Sunset Vacation Rentals in Manzanita: N. Oregon Coast Success Story That Expanded Into Rockaway Beach

Published 03/20/2019 at 4:53 AM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Manzanita, Oregon) – Manzanita manages to still be an immensely popular little spot on the north Oregon coast, while paradoxically being a bit hidden. Even these days with all the press and attention it’s gotten, and even though it doesn’t seem like it on those particularly traffic-snarled, high density days that seem to come more often. (Above: the Maison de La Lune house in Manzanita).

Down the road, in Rockaway Beach, it’s less of a secret, but there are still parts of it tucked away from the madness.

One engaging treasure that ties the two together behind the scenes is the now-quarter-century-old Sunset Vacation Rentals, with its cedar-shingled office blending in with main street Manzanita, yet still adding to the tiny town’s charm. Inside, however, it provides an expansive roster of places to lay your head at night in both towns.

115 homes dot the north Oregon coast landscape through this biz, with most in Rockaway Beach and Manzanita. You’ll also find some in woodsy Nehalem, where – with the town just a little over a mile inland along the bay – hot summer weather kicks in again, even if the beaches are chilly. They also have at least one home in secretive Falcon Cove, which is about halfway between Cannon Beach and Manzanita.

Amy VanDyke is a co-owner these days, having started out as one of the employees over a decade ago. She rose to run the operation alongside founder Sandra Camirand.

Camirand, VanDyke said, started the whole thing about 1995, when she was running a cleaning service cleverly called Cleaning Genie. She sold that off to start Sunset Vacation Rentals.

“She saw the future,” VanDyke said. “That vacation rentals were the wave of the future. There were two other companies in town doing it at the time, and she just saw it as a business that was definitely going to grow.”

So Camirand hit the pavement, VanDyke said. She began talking to people around town with the right kind of homes and simply had an appealing approach.

“She’s charming and worldly, and really easy to talk to,” VanDyke said. “She knew she could get the biz off the ground on her own.”

To this day, most of the people that started hosting their homes through Sunset Vacation Rentals are still a part of the lineup.

Over the years, they absorbed two other companies on the north Oregon coast: Ribbon Vacation Rentals and Ocean Edge in Manzanita. For awhile, there was Ocean Breeze in Rockaway Beach, but Camirand re-absorbed that into the main company. This tripled their lineup eventually.

Now, there’s dozens of these beauties for just about every price range under the Sunset Vacation Rentals umbrella.

The stately Valhalla (above) in Rockaway Beach has these fascinating pillars at the exterior entrance, which give it a regal look with a slight old Italian or Mediterranean vibe. This one is two stories of luxury, with one of its outstanding features being the large granite counter tops. The dining room leads to a glass door with a deck, and the brick fireplace in the living room rounds out the comfy coastal vibe.

Upstairs sits the soaring ocean view: there’s also a balcony here to soak in that ocean air.

One of the more striking curiosities in the Sunset Vacation Rentals roster is the Bonny Octagonny, with a kind of octagonal lighthouse shape, decked out in weathered cedar. You get distinct views of the ocean and the mountain, which is augmented by a large deck. Nestled in a thickly wooded hillside, it’s a quick dart to the golf course and the city park. Inside, you’ll find a spiral staircase, among other eye-popping goodies.

Ocean Six has one of the most massive windows to the ocean you’ve ever seen – like a theater screen, but it’s the real thing. The beach access is right across the street and you’re a mere block from downtown Manzanita. There’s a stunning ocean view from almost every room in this three-bedroom beauty.

Hardwood floors and an enormous outdoor deck don’t hurt, either. 186 Laneda Ave., Manzanita, Oregon. 503-368-7969. 800-883-7784. www.ssvr.com.

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