1. Best place to live with your canine companion
With the highest percentage per citizen dog population in the world it is not uncommon to bring Fido along for dinner. Over 40 restaurants are ready to accommodate the two of you.
2. McMenamins
Whether you want to watch a movie in the Old St. Francis Theater for $3 while enjoying a beer and dinner, have a dip in the soaking pool (also $3), enjoy homemade brews at the Pub, or be entertained by live music, McMenamins has it all and then some. Renovated from an Old Catholic schoolhouse to hotel/events center, it is one of the highlights for locals and visitors.
3. 18 Breweries and counting
Bend is known as Beer Town USA. Enjoy your drinking adventures on the Bend Ale Trail Beer Tour. The interactive phone application allows you to meet friends, join a tour, find a party, play a game, book a hotel or call a taxi home. When you’re done simply send in your “stamped passport” and receive a commemorative Bend Silipint.
4. Spork
A Food truck turned restaurant and featured in the New York Times, this is one of the best places to eat in town. Local ingredients, quality vegetables and humanely raised meats, following green materials and policies help create their famous global cuisine.
5. 300 days of sunshine a year
A high-desert environment, low humidity, cool nights and sunny days make the weather one of Bends best kept secrets.
6. 71 parks and 48 miles of recreational trails
Less than an hour outside town, you’ll find 26 golf courses, whitewater rafting and fly-fishing on the Deschutes River. You can paddleboard on one of the 40 lakes in the region, hike and camp in the Three Sisters Wilderness, or summit Pilot Butte, a 479-foot-tall cinder cone in the center of town. Floating the stretch of Deschutes from Bend Park in the center of town is a favorite pass time in the nice summer weather.
7. More than 1,000 established climbing routes
Smith Rock State Park lies 25 miles north of Bend, a dramatic fissure in the high-desert floor carved by the Crooked River. Each spring and fall, climbers from all over the world flood into this climbing mecca.
8. The Bank of Cascades Summer Festival
This Bend Festival draws in 75,000 visitors each year. Five stages offer a variety of music including blues, jazz and rock. Artists, craftspeople and performers make this the place to be every summer.
9. Skiing season that lasts up to eight months a year
21 miles from downtown Bend stands Mount Bachelor with 3,600 skiable acres. Don’t forget to enjoy a beer at the open-air brew pub.
10. Coffee-Bikes-Beer
Crow’s Feet Commons is an adorable and inviting backcountry ski/boutique bike shop right next to the Deschutes River. A bike and ski shop that also offers quality coffee and beers has made this the community gathering hot spot.
11. Traffic circles
Roundabouts are a great way to decrease traffic delays, but in Bend they are also a form of Art. Join the Roundabout Art Route Map tour. A collection of over 20 pieces of public art on display throughout the City in the center of traffic circles.
12. Lifestyle
“Your vacation is our life.”
— A Bend bumper sticker
