.  

When we arrived for our weekend stay at the end of January, the sun was starting to set, bathing the resort’s private beach in a rose, blue and golden light so complex it would be difficult for Pantone to capture the color in a chip. So taken by the light peeking through the old-growth trees towering over the Pacific Ocean, we ran to the resort’s sandy cove before even setting foot in our oceanfront lodge {see photo below}.

Inside each cottage, built to LEED Platinum standards, it feels like you're still communing with the outdoors. The post-and-beam timber-frame construction lends the look, feel and smell of the forest, while gallery windows facing the Pacific provide a wide-angle view of the waves. Because of the resort's proximity to the beach, the sound of the sea never escapes you; at night I fell asleep to the tide rolling and retreating up and down the beach.

In the quietness of this moment, I was struck by the privilege of weekending on the Pacific Rim. To quote a line songstress Sarah McLachlan mused when gushing about the region {where she has a vacation home}, "it doesn't get more West Coast than this." 

Trip Styler approved.

Where
Located in Ucluelet, British Columbia, five hours from Vancouver {YVR} by car and a trip aboard BC Ferries, connecting the mainland with Vancouver Island.    

When
All year. 

Trip Styler Tip: Don't discount winter, aka storm-watching season, as a 'cool' time to visit. Watching the waves and wind rock n' roll is the ultimate West Coast experience.  

Who/Why
Ancient trees ground you. The ocean lulls you. Wildlife invigorates you. The wild moves you.        

Cost
Rates start at $115 per night for the yurts, and $169 per night for the lodges, and include WiFi, free parking and a serenity-now sunset view. 

Photos

An arial glimpse of Wya Point Resort

Three of the nine one- and two-bedroom lodges

The view from my balcony over Ucluth Beach

The sun setting over the Pacific Ocean

Beach life

The light was so gorgeous, we had to snap a Trip Styler crew photo {PS - the resort is pet-friendly}

Sea life

Our one-bedroom lodge

Our bedroom, which overlooked the ocean through a giant gallery window

Our sitting area // Trip Styler Tip: Bring slippers to keep your feet toasty on the concrete and hardwood floors

Our kitchen {each lodge and yurt also comes with its own barbecue}

About to drink the local coffee provided for each lodge guest 

The yurts

Inside the yurts, which feature a summer kitchen, a wood-burning stove for year-round heat, a dome skylight, and windows oriented toward the ocean for optimal wave-watching and privacy

More Roam+Board
RIMBA Jimbaran Bali
Villa Samadhi - Kuala Lumpur
Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle
Four Seasons Chiang Mai
Four Seasons Hong Kong
Korakia Pensione - Palm Springs 
La Gazelle d'Or – Morocco
Mandarin Oriental – Las Vegas
Hotel Lone – Croatia

[photos by @tripstyler {except for first two and yurt photos}, taken while as a guest of the resort I've been longing to stay at since it opened.]

Stormwatching Ahoy

[trip style = adventure + weekend getaway]

It’s not my norm to hunt for the perfect storm—as a general rule, I prefer mai tais on the beach—but when the Vancouver meteorologists informed me the skies would turn from grey to ghastly, I bolted to the edge of Canada’s West Coast to behold the eye of the storm. 

Located five hours from Vancouver via car and a ride aboard BC Ferries, the side-by-side sea-sprayed towns of Ucluelet and Tofino are one of Canada's first points of contact with the Pacific Ocean. To put things in perspective, if you had a NASA-grade telescope, you might spot Japan 7,400 kilometres in the distance.

Standing beside a kaleidoscope of kelp and grasses washed ashore by the enraged waves, I panned my surroundings only to realize I was straddling the divide between land and sea.

A place where the flow of frothy waves never takes a break, the towns have become famous for their physical features: multimile beaches, a centuries-old coastal rainforest, and inclement weather. During the winter—a.k.a., storm-watching season—these elements perform in a show so spectacular {see my Instagram video}, it's priceless. For VIP access, all you have to do is show up.

Private beaches = VIP storm-watching at Wya Point Resort.  

Front Row Seats 
One of the best spots to savor winter storms in Ucluelet is at Wya Point Resort, a camping, glamping and lodge retreat perched over a series of private beaches. Here, walk a few steps to shore for a front row seat, or, watch the wind and waves waltz—make that rock n' roll—from your lodge's balcony.

On Thursday I'm going to go more in-depth about the First Nations-owned Wya Point Resort, but in the meantime, check out their winter Stormwatching Package for $389 including two nights in a {gorgeous} one-bedroom lodge, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and a pair of locally-made pottery mugs {BYO Baileys}. 

  [photos by @tripstyler]