Three West Coast lighthouses still let you spend the night, and one sits on an island you can only reach by boat

Forget the cozy cabin. The best winter bed on the West Coast comes with a working lighthouse beam sweeping past the window and a foghorn for a lullaby.

Most lighthouses lock up at sunset. These three don’t. One in Oregon, one in Washington and one in California still hand overnight guests a key, and storm season is when they’re at their moodiest.

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Heceta Head, Oregon: a Victorian keeper’s house with a seven-course breakfast

Picture a white Queen Anne house with a red roof, tucked into the trees on a headland between Florence and Yachats. The Pacific is below you, and the Heceta Head Lighthouse, lit since 1894, is a short walk up the hill.

That house is the old assistant keeper’s home, and it’s now the Heceta Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast. It has six rooms and stays open year-round, so a gray November weekend is fair game.

The famous part is breakfast: seven courses over about an hour and a half, with a menu that shifts with the season. Stay two nights and you get a different spread each morning.

Evenings start with complimentary wine and cheese on a south-facing porch that looks out at the lighthouse, Cape Creek Bridge and the ocean. After dark, grab the flashlight in your room and walk up the trail to watch the beam wheel overhead, the way the keepers once did (you stay outside the tower).

And yes, the house comes with a ghost story. The keeper’s quarters are said to be haunted by an elderly woman named Rue. Sweet dreams!

Point Robinson, Washington: rent the whole keeper’s cottage on a Puget Sound beach

Want the lighthouse to yourself instead of sharing it with other guests? Hop the ferry to Vashon-Maury Island and head to Point Robinson Park, where two historic keepers’ quarters sit right on the beach.

The station’s first fog signal went up here in 1885, and the current lighthouse dates to 1914. It’s still a working light, and the Vashon Park District rents both houses to help keep the place standing.

Quarters A is a three-bedroom, two-bath house that sleeps six, with a picture window aimed at Puget Sound and Mount Rainier. Quarters B is a two-bedroom, one-bath cottage restored to look like it did in 1919, parlor and all, and it sleeps four.

Here’s the winter bonus. Low season runs from the day after Labor Day through the Thursday before Memorial Day, and that’s when you can book by the night: $357 for Quarters A or $258 for Quarters B, with a two-night minimum, plus cleaning and taxes. In summer it’s weekly stays only.

Days here are porch days. Watch the cargo ships slide past, fly a kite on the beach, and keep one eye on the water, because orcas occasionally swim surprisingly close to shore.

East Brother Light Station, California: an island inn you reach by boat

This is the wild card. East Brother is a tiny island in the strait between San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay, and the Victorian light station on top of it, built in 1873, now runs as a bed and breakfast.

Guests meet the boat at Point San Pablo Harbor in Richmond, about an hour’s drive from downtown San Francisco. Once you step onto the island, you’ve got views of the city skyline and Mount Tamalpais, and the innkeepers who live out there full time.

There are just five rooms: four inside the lighthouse building and one in the old fog signal building. An overnight includes a tour, champagne and appetizers when you arrive, a multi-course dinner with wine at a shared table, and a full breakfast the next morning.

Fair warning for light sleepers: from October to April, the modern foghorn sounds every 30 seconds. Also note that getting there means handling stairs and a boat ride, so the island can’t accommodate wheelchairs.

So which lighthouse gets your weekend?

Our pick for a stormy weekend is Heceta Head. An ocean-view porch, a ghost story and a seven-course breakfast is pretty hard to top when the rain is coming in sideways.

Bringing the whole crew? Point Robinson gives you a full house and a private stretch of lighthouse beach. Celebrating something? East Brother’s boat ride and wine-paired dinner make it feel like a real occasion.

Heading for Oregon anyway? Our guide to Oregon’s lighthouses and the adventures nearby lines up the rest of the coast’s beacons so you can stretch the trip.

Trip tips: grab a rental car to get out to the coast, and book a room for the nights before or after if the lighthouse is already full.

Rules and fees change, so always confirm current requirements before you go.

Which one would you book first: the haunted keeper’s house, the beach cottage or the island? Tell us in the comments!