Pacific Dunes Resort

The accommodation provides a peaceful location near the beach and hiking trails. Guests appreciate the clean, comfortable rooms and friendly staff. It also offers modern amenities and kid-friendly facilities.

We have visited Pacific Dunes once a year for the last four years and are happy to report that each year the current owners make more and more improvements. While the property is not right on the beach, one of the major improvements is a bridge across Connors Creek which allows much easier access to the beach than there was before. The new innkeepers are friendly and helpful and do a great job with customer service and with running the new coffee shop that is on site. While visiting the coffee shop, we witnessed them promptly attending to several guest requests including helping with a sofa bed fold out in a bungalow and loaning camping chairs to guests in an RV site who forgot theirs. We were in a tiny home on this visit and enjoyed that. Previous guests in the tiny home had clearly removed some of the kitchenware, but when brought to their attention, the innkeepers are correcting that. The previous visits we were in our trailer and while the sites are close together, the innkeepers do their best to accommodate the size of the rigs and assist with placement and we observed them making adjustments when needed which, of course, depends upon capacity. We hope to try out a glamping tent on our next visit.

Our family of four stayed from 8/25 to 8/26/2024. We chose a “Beachfront Boutique” small house with a kitchenette. The “Resort” really is a campground, a level, gravel-covered 2-acre lot, which offers accommodations fitting various budgets, from pitching your own tent and using a shared bathroom, to miniature houses that are equivalent to a hotel room. The campground is not on or next to the beach, as the term “beachfront” may imply, but is separated from the beach by a 5 to 10 minute walk across sand dunes, including a bridge (with steep steps) over a stream that prevents anyone using a wheelchair to access the beach. The amenities of the “Resort” are that it has a central play area for kids, and a bathroom/rest room for those without private baths, and you can purchase coffee in the morning. The small house we stayed in was tastefully decorated and functional, except for the leaky shower which creates a large puddle in the bathroom even when the shower door is fully closed. More advance information what the kitchenette entails would be useful. It does not have an oven, but a microwave, and two electric burners, a bottle opener, but no can opener. The rooms were clean. The beach is lovely, with some driftwood and occasional dead marine animals washed onto the shore (such as a decapitated seal with thousands of flies buzzing where the head used to be). The “Resort” uses contactless check-in: you get a text message with your door code. While the extra charges for late check-out are disclosed, you are not informed that an early check-in also incurs extra fees (a 15% surcharge plus tax). This undisclosed fee applies even if you simply need to find out what the kitchenette has and does not have so you can plan for your dinner, when the innkeepers are not on site to answer questions. The fact that the innkeepers and owner use undisclosed fees to increase revenue and even falsify business records (the undisclosed early check-in fee is listed as a late check-out fee on the final invoice) leaves a bad taste. The Innkeepers and Owner (Aaron Mumford) refused to refund the undisclosed early check-in fee, even though we explained that we repeatedly went to the (closed) office to find out whether it was ok to open the door early (so we could plan our dinner). Another aspect to consider is that Copalis Beach is the rainiest place in all of Washington state. When it rains (186 days per year), you are literally hosed, because all you can do is to hunker down in your room or tent, so plan your vacation carefully according to the weather forecast. When the weather does not cooperate you are better off in a real resort that offers alternative indoor options in rainy weather.