Spring has arrived! If your spring cleaning checklist is complete and you’re thinking about a vacation to treat yourself after all that hard work, look around Bend, Oregon and see what we have to offer for your spring getaway. Spring in Bend means fewer crowds, but just because the area isn’t packed doesn’t mean there aren’t still plenty of fun activities. Bend is a great destination for solo travelers, couples, families or groups – we truly have something for everyone!

Events for a Spring in Bend

Brunch is wildly popular in Bend year-round, but come springtime, near Easter, restaurants in the area really pull out all the stops. Many cater to this holiday weekend with brunch specials or buffets, and some even include an Easter Egg Hunt for the kiddos! Make sure you check out the options if you’re here for the holiday. Another great event this spring in Bend is the 6^th Annual Bend Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 5k. The courses will take you through beautiful parks and pine forests, along the mighty Deschutes River, and finally, to a happening afterparty with plenty of fun, food, kombucha and craft beer! For a one-of-a-kind event celebrating freedom, check out RendezVan and hang out with an awesome community of RV owners, campers and van-lifers at Mt. Bachelor. And at the Crater Lake Spirits Downtown Tasting Room, you can attend a variety of events, such as sip-and-paint nights and a local Rescue Dog Benefit!

Great Outdoors

Bend is known as a destination for people who love the outdoors! As it should be – the area offers an abundance of stunning natural attractions. You can visit a National Forest, a State Park, Pine Nursery Park, as well as several breathtaking waterfalls and vast underground caverns! There are plenty of opportunities all around us for hiking and biking, whether you’re looking for an off the beaten path experience or prefer a smooth path, or anything in between, you’ll find all of the options around Bend. Other great outdoor adventures can include rock climbing, fishing, photography, boating and exploring. The whole family will love the adventures that surround you in Bend, and if you need a stay, Bend Vacation Rentals is at your convenience!

After a full day of exploring, you can return to one of these lovely homes for rent in Oregon, take a load off, and relax with a home cooked meal and a growler from a local brewery. Call today and book your stay with Bend Vacation Rentals for a spring vacation that will make memories to last a lifetime!

When you’re coming to see the Bend beauty as a solo traveler, you’re going to want some activities that are fun to do on your own. We’ve got you covered with a crash course on Bend activities for the solo traveler. There’s never a shortage of things to do, so here’s a few to get you started:

Visit a Museum

Museums are the perfect activity to do as a solo traveler, because you’ll be able to set your own pace and explore to your heart’s desire. Visit the High Desert Museum, a nature preserve you can find on 135 beautiful acres of forest. If you love nature and wildlife, this is the museum for you. Make sure to visit the Deschutes Historical Museum too if you have a love of history.

Explore the Newberry National Volcanic Monument

This breathtaking area will provide you views that will stand out in your memory forever. The Newberry Volcano hasn’t erupted in almost 100,000 years. The last time it did erupt, it formed the oasis-like caldera where we love to go hiking and fishing today.

Go Skiing on Mt. Bachelor

Make sure to visit the crowning jewel, the Bend beauty: Mt. Bachelor. Skiing is  one of the best Bend activities to do on your own, when you can take the day at your own speed, choose your own ski runs, and enjoy the company of the mountain, the snow dusted trees, and the blue sky above. You can even take skiing lessons if you’ve never done it before. Now’s as good a time as any to start!

Take a Tour of Deschutes Brewery

This brewery offers a tour every day. When you take the tour with them, you’ll get to step behind the veil of the brewing process and see how it’s all done in this historical brewery. We all know and love Deschutes Brewery, and you’ll love it too, especially with all the complimentary beer samples, plus the 19 different beers on tap.

Dine in Style

Grab a table for one at one of our favorite local bars and eateries. Make sure to visit Anthony’s at the Old Mill District, Zydeco Kitchen & Cocktails, and McKay Cottage Restaurant while you’re here in town with us.

Spend Your Stay with Bend Vacation Rentals & Bend Activities

Get started on planning your solo trip to Bend today. Head over to our catalog to take a look at all our vacation rentals that have been designed for the solo traveler. Somewhere amongst them, your vacation home awaits!

The beginning of a new year is our favorite time. There are 365 days stretching out before us, waiting to be filled with laughter, love, and adventures to places we have never visited before. And when it’s time to start filling some of your days with adventures to those places, a visit to our hometown of beautiful Bend, Oregon should be at the top of your vacation bucket list! Welcoming and inviting at any time of the year, during the festival time the excitement gets amped up even more, making your Oregon getaway even more magical than you imagined it could be. Here’s a list of some of our favorite upcoming Bend festivals; let’s get the vacation planning started!

Oregon Winterfest, February 15th-February 17th, Old Mill District

Winter is one of our favorite seasons in Bend and we celebrate its wonders with the Oregon Winterfest. Featuring ice sculptures, live musical entertainment, a wine walk, and a royal run, every second of every day is filled to the brim with exciting activities and fun adventures. And once darkness falls, the cold of an Oregon winter night is chased away with the warmth of the fires from the firepit competition. Your winter break is destined to be a great one when planned to coincide with this chill winter festival!

Bite of Bend, June 23rd-June 25th

As you huddle under blankets with the heater blasting beside you, it may be difficult to believe, but summer IS coming sooner than you think, and it’s never too soon to start planning that summer vacation! And because the best vacations always involve the tastiest foods, Bite of Bend offers the opportunity to taste the best of our town! Featuring multiple restaurants serving meals they have designed to entice, a mixology showcase for the over-21 crowd and a root beer run for the wee ones, this epicurean adventure is bound to be the highlight of your summer getaway.

Bend Summer Festival, July 7th through July 9th

Summer days and nights are special ones in Oregon, and the Bend Summer Festival celebrates the good times that accompany the longest days of the years. Featuring live music being performed on three stages that will have you dancing in your seats, tasty food, refreshing beverages, and a play zone for your littles, no one knows how to throw a party better than a Bendite, and this Bend festival is the proof!

Celebrate in Style After These Bend Festivals

Whether it’s a tasty food festival or a funky music fest that brings you to Bend, staying in one of our Bend Vacation Rentals properties will be the best part of an already stellar vacation. Reserve yours today and discover the luxury of celebrating in style!

If you close your eyes tightly and use your remaining senses, you can feel that summer is drawing to a close. The sun shines a little less brightly, the darkness falls faster, and the smell of pumpkins, hay rides, and Halloween candy is just beginning to tickle your nostrils. And while we love fall with all our hearts, saying goodbye to summer is always a sad moment for us; summers always bring us back to our youth, and the long, lazy days that seemed to be filled with so much promise.

If you’re like us, and are not quite ready to don your corduroys and sweaters. Never fear: There’s still a few more summer days left for flip flops, ice cream, and frolicking in the sun. Here’s a few end of summer activities in Bend to get you started during your unforgettable Bend vacation!

Visit a Volcano

Newberry National Volcanic Monument is kind of big deal in this area, and with heights reaching as high as 8000 feet, hiking Paulina Peak is NOT something you want to wait till winter to do. The weather is perfect and the time is right to explore ancient craters and lava flows in Bend.

The Bend Ale Trail

Summer days are only enhanced by the taste of an ice-cold beer sliding smoothly down your throat, and Bend has been nicknamed Beer Town USA; there are more breweries (and wineries, for those of you with a more sophisticated palate) in our small town than are in towns much larger. Take a brewery tour along the Bend Ale Trail and enjoy a taste of Bend safely.

Laughter is Good for the Soul at these Activities in Bend

The Central Oregon comedy scene offers Comedy Thursday Nights at the Summit Saloon, and the more you laugh, the younger you look! This is the spot where future Oregon superstars are discovered and current stars can’t stay away from. Saying so long to summer isn’t so bad when you can do it with a laugh!

Explore Art

Stop by the Bend Visitor Center and pick up a map for the Roundabout Art Route; in addition to galleries and stores, our art is also displayed out on the streets for everyone to enjoy! Save your pennies for souvenirs: This art tour is 100% free!

Don’t Do Anything at All

The best part of summer is spending long lazy days doing absolutely nothing, and what better place to do nothing than in your cozy Bend Vacation Rentals cabin? Sleep late, watch movies on the big screen, or watch the sunset from the porch with a glass of local wine. Summer will soon be over, and the hustle and bustle of the holidays will arrive before you know it! Reserve yours today!

Bend Vacation Rentals is a proud supporter of the fourth-annual Muse Conference this weekend, March 4-6, 2016. Held in Bend, Oregon, this inspiring women’s conference brings local women of all ages together with internationally-recognized artists, authors, athletes, entrepreneurs, activists and social change leaders to celebrate International Women’s Day as well as kick off Women’s History Month.

We are honored to be providing luxury vacation rental accommodations for some of the out-of-town speakers, and are looking forward to connecting with the women of Bend at the receptions, yoga class, 5K run and workshops during this inspiring, three-day event in Bend.

The mission of World Muse, the Bend-based nonprofit that produces the Muse Conference, is to inspire women to create positive social change from within. They strive to connect women to their “own inner awesome,” and offer tools and support for putting it into action. Ready, set, muse.

Fall in Bend, Oregon, brings crisp fresh air, pure landscapes and pristine beauty that both locals and visitors enjoy and appreciate as they embrace activities like hiking, biking, and even outdoor mediation and yoga. This weekend’s retreat with acclaimed yogi Rolf Gates was a perfect way to savor the wonder of fall in Bend.

We are blessed in Bend to have some of the best yoga studios in the Pacific Northwest, and Groove Yoga, which organized the retreat, is no exception. People gathered from several states to come together in Central Oregon with the shared purpose of deepening their yoga practice, creating space and stillness in their minds, and participating authentically in their own self-discovery.

I started my weekend with a Bend yoga and meditation session Friday evening at an amazing property in Tumalo, a rural community just outside of Bend. Situated on a large parcel of land, the Miracle Barn is a gathering place that feels magical. Gazing out on the seven peaks of the Cascades, and surrounded by the brilliant colors of the changing aspen trees, we were truly practicing our mountain pose at the mountain top!

It’s official. The Mt. Bachelor Downhill Bike Park is to open September 13, 2013.

Upper Lava Flow to Rattlesnake and Blade Runner will be ready for top-to-bottom riding. For an easier, alternate route in avoidance of the black diamond Rattlesnake trail, riders can take Lava Flow to Cone Run, which connects to Blade Runner. For experts, the upper portion of Last Chance trail will be finished down to the 21 Road. From there, riders can use 21 Road and lower Red Road to return to the base area. The West Village Getback, 21 Road and Red Road are service roads that will not be a part of the finished Bike Park trail network, but will be used this fall and early next summer as connector trails until other permanent bike trails are complete.

Tickets for opening day on September 13, 2013, will be available online. Tickets for other days will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis at the ticket office on the mountain.

August 30 and 31, 2013

Friday 5pm-10pm; Saturday noon-10pm

The Little Woody Barrel Aged Brew Fest was created to commemorate one of Central Oregon’s cultural hallmarks – craft beers. This is a festival for beer lovers and connoisseurs alike!

In the past, brewers served beer that had been aged in oaken casks. Once again, brewers are turning to these historic techniques in order to add depth of flavor to their brews. The Little Woody celebrates this ancient brewing technique as adapted by American craft brewers, featuring beers aged in wine barrels, whiskey barrels and oak barrels, which uniquely flavors and intensifies the beer.

Details and Entry Fees:

Location: The Little Woody Festival takes place next to the Des Chutes Historical Museum, 129 Northwest Idaho Avenue in downtown Bend.

• • Basic entry including commemorative glass: $7
  • Tasting package: $15. Includes glass, entry and 10 tokens
  • Whiskey tasting: Tokens will apply to both beer and whiskey
  • Tokens: $1 each and tastes cost 2-5 tokens each

Note: The Little Woody is a 21 and over event!

Sept. 4-8 – Bend, OR

For the third year in a row, hundreds of masters cyclists will head to central Oregon for the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. New for 2013, the criteriums will be held in beautiful downtown Redmond to cap the final two days of racing. Titles will also be up for grabs in time trials, road races and tandem events.

Mt. Bachelor has been blessed with amazing conditions this winter. We enjoyed a big powder day at the end of January. The web site reported eight inches, but I can testify to at least a foot. By the end of the storm, we had over 30 inches of new snow!

One of the great things about Mt. Bachelor is the length of time the powder can last. We skied un-tracked snow the entire day, and pretty much the next five days. 
This past week has been high pressure, with the best groomers and off piste you will find in the West.

Bend Vacation Rentals is offering great lift ticket discounts, as well as our Kids Under 12 Ski Free program, even over holidays. I have noticed that other ski areas are offering many great discounts this year, and it allows families to enjoy outdoor sports during a long winter.
 Bend is such a great place to visit, not only because of all that Mt. Bachelor offers, but also because Bend is more than a ski resort. Snowshoe, sled, Nordic ski or just take a walk along the Deschutes River. This week, the snow sports industry will gather at Mt. Bachelor to demo the new 2013-14 equipment, and it looks like there will be great snow and weather for the event!