Bend rightfully holds its place among the ranks of America’s iconic mountain towns, with towering volcanic peaks, refreshing waterways, and more miles of hiking and biking trails than there are days in the year. Add in Central Oregon’s legendary sun, a thriving craft-beer scene and loads of great restaurants, and it’s easy to see why this bustling hub of 106,000 people is a winner when it comes to getting away. Coolest of all, you don’t even need a car. Here’s how to make a vehicle-free escape to this Central Oregon city.
How to Get to Bend Without a Car
Getting to Bend by air keeps getting easier with direct flights on five carriers arriving from a dozen cities, including Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Salt Lake City. The airport, which is in Redmond , sits 14 miles north of Bend. From there it’s easy to catch a ride-share or taxi to Bend.
You can also get to Bend by bus. From Union Station in Portland, Greyhound offers daily departures that arrive in Bend just in time for happy hour at the Campfire Hotel near Hawthorne Station, Bend’s central public-transportation hub. (Return trips will have you back in Portland by lunch.) Pacific Crest Bus Lines also makes the trip east over the Cascades from cities like Portland, Salem and Eugene, as well as north from Klamath Falls.
Another great option? Take the private coach company Central Oregon Breeze, which you can catch at Portland’s Amtrak station and PDX airport. From there buses continue to Gresham and Sandy, as well Government Camp on the flanks of Mt. Hood, before rolling south through the communities of Central Oregon. Cascades East Transit provides an expansive bus network through Bend.
Trade Four Wheels for Two and Sleep Well in Bend
Biking is also easy in Bend, with greenways, bike lanes, paths and a stylish boardwalk that opened up along the Deschutes through downtown in 2023. Some hotels, like the 59-room Oxford Hotel Bend in downtown, offer free bikes to use during your stay. A new e-bike-share program launched in Bend in 2022 called Bird lets you rent e-bikes by the minute using your phone. Let It Ride, a bike shop downtown, also offers e-bike rentals and tours. Ride 2 You will deliver a bike directly to your hotel, including mountain bikes for zipping around the 300-plus miles of single-track trails around Bend. Stay at LOGE on the southwest side of town and you’ll be within a few pedal strokes of the heart of those trails — the Phil’s Trail network.
More centrally located places to stay include McMenamins Old St. Francis School Hotel — a former Catholic school repurposed into a funky compound with rooms, restaurants, bars, a movie theater and a soaking pool — and the Newberry Hotel, run by Hilton, which has an indoor pool. Bunk+Brew, a popular hostel — with some private rooms — attracts young, international travelers with a sauna and a beer garden three blocks from downtown. Ask about the hostel’s “Dirtbag Express,” an 11-seater van you can hire with a driver for full- or half-day trips. Tip: Sometimes staff may opt to join you on those trips, and that can reduce the cost.
Go for a Stroll In and Near Bend
You don’t need to be a hard-core hiker to enjoy a rejuvenating walk in Bend, not with its spaghetti pile of paths and urban trails to enjoy. One of the most popular loops follows a portion of the Deschutes River Trail from the Old Mill District upstream along the Deschutes River to a footbridge and back to the Old Mill to make a 4.5-mile loop. You can make the loop shorter on paved paths thanks to various footbridges. The Deschutes River Trail-Pioneer Reach route runs for about 1.7 miles one-way past McKay Park, Miller’s Landing Park and Pioneer Park, some of it along a boardwalk. Be sure to stop at the Bend Whitewater Park to watch surfers slash an artificial wave.
To catch a glorious autumn sunset over the Cascades, do as locals do and hike up Bend’s very own mini volcano, Pilot Butte. The landmark rises about 400 vertical feet over the city, about 2 miles east of downtown — rent an e-bike from Bird to get there. A paved road spirals its way to the top while a steeper Nature Trail climbs sharply through juniper stands to reach the summit in just under a mile one-way. A peak-finder display at the top helps you understand those 360-degree views.
From late May to early September, you won’t even need a car to hike outside of town. Cascades East’s Transit to Trails service sends public buses from Bend through the Deschutes National Forest all the way to Mt. Bachelor, with stops at trailheads like Wanoga, Swampy Lakes and Dutchman Flat. A winter shuttle bus runs from Bend on weekends starting in December with service to Virginia Meissner and Swampy Lakes sno-parks, two popular areas for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.
