Downtown Astoria is walkable. The main sights — Maritime Museum, Flavel House, Oregon Film Museum, downtown breweries — are all within a kilometre of each other on the hillside and waterfront. The Astoria Riverfront Trolley runs along the waterfront in summer and is a pleasant way to see the river.
A car is necessary to reach Fort Clatsop (10km south) and the Astoria Column (on Coxcomb Hill). Bicycles can be rented in town. The Astoria-Megler Bridge to Washington state is open to cars but not cyclists or pedestrians; there is no pedestrian crossing of the Columbia at Astoria. For the northern Oregon coast beaches and headlands, a car is essential.