If you’re looking for the perfect family-friendly hotel in Seaside Oregon, you’ve come to the right place. We recently spent a long weekend at the River Inn at Seaside with our six children, and we highly recommend it. With its great location, kid-friendly amenities and helpful staff, the River Inn at Seaside is ideal for family getaways.
We received a complimentary three-night stay for our family from the River Inn at Seaside. All opinions are our own.
@dinkumtribe If you’re looking for the perfect family-friendly hotel in Seaside Oregon, you’ve come to the right place. We recently spent a long weekend at the River Inn at Seaside with our six children, and we highly recommend it. With its great location, kid-friendly amenities and helpful staff, the River Inn at Seaside is ideal for family getaways. The River Inn at Seaside is a few minutes’ walk from the beach, right on the Necanicum River. #hosted #traveltok #traveloregon #oregoncoast #oregonbeaches #familytravel #neurodivergentfamily #hotelreview @DinkumTribe ADHD family travel @DinkumTribe ADHD family travel @DinkumTribe ADHD family travel ♬ Walking Around – Instrumental Version – Eldar Kedem
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Close to Seaside Attractions
The River Inn at Seaside is a few minutes’ walk from the beach, right on the Necanicum River. The Seaside Carousel mall, the Arcade, and dozens of restaurants and shops are just a block away from the hotel, and the Seaside Aquarium is still within easy walking distance.
Each morning, several of us took the short walk over to the Seaside beach to enjoy the quiet beauty of the Pacific Ocean before breakfast. Our teen daughters loved the freedom of exploring the beach and Seaside downtown on their own, without needing a ride.
Even though the River Inn is near the center of Seaside and the downtown area, we didn’t find it to be noisy or too busy. Since the River Inn isn’t right on Broadway Street (the main street), most of the late-night activities are far enough away to not disturb hotel guests.
Arrival and Check-In
We arrived just after sunset on the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day, ready for a fun family getaway.
As we entered the lobby, we were greeted by the smell of freshly baked cookies, sitting right by the front desk! The kids were delighted to enjoy a cookie each while I got us all checked in.
Guest Room Details and Amenities
We had two guest rooms for our family: a King River View Suite and an adjoining Two Queen Room. The suite room includes a kitchenette, dining table, and chairs, in addition to a pullout sofa bed. All three rooms have connecting doors, which gave us just enough extra space for our family to hang out together when all the doors were open.
There were lots of excited exclamations as the kids discovered all the fun features in the rooms. A cute s’mores package was sitting on the dining table to welcome us.
We were impressed with the artistic details in each room, as well as the quality personal care products available. This is the first hotel we’ve visited that included yoga mats in each room for guest use. The boys had never seen fancy folded towels like these ones in the private bathrooms!
Kitchenette
The kitchenette in the suite room was exactly what we needed to be able to enjoy a few casual dinners together. The full-sized fridge, dishwasher, and dishes made it easy for us to dine in at our suite.
We picked up some easy dinners from Costco (gyros, frozen mini pizzas, and street tacos from the deli), heated them up, and relaxed in our rooms.
This mealtime flexibility is important to us with the many neurodivergent members of our family. Eating at a restaurant doesn’t always work well for those of us with autism, ADHD, or cPTSD, due to decision fatigue or sensory overwhelm.
Having the option to prepare our own “safe foods” right at the hotel was ideal. We were even able to continue our family’s St. Patrick’s Day tradition of having Lucky Charms for breakfast!
Additional room features
The rooms had all the basic features we look for to ensure a comfortable stay: free wi-fi, flat-screen TVs with local and satellite channels, air conditioning, a hair dryer, and an alarm clock.
Our teens lost no time logging into the wi-fi to enjoy their music and video streaming. We nearly always have to complete some remote work or online classes while traveling, so having a desk and office chair in each room was convenient.
One of our favorite things about the River Inn is the amazing river views! The back of the hotel faces the Necanicum River, and each guest room on that side has a balcony overlooking the river.
Our boys loved sitting on the balcony in the early morning with a cup of hot cocoa while watching the cormorants fish. In the afternoons, we saw paddleboats cruising the River, and at night the city lights were pretty also.
Breakfast and Playground Area
The River Inn at Seaside has created a thoughtful, free breakfast menu for their guests that includes both hot and cold options.
The fresh waffles from the waffle irons were a favorite with our kids (and the whipped cream and sprinkles made them even better)!
We’d like to personally thank the person who decided to put the playground right outside the breakfast room – genius! Our boys struggle to focus long enough to eat breakfast, and they are bursting with energy in the morning. We loved being able to let them play outside within our view while we finished our own breakfast at a leisurely pace.
Pool, Hot Tub and Game Room
Of course we couldn’t miss the chance to splash about in the indoor swimming pool and hot tub!
Our kids love the water, and even though it was too cold to be splashing around at the beach, the saltwater pool more than made up for it. A major advantage of the indoor pool is that guests can enjoy it even on rainy or windy days.
Since there’s no designated life guard on duty, Mom and Dad took turns watching the water while the other parent soaked in the hot tub or played with the kids. We noticed that the hotel staff checked in on the water a couple times as well. We appreciated their commitment to their guests’ safety.
The game room provided fun indoor options for our family when the Oregon weather wasn’t cooperative.
We had a great time challenging each other to foosball and table tennis, and our boys discovered that Mom and Dad actually know how to win at those games!
Fire Pits, S’mores and More
On our first night we noticed that the outdoor fire pits in the back area (facing the river) were going, and we made a plan to do s’mores there the next night. The River Inn at Seaside offers a s’mores package for $15, so we ordered a second package from the friendly staff member on duty in the morning to be ready for us that night.
The weather was perfect, and since it was Friday night we had the fire pit area to ourselves. We pulled up the chairs and took turns toasting marshmallows. It was a sweet way to connect and unwind after a day of exploring.
One of our daughters had the brilliant idea to make her s’more with a couple of the fresh cookies from the lobby. Mmm, so good!
We were originally planning to borrow a movie from the free DVD collection near the lobby to watch as a family. However we were so tired out from exploring that we ended up just collapsing into our comfortable beds each night.
A great place to stay!
Everyone in our family loved staying at the River Inn in Seaside! Nearby towns like Cannon Beach, Astoria, and even Long Beach (in Washington) have lots to see and do and are only a short drive away, making the River Inn at Seaside an ideal landing place for travelers.
©️ Copyright Jennifer D. Warren 2024.
