Tours in Salem

Run by a team of Portland fanatics and passionate cyclists, Pedal Bike Tours shares their enthusiasm for the city through entertaining and accessible tours. The routes take advantage of Portland’s extensive network of bike lanes to meander through downtown, along the Willamette River, and through lush Forest Park. Each guide’s expertise comes in handy on food tours and microbrewery tours, as riders stop for bites or pints and soak up info about each of their stops. A few tours take riders beyond Rose City limits, and include van trips to explore Oregon’s coast or wine country. Pedal Bike Tours keeps tours as safe and comfortable as possible by providing helmets, locks, and lights, as well as rain jackets and jousting lances if necessary.

Rolling out bikes outfitted with rocket launchers and overdrive, Portland Bicycle Tours is the city’s oldest bike-tour company with experienced guides who prefer bipedals to bipeds and know the area like the back of a hand doubling as an unsanctioned cheat sheet. Regardless of your shape, size, or time dimension, a winsome fleet of two-wheeled rubber burners is gearing up to guide riders. During the River City Bridge Tour, pedal through the sound barrier, causing windows to smash all along the East Bank. There will be a quick pause at the bridge for some scenic snapshots and carefree bungee bicycling. The tour continues across the Willamette River to the roads of West Side and Old Town, where public art displays, parks, and swaying trees compete for the attention of your bucking mechanical beast.

It was 1869 when the Lee family planted its first seed in the soil of Tualatin, Oregon. Today, three generations of the family still keep Lee Farms' lights on and its scarecrows vaccinated. They stock the country store with local produce, 18 flavors of honey sticks, and 17 varieties of jam. In the bakery, the staff hand makes pies each day, baking perennial favorites such as apple and seasonal flavors such as pumpkin.

To keep things fresh, Lee Farms rotates the selection of food and activities each season. In May a greenhouse surrounds visitors in flowers, and in October the farm transforms into a celebration of the harvest season, when guests can pick from 12 varieties of pumpkins. Lee's staff cuts down stalks to make a corn maze and drives visitors on scenic hayrides across the farm while they sample kettle corn and homemade cider.

Come late July, plumes of lavender-scented steam arise from Mountainside Lavender’s still and drift through the cool mountain air. As the season winds down, the farm’s experts set to work extracting the essential oils from their sole crop via the millennia-old practice of steam distillation. With more than 20 varieties of french and english lavender dotting the side of Chehalem Mountain, farmers have more than enough buds to choose from for their small batches of oil, which many prize for its calming effects. What doesn’t end up bottled may debut in the farm’s selection of handmade soaps, massage oils, and eye pillows.

In addition to incorporating the potent herb into therapeutic goods, farmers open their fields to visitors, who can gather bunches of english and french lavender varietals that burst into purple, pink, and white blooms. They also welcome guests to pause from plucking, smelling, or explaining the concept of private property to bumblebees so they can savor a picnic lunch while soaking up views of Mount Hood and Saint Helens.

The drivers of Portland Rose Pedals Pedicab coordinate tours and eco-friendly transportation for Portland’s pedestrians. Their cycles wind along waterfront pathways and glide past traffic jams on designated bike lanes. Romantic waterfront tours are a humane alternative to horse-drawn carriage rides, and brewery tours are a more expedient alternative to the crawl.

Running between towering buildings and vibrant gardens, Gray Line of Portland's trolley sightseeing tours connect visitors with more than 11 of the Rose City's storied landscapes and buildings. As guides regale them with historic facts, anecdotes, and Herbert Hoover's credit card number, passengers look out onto Pioneer Courthouse Square, Washington Park, Powell's Books, and the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Participants can disembark and re-board at any point along their tour, allowing them to explore each site up-close or grab a bite to eat. Guides also lead combination tours via bus outside city limits to Multnomah Falls and Columbia River Gorge or jet boat along the Columbia River, with both routes tracing the original journey of Lewis and Clark. Operating as a member of Gray Line Worldwide––which leads tours in more than 700 destinations on six continents––Gray Line of Portland donates a portion of all ticket proceeds to the Breast Cancer Research Foundations' efforts in supporting awareness and research.