Although I’ve lived in Salem for about 8 years now, I have small children and have done almost exclusively kid-things. But here are a couple of Salem spots that I like:
- Marco Polo Global Restaurant has great food, an excellent vegetarian menu and the prices are reasonable (down town)
- Blue Pepper Gallery and Internet Café (downtown, has café food, coffee, tea, beer and wine bar)
- Northern Lights Theater Pub ($3 movies, $1.25 popcorn, and a pub menu...what’s not to love?) (south side of down town)
- Pentacle Theater (near the Eola center)
- On Edgewater street in West Salem (not far from Eola center) there is a nice bookstore and several restaurants including Morton’s Bistro NW
Lodging
- Comfort Suites on Hawthorne will give discounts for people attending an event at Chemeketa Eola
- Best Western Mill Creek Inn
- Shilo Inn Suites
- Red Lion Hotel
- Travel Salem keeps a directory of Bed and Breakfasts and other lodging as well
More things to do
- Of course, the Salem Public Library and the Oregon State Library are great places to visit. The capital is flush with other libraries as well, such as the Oregon OSHA Resource Center.
- The Oregon Garden in Silverton is open everyday 10am-6pm ($10) - you may need all day to see it all!
- Travel Salem lists area wineries
- The McMenamins chain of pubs, breweries and etcetera has two locations in Salem, Boon's Treasury, downtown, and Thompson Brewery, south of downtown.
See also...
- Travel Salem lists general information
- Oregon Link is a guide to Salem and environs