Artesia is a small city that embodies the word "pleasant." It's not crowded, the air is clean, and there's never any lack for activities. And a walk down the Heritage Walkway acts as a reminder of just how historically significant Artesia is.

Home to Oregon State University, Corvallis is in many ways an archetypal college town, boasting abundant coffeehouses, pizza places and bookstores around the green, ivy-bedecked campus at its heart. But the city is just as green and vibrant outside the vicinity of the 500-acre campus, where the area maintains a small-town, country feel.

Florence is a small city near the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. In addition to beautiful beaches out of town, Florence has a little harbor and small downtown area easily explored on an afternoon meander.

Sprawled out around scenic Newport Bay, the city of Newport is all about the sea. The Bayfront, a street of quaint pubs, restaurants and shops backing Newport Bay, is a pleasant way to take in the sights and smells of the sea. Aquariums, surf shops, lighthouses, and great clamming spots can all be found here.

The Willamette Valley is the name of the broad, fertile swath of land—Oregon's "fertile crescent"—swooping from Portland south to past the city of Eugene, to the Rogue and Umpqua valleys. I-5 is the backbone of this beautiful, bountiful region, home to wineries, flower fields, covered bridges, and farmland.

Within lurk an abundance of cascading waterfalls, long stretches of shimmering river.