Overnight stay: Grants Pass, Medford, or Ashland? (hotel, theater)

[American Pie]

We're taking a road trip from SoCal to Seattle and back, and would like to stop off in southern OR. Which one of these three cities would you recommend, and why? I've heard some good things about all of them.



We'll only be able to stay overnight, but would like a place that's interesting with some good restaurants, and yet reasonably safe at night. Thanks!

[Metlakatla]

Forget Medford. Ashland gets more tourists, so if you want less crowds, I'd stop in GP. Nice little place with a cute downtown core. Or maybe go here a little north of GP — I love this place:

https://wolfcreekinn.com

[texasdiver]

Ashland for sure based on what you describe. By far the cutest walkable downtown area with the best collection of shops and restaurants.

It is a lot more touristy due to the Shakespeare Festival. But that means more shops and restaurants too. If you can snag a room reservation at some reasonably decently rated hotel then you'll be fine. It isn't THAT packed or crowded.

[American Pie]

Thanks! We'll forget Medford. Wolf Creek Inn sounds like a great experience but it doesn't appear they have availability on our travel dates, plus they only have a twin bed available and we'll be traveling with our 22 y/o daughter. Maybe my wife and I can do it on another trip!


I've heard about Ashland's Shakespeare Festival; looks like that might have to wait for another road trip too, when we have more time to spend there. According to what I've read, this year will be a combination of digital and onstage performances. Maybe next year would be a better time when it should be completely "reopened". In any event, Ashland DOES sound like a great place to have breakfast and browse around for awhile before we hit the road on the way back home. It'll probably be just enough to wet our appetites for another trip back, and a longer stay.

[Hawk J]

Perhaps, y'all might enjoy Seven Feathers Casino Resort, next to the Umpqua River.
It's 20 mile north of Wolf Creek, exit 99, on I-5.

https://www.priceline.com/relax/at/1...0482e19f0feabe

[American Pie]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

Perhaps, y'all might enjoy Seven Feathers Casino Resort, next to the Umpqua River.
It's 20 mile north of Wolf Creek, exit 99, on I-5.

https://www.priceline.com/relax/at/1...0482e19f0feabe

Thanks! It looks like a nice place to stay but Priceline says it's in "high demand", and it's sold out on our intended travel date. But we'll keep it in mind for the future.

[Jessie Mitchell]

Ashland for sure. Don't worry about some flood of tourists there this year. With the Shakespeare Festival mostly closed still that won't be a problem at all. The theater is doing a single, one-person show, and it's great they'll be getting something up on stage again after the last year, but this isn't ANYTHING like what used to draw thousands of tourists every summer. Before COVID they were running 10 or 11 shows each season in three different theater spaces. Now it will be one very small show in one space. Not the kind of thing that will draw people in any kind of numbers. There are great restaurants, shops, a beautiful creek running through downtown, Lithia Park, and it's very safe and pretty.

[texasdiver]

Medford is much bigger but more suburban and not so tourist-focused. So if you stay in Medford you are more likely to wind up in a generic corporate hotel like a Holiday Inn Express next to a nondescript highway interchange and collection of big box stores and chain restaurants. And it will look pretty much like the same suburban landscape you see everywhere in CA. Nothing wrong with that if you just want a clean stopover in route. But it won't be as quaint or interesting of a destination as Ashland.

I have family in Grants Pass but I haven't actually been there for years. But it has a reputation for being more of a redneck blue collar sort of place compared to Ashland, which is more upscale due to the Shakespeare Festival, university, and wealthy CA retirees who have been gravitating there over the past couple decades.

[Metlakatla]

It seems like GP's little downtown area has improved in recent years.

Oregon "reopened" today, and people are EVERYWHERE.

[Hawk J]

We've bought our groceries & other goods in Grants Pass for over 6 lustrum, haven't had any problems.