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Oregon Tourism Site Provides Hi-Tech Mobile Listings, Weekly Lodging Availability Reports

Arch Cape, near Cannon Beach

(Manzanita, Oregon) – For those travelers heading to Oregon’s coast – either from within the state or from outside – Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net (www.beachconnection.net) will be providing some important and highly relevant information this summer, with some unusual, even cutting edge, high-tech angles.

In the busy, frenetic weekends of July and August, the daily travel news site will provide lodging availability updates for last minute visitors, almost real time updates on interesting and unusual natural events and detailed guides that list every beach access and attraction. Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net has also launched lodging and dining listings that are available on PDA’s and other wireless devices, allowing visitors to look up places to stay or eat while on the coast or in the valley – on their handheld devices.

For procrastinators or those who neglected to look for places to stay until the last minute for whatever reason, finding lodging on the Oregon coast during those high-density weekends can be tough, if not impossible. During such weekends last summer and those busy stretches in winter and spring, Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net introduced a popular feature where it provided lodging availability updates. The site talked to some 300 lodgings up and down the upper half of Oregon’s coast, from Florence to Astoria, and received information on any openings they still had for the weekend. The reports went live by Thursday mornings just before the weekend.

Find lodging in Florence a little more easily this summer

This summer, Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net will do the same, starting up again in July and August, beginning with the last weekend of June (typically when the summer season really starts up on the Oregon coast). The feature proved extremely popular last summer and during this year’s spring break season, as these articles are first shot out on a variety of news search engines such as Google News, Topix.net, etc. They are also delivered to many desktops around the country via RSS feeds and from regional news services.

Visitors are advised to make reservations a good week ahead of time, but if for some reason you don’t, you can check Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net (www.beachconnection.net) each Thursday morning.

The room opening updates will cover towns like Florence, Yachats, Newport, Depoe Bay, Lincoln City, Neskowin, Pacific City, Tillamook, Manzanita, Cannon Beach, Seaside, Gearhart and Astoria – and everything in between.

You can already check availability for the July 4th holiday, where only a handful are reporting openings still.

Interesting finds on Lincoln City beaches - find them almost in real time this summer

The first lodging availability report for the summer season happens this Thursday morning, for the weekend of June 29 – which is expected to be the first big busy weekend of the summer.

Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net has gone hi-tech in an extraordinary way. If you have a handheld device, like blackberry, PDA or cell phone with net access, you can now find places to eat or stay on the Oregon coast. Go to your handheld or mobile device and punch in www.beachconnection.net/mobile.

This will allow those already on the coast easy access to what could be life-saving information: especially if you’ve got hungry or cranky kidlets in tow, and you’re looking for a place to stay or food to stuff in their screaming mouths.

The mobile service is also perfect for those using their handheld devices to look for coastal lodging and dining while still inland, in their hometowns.

Hidden spot near Pacific City

“This is going to be very interesting and cutting edge,” said Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net editor Andre’ Hagestedt. “It’s going to provide a service that will prove invaluable someday.”

Wireless access is generally pretty good inside most coastal towns, although the deserted areas between them are usually quite dead. Rockaway Beach is one town with frequent dead spots. “You’ll have trouble on the east side of 101,” Hagestedt said. “But everyone who lives in the area knows that once you walk to the other side, reception is usually pretty good in Rockaway. But you’ll get nothing in between the little towns, like those long stretches between Waldport and Newport, Waldport to Yachats, Yachats to Florence, or between Manzanita and Cannon Beach, and so on. A good rule of thumb: use your wireless or cellular devices inside the towns.”

Find out what unusual things show up on Oregon beaches each week

Coming soon to the website will be some engaging subject matter for tourists or residents of the coast. It’s an unprecedented coordinated effort with a wide variety of coastal agencies to provide weekly reports on what interesting and odd natural occurrences can be found on Oregon’s beaches – from where to spot whales, baby seals or other wild creatures that have washed up onshore, bird movement patterns, wildlife watching possibilities to even where the best fossils can be found or where strange geologic features are emerging.

Through working with agencies like Oregon Coast Aquarium, Whale Watch Spoken Here, Marine Mammal Stranding Network, CoastWatch, Seaside Aquarium and many more, including a variety of individuals, Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net will literally have eyes on almost all the beaches of the Oregon coast’s northern half - almost all the time.

“The point behind this is to show visitors and potential visitors what truly interesting things can be found on the Oregon coast and where to find them,” said Hagestedt. “Nature pulls some remarkable stunts on a daily basis on the coast.”

Discover this incredible viewpoint and hidden spot with the complete guides coming up (this is along the Three Capes Loop)

Hagestedt said it is Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net’s job to provide this information to the public so they can truly enjoy the region to its fullest.

Slowly emerging on the site are the Complete Oregon Coast Guides, with descriptions of every single beach access and natural attraction on about 180 miles of Oregon coast. So far, the complete guides to the Cannon Beach and Lincoln City areas have been published. There will be extensive guides for the towns and regions of Astoria, Seaside, Manzanita/Rockaway, Tillamook Bay, Three Capes Loop, Inland 101, Depoe Bay, Newport, Waldport, Yachats, Upper Lane County and Florence.

When all of these have gone live, there will be printer friendly versions of all these detailed guides, allowing visitors to print and carry these guides with them on their trip.

Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net is a travel news and reference site for the Oregon coast, covering the upper half of the region. The centerpiece of the site is the daily tourism, entertainment or science articles about the area – anything of use to the visitor. There are over 1100 pages of reference material about the coast on the site at this time, including extensive, detailed virtual tours of various areas. The site grows every day with its articles. Oregon Coast BeachConnection.net also features extensive dining, lodging and vacation rental listings, as well as sections devoted to up-to-date weather, science, real estate news, Oregon coast picture galleries, and more.

Inn at Cannon Beach. Beautifully wooded natural setting at quiet south end of Cannon Beach. Great during winter storms with a new book by the fireplace – or when the sun is out for family fun and beach strolling. Handsome beach cottage-style architecture. Lush flowering gardens and naturalized courtyard pond. Warm, inviting guest rooms. Continental buffet breakfast. Warm Cookies. Family and Pet Friendly. Welcome gifts. Smoke-free. Complimentary Wireless Connectivity. Wine and book signing events. 800-321-6304 or 503-436-9085. Hemlock At Surfcrest, Cannon Beach, Oregon. www.atcannonbeach.com.

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