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Willamette Pinot trip

Strasnuts

Well Known Member
My wife and I will be making a vacation from July 4th to the 8th to Willamette valley. Any recommendations for airports, hotels or wineries. Is KUAO a good spot to land?
 
McMinnville will put you close to the major wine touring areas. I would stay at the McMinnemams Hotel Oregon. Right down in old town McMinnville in a neat area and a very fun property. You are minutes away via car from all the wineries you can possibly take in. I am not a wine guy so I can not make a recommendation on which ones, but this area is where all the touring companies go. I am sure the Hotel can hook you up if you dont want to drive.
Of course you need to stop by the mothership, ten minutes via RV from McMinnville at the most. Make another 20 minute flight to Pacific City for some beach walking, or Tillamook to take in the Air Museum.
McMinnville is also home to the Spruce Goose and an Air and Space Museum that is spectacular.
Fun!
 
KMMV

Thanks JonJay,

I have landed at Mc Minnville for work but just had enough time to run through the spruce goose. I would like to go back. I will look into it.

Thanks
 
Thanks JonJay,

I have landed at Mc Minnville for work but just had enough time to run through the spruce goose. I would like to go back. I will look into it.

Thanks

You bet. Make sure you get to the Roof Top Bar in Hotel Oregon. It is so small they reserve it for guests only. Really cool.
If you have not been to Portland, it is worth an evening trip. About an hours drive or less if you can avoid rush hour traffic.
 
The city park with the rose gardens on the west side of Portland would be an enjoyable visit. We spent four days in and around Portland a few years ago and would gladly go back. Lots to do and see. :)
 
That is my backyard! Plenty of wineries around and indeed MMV is the closest to the action. You can of course fly into UAO and see the factory and drive a short distance. The wine valley is very large, but the MMV area is solidly in the Pinot region.

Not to be missed, even if just for a night, check out the new hotel catering to the winery visitors - http://www.theallison.com/. Quite nice and the restaurant is awesome!
 
Dundee has a great bistro for lunch, and the Pinot Noirs in that area are really good! (but sadly all good ones are $40+!)

Aurora is a good big airport, but if you want to be really close don't rule out Sportsman (K2S6).

http://www.dundeehills.org/map
http://dundeebistro.com/

Otherwise, McMinnville and the McMenamins hotel is supposedly nice (but haven't stayed there myself).
Besides the McMinnville aviation museum, there is also another nice museum in Tillamook and Hood River (yes, I know its not wines but I assume you would also like looking at airplanes!).

http://www.mcmenamins.com/8-hotel-oregon-history
 
2S6

I was just looking at 2S6. Looks like a good location at Newberg. I have to call to see about rental cars. Also is the runway that beatup? Airnav shows poor runway conditions.
 
Willamette Pinot Noir

Many sites list the Willamette Pinot Noir wines as having some of the highest concentrations of resveratrol; quite possibly a very healthy reason for sampling some.

Barney in Memphis
Flying RV-3 & 4
Paid up for 2012
 
You bet. Make sure you get to the Roof Top Bar in Hotel Oregon. It is so small they reserve it for guests only. Really cool.
If you have not been to Portland, it is worth an evening trip. About an hours drive or less if you can avoid rush hour traffic.
An excellent spot to enjoy a local brew.

TODR
 
King Estate

I'll second the recommendation for the King Estate winery at the southern end of the Willamette Valley. In addition to very good Pinots, they have a great restaurant with incredible views (get an outside table). Land at Creswell (77S) and take their courtesy car. It is just a short and very scenic drive to the winery. There are a number of other small wineries in the area (Chateau Lorane, Pfeiffer, Benton-Lane, to name a couple) that are fun to visit. Dundee is the center of the Willamette wine country but the Southern Willamette is pretty good too.

If you visit the Southern Willamette Valley toward the end of your trip (after July 6), let me know. I'd be glad to show you around.
 
Another vote here for the Allison Hotel. A very relaxed and romantic place my wife and I have been to and enjoyed. The restaurant there, Jory, is great, as well as the Painted Lady a few minutes away in Newberg.

If you make the drive to King Estate (yes that would be the same Ed King who started the avionics company), I would go for lunch. They have the ultimate "$100 hamburger", the KE burger, served with foie gras and truffled fries (Oregon white truffle oil), but not available at dinner
 
+1 on the McMinville destination. Enterprise will drop a car off at the FBO, then you just do some quick paperwork at the FBO and you're on your way. There's some good wine guides on the area you should be able to pick up at a book store, or get a local map from the hotel/ B&B. The region is spread out and there are many really good wineries. Cheers!
 
Yam hill area

+1 again for McMinnville and wine tasting. We have done it several times and there are so many wineries you can not possibly get to them all. Archery Summit, Lange, Witness Tree, Domain Serene all come to mind as excellent Pinot Noirs! As Jim says you can get a rental at the FBO. Have fun, it is a great thing to do. Also consider Walla Walla, WA for another tasting trip. Going there this week end.
 
My wife and I celebrated one of our anniversaries at a B & B right in the heart of the wine country near the towns of McMinnville, Dundee, and Carlton. Just 10 minutes from the Evergreen Museum (home of the Spruce Goose), you'll find the Lobenhaus B & B. Joe & Shari Lobenstein will take very good care of you. It's absolutely beautiful there, and we'd go back in a heartbeat. Here's their website:

http://lobenhaus.com/

You're just minutes away from so many wineries, you'll never be able to visit them all. Have fun!
 
Runway is OK, but there is some rumble for sure.
I always take my students in there when practicing short field landing/takeoff (i.e, its not hard but visually it looks more challenging than it is, and there is some trees when departing rwy 16).

If you can find a rental car there it would be really close to the wineries, but otherwise the bigger UAO, MMV, or possibly Mulino (with lots of other RV's!) would be good. Sorry, I don't have any information about rental cars, I live in the PDX area so we always drive our own cars...

http://www.sportsmanairpark.com/

I was just looking at 2S6. Looks like a good location at Newberg. I have to call to see about rental cars. Also is the runway that beatup? Airnav shows poor runway conditions.
 
I was just looking at 2S6. Looks like a good location at Newberg. I have to call to see about rental cars. Also is the runway that beatup? Airnav shows poor runway conditions.

Sportsman is kind of a sleepy little airpark for locals to hanger at. Not much else goes on there. (That I'm aware of, anyway...) It's been a few years, but the runway seemed fine back then...

You should stop in at 7S3, home of Chapter 105, AKA Vans Home Wing. There is the monthly pancake feed on the 7th, if you're lucky Van himself may be cooking the 'cakes. :D

KMMV is closer to the B&B's, most of the wineries, and the Evergreen Air and Space Museum (Spruce Goose).

7S3 is closer to fancy motels (Embassy Suites, Marriott, etc) and a large shopping mall, about 5 miles drive.

The two airports are 10 miles apart as the RV flies. :)
 
Kast and hood river

Hood river has some fantastic wineries and beautiful scenery! And Astoria has a great assortment of craft breweries! Both are around 45 rv minutes away and don't really demand a car to get around!
 
Thanks

Thanks for all the input! Sounds like I will have plenty to do and might stay in different places during the trip.:D
 
Our Fav

We've stopped at Chehalem several times and melted the plastic buying cases. Outstanding Pinot Noirs. You need to schedule the tasting but they're terrific hosts.
Chehalem Winery
 
Thanks Again

It was great having the recommendations form VAF before going on this trip. We stayed at the Allison for three nights and one night at Sun River and golfed. We flew to MMV and tied down. On Friday we flew to PFC and walked down the beach, had lunch, flew to TMK went to the museum. Cool hangar! We met up with my BFF Scott Schmidt and got this great pic up the coast.

25ph4yf.jpg
 
I was just looking at 2S6. Looks like a good location at Newberg. I have to call to see about rental cars. Also is the runway that beatup? Airnav shows poor runway conditions.
I flew in there last year, it's fine. You can walk to town from there, maybe 15 min. Don't recall if there are tiedowns, probably not.
 
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