Things to Do in Seaside
Seaside's attractions are genuinely distinct from a generic beach town's list -- several are decades-old, family-run institutions with real, citable histories, and one is a nationally significant historic site rather than a tourist reconstruction.
The Prom and the Turnaround
The Prom -- a 1.5-mile paved oceanfront promenade completed in 1921 atop an 8,000-foot concrete seawall, running from 12th Avenue to Avenue U -- is Seaside's central, free, year-round attraction, used for walking, jogging, biking, and surrey riding. At its midpoint, where the Prom meets Broadway Street, sits the Turnaround, a functioning traffic circle marked since 1990 by a bronze statue of Lewis and Clark commemorating the literal endpoint of the expedition's overland journey -- widely described as the single most photographed spot on the Oregon coast.
The Prom replaced an earlier, less durable structure: an 8,010-foot wooden boardwalk and pier built in 1908, which drew a rush of touristy businesses along its length and down Broadway but couldn't survive repeated winter storm damage, ultimately disintegrating after the town gave up on annual repairs by around 1914. Understanding that earlier failed structure makes the 1921 concrete Prom's century-plus survival genuinely more impressive -- it was purpose-built to withstand exactly the kind of storms that destroyed its predecessor, and it has done so for more than a hundred years.
Funland Arcade and the Seaside Aquarium
Funland Arcade has operated on Broadway since 1929 and is described as the largest arcade on the north Oregon coast -- a genuine, multi-generational institution rather than a recent tourist addition. The Seaside Aquarium, founded in 1937, is one of the oldest aquariums on the West Coast and is still privately owned in part by descendants of its original founders; visitors have been able to hand-feed its seals for more than eighty years, a specific, real, and enduringly popular activity that has drawn multiple generations of the same families back to Seaside over decades.
Both attractions sit within easy walking distance of each other and of the Turnaround, meaning a visitor or resident can realistically cover the arcade, the aquarium, the beach, and the Prom in a single afternoon without needing a car -- a genuinely walkable, compact attraction cluster that's part of what makes Seaside function so well as a family destination for visitors without a lot of logistical planning.
The Lewis and Clark Salt Works
A genuinely notable, nationally significant historic site sits within modern Seaside: the reconstructed cairn marking the spot where a Corps of Discovery detail -- Privates Joseph Field, William Bratton, and George Gibson -- boiled seawater into salt for roughly seven weeks between late December 1805 and February 20, 1806, ultimately producing about 28 gallons that Meriwether Lewis described in his own journal as 'excellent, fine, strong, and white.' The site is administered as part of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park and offers a real, citable piece of American exploration history within easy reach of downtown -- a genuinely different kind of attraction than the boardwalk amenities nearby, worth visiting specifically for what it actually documents rather than as a generic historical marker.
The expedition sent the salt-making detail roughly 15 miles south from its winter encampment at Fort Clatsop specifically because the Corps had run out of salt and needed it to preserve meat for the difficult journey home the following spring -- meaning the site represents a genuinely practical, survival-driven piece of the expedition's history, not a ceremonial stop. Living-history reenactments of the salt-making process have periodically been staged at the site, a further sign of how seriously the location's historical significance is treated locally rather than being left as an unmarked footnote.
The Beach Itself
Seaside's wide, flat beach -- benefiting from the documented accretion trend at the Necanicum River mouth covered on this site's Beach Erosion page -- offers straightforward, accessible beach recreation: walking, kite flying, beachcombing, and (in the specific area around The Cove at the south end of the Prom) cold-water surfing for those equipped for Pacific Northwest ocean temperatures.
Because the beach is wide and flat along most of its length, it's also genuinely accessible for visitors with mobility limitations compared with some steeper or rockier stretches of Oregon coastline elsewhere -- a practical amenity worth noting for the same reason this site's Retirement page discusses the Prom's own accessibility for older residents and visitors.
What This Means for a Visitor or New Resident
Seaside's real attractions split cleanly into two categories worth understanding separately: genuine, decades-to-century-old family-resort institutions (the Prom, Funland Arcade, the Seaside Aquarium) that define its boardwalk-town identity, and a nationally significant, independently verifiable historic site (the Salt Works) that predates the resort town entirely by more than a century. Both are worth knowing about and visiting for what they actually are, rather than treating either as interchangeable tourist-town filler.
A new resident, in particular, benefits from visiting the Salt Works site specifically once they've moved in rather than only during an initial house-hunting trip -- it sits slightly apart from the main downtown tourist cluster, is free to visit, and offers a genuinely different, quieter experience of the town's history than the busier attractions along Broadway, making it a good destination for a slower, more reflective visit after the move-in rush has settled down.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: beachconnection.net's Seaside Promenade History series and the City of Seaside's own website for the Prom's 1920-21 construction and the Turnaround's 1990 Lewis and Clark statue; Funland Seaside Arcade's own published history (operating since 1929) and general visitor-attraction reporting on the Seaside Aquarium (founded 1937); and the National Park Service (nps.gov) and Lewis and Clark Trail organizations for the Salt Works' December 1805-February 1806 timeline, the specific expedition members involved, and the ~28 gallons of salt produced, described by Meriwether Lewis in his own journal. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: current admission prices or hours for Funland Arcade or the Seaside Aquarium; and any current seasonal event calendar. Confirm current hours, admission, and event schedules directly with each attraction or the City of Seaside before planning a visit.