You may have heard of Deschutes Brewery, a popular brewery in Bend, Oregon. On your first trip to Bend, Deschutes Brewery is a must, but I hope you also check out some other cool spots. Grab all your hipster PNW hiking gear, rent a car, and let me lead you through my top spots in Bend!

Breweries + Restaurants

For all those brewery lovers out there, Bend is a top destination near the west coast for flavorful brews. It has similar vibes to Asheville, North Carolina, in the east. To visit Deschutes, make sure to book the brewery tour in advance. The tour includes a can of beer in a koozie. There are two popular NA beer options which is a nice alternative if you are not drinking alcohol, but want the experience. There are streets lined with microbrewery after microbrewery but some favorites were: The Ale Apothecary for wild and spontaneous beers; Bend Brewing Company for good beer and cool outdoor vibes next to the Deschutes River, which runs through Bend.

A tap house worth a visit is Crosscut Tap House, which has a wide selection of drinks. Sit by the fireplace inside, a fire pit outside, or the loft space up top, to enjoy its cozy vibes. Make sure to order Detroit style pizza from a food truck in the back. On the subject of food trucks, if you want a lot of variety, the Midtown Yacht Club hosts multiple trucks with a common area to eat your grub.

Coffee

Another favorite part of my first trip to Bend was discovering the best coffee shops. Lone Pine Coffee Roasters impressed me with their beans and drink options. I also loved their reasonably priced avocado toast. With additional caffeine needs stop by: Backporch Coffee Roasters, Thump Coffee, and Sisters Coffee Company.

Trails

Hiking is a part of the lifestyle in Bend with the adjacent Cascade Mountains on the west. On your first trip to Bend, try to go on at least one hike. An option about 30 minutes from the city is Tumalo Falls. Take a hike to and from this gorgeous waterfall. Make sure to check on trail openings since some close due to snow. Another even closer option is to hike up and down Pilot butte. It is a cinder cone butte, created from an extinct volcano, with 360-degree views of Bend, the Cascade Range to the west, and high desert to the east.

Crater Lake National Park

On your first trip to Bend, I highly recommend driving about 2.5 hours to Crater Lake National Park. It is worth checking the weather and visibility prior to making the drive. Also, the South entrance is always open, but the North entrance is closed seasonally due to snow. I traveled there at the end of April, not realizing how much snow the park gets. As we got closer to the visitor center and the elevation increased, the amount of snow also increased significantly. We had signed up for a free ranger-guided snowshoe walk in the park, so we knew there would be snow, just not that much!

Before the walk, we went to the rim edge to try to catch a glimpse of Crater Lake. Although the visibility was not very good, we were able to see a portion of the huge blue lake and Wizard Island. It was stunning! It was good we caught a glimpse then, because it started to snow more as the day went on and we couldn’t see the lake at all at the end of the walk.

The ranger-guided snowshoe walk was a very unique experience and if you visit when there is snow I would definitely recommend signing up (on the national park website) in advance for this tour. the ranger was so knowledgeable and provided information about the lake, plants, and animals in the park. Most visitors choose the summer when a lot more is open, and it is popular to circumnavigate around the lake on the scenic rim drive.

If you are traveling to Oregon make sure you stop in Bend! If it’s not your first trip to Bend, please comment below with any other recommendations you may have.