Hotels in Salem

Salem is Oregon's state capital, not its biggest or best-known city, that's Portland, an hour north, built around the gold-domed 1938 Oregon State Capitol topped by the Oregon Pioneer statue. It sits in Willamette Valley wine country, so vineyard-hopping and the waterfall trails of Silver Falls State Park are as much a draw as the government buildings, alongside the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and the historic gardens of Bush's Pasture Park.

The city was founded in 1842 by Methodist missionary Jason Lee and became Oregon's territorial capital in 1851, then state capital at statehood in 1859. Be honest: Salem is a workaday administrative and agricultural city rather than a tourist showpiece, and most visitors are here for state business or the surrounding valley rather than the centre itself. Stay near downtown for the Capitol and museums, or out towards the valley wineries if that's the priority.