5 Awesome Things To Do In Portland, OR
I grew up in a big city, and as much as I love nature I do also love me some city time every now and then. However, I’m also a bit of a city snob. I’ve lived in some of the best cities on earth (Hong Kong, San Francisco, Paris) so I have high expectations for my megalopolitan endeavors. I want lots to do, prettiness, views, good food…and well all the rest. A bit of weirdness, a dash of grit, creativity and culture is also much appreciated.
I’m not being generous when I say that Portland has it ALL!
This is a city of depth, one with many facets of culture and enough appeal for all types, even the most picky. There are several, cute individual “downtown” areas and the fact that it has not just one, but two rivers running through it only adds to it’s visual appeal. I could easily live here, I really could, although at that point I’d probably ditch the RV and find a cool little downtown loft walking distance to all the coffee shops.
I also can’t claim to have explored ALL of the city. With a place this varied you’d need several years to do that. But, I have been here several times and have developed a deep appreciation of what Portland has to offer. So, even though it’ll only scratch the surface I wanted to put some of those ideas into writing. Here’s my “newbie” WheelingIt guide to the city that prides itself on “keeping it weird”:
1/ Smell The Roses
Did you know that Portland’s official nickname is actually the “City of Roses”?
The history dates back to 1889 when the Portland Rose Society was founded, and promoted the planting of 20 miles (32 km) of Portland’s streets with roses. In 1907 the first Rose Festival was held (and is still held annually) and in 1917, the International Rose Test Garden was established. The garden now features more than 7,000 rose plants, over 600 varieties of roses and is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States. Oh, and it’s free AND it’s pet-friendly too!
Honestly if there was ever a place to stop and smell the roses this would be it.
Earlier this week Doggie and I took a sunny afternoon together with Todd, Russ & Frances getting lost amongst the blooms, and IT…WAS…AWESOME! Rarely have I ever been in a scented wonderland quite so intense. Just imagine a whiff of rose-perfumed scent, multiple it by 10,000 and you’ll be here.
Colors were so rich they flooded the camera, scents so heavy and full they almost overwhelmed us. From roses as big as your head to minature blooms the size of golf balls, there was every type and color you could ever think of. At this time of year everything is in full bloom so there is not a spot in the gardens that isn’t covered in color and heavenly aroma.
WOW! Just wow…!
After our blooming experience doggie and I re-connected to earth by hiking 3 miles or so in the dense forest of ~160 acre Washington Park right around the garden. For those without dogs, you can also visit the Japanese Gardens ($9.50 per adult) in the same area. Honestly if you’re here during bloom-time don’t miss this!
Washington Park Map (incl. Rose Garden & Japanese Gardens) -> Click HERE.
Bring Doggie? YES. On leash dogs are allowed in the gardens. Best time to visit is mid-May to mid-July. The Rose Festival is always around full bloom in June.
2/ Stop For Coffee (or Chocolate)
Oh Portland coffee, let me count the ways I love thee….
Most folks think Seattle is the top coffee-spot in the nation, but I would beg to differ. Portland Coffee is hands down the BEST, most varied, most gourmet stuff I have ever had. They take their coffee super-seriously here. From single-variety beans, to fancy cold-brews (the “new” trend) and specialty mixes, even the most exacting of coffee connoisseurs will find their elixir here. The most famous roaster is undoubtedly Stumptown, and it IS absolutely fabulous, but there are ~40 OTHER roasters in the city as well as 100’s of additional coffee shops. Choosing the top 20 is not easy.
If you fancy a cuppa, for the love of coffee please bypass Starbucks (just this once) and try one of the many other unique options in town. Even the little drive-throughs will titillate your taste buds in ways you never imagined. Oh, and for those who are choc-a-holics I highly recommend a trip to Cacao for a cup of pure liquid decadence that will send you buzzing in chocolate-heaven for hours.
By the way the best Mocha I had in town was the dark-chocolate creation at Barista. Oh YUM!
Portland Coffee Roaster Map -> Click HERE.
Bring Doggie? YES. Most coffee spots have outdoor dog-friendly areas and most also offer free dog biscuits by the sugar/cream counter. Isn’t that a nice touch?
3/ Eat At a Food Cart Pod
I’ve had a love affair with food trucks ever since our first “real” experience in Austin in 2011. Given that we are huge foodies and travel in a metal box ourselves, we are irresistibly drawn to those that make gourmet creations in the same environment.
Believe me when I say that food trucks here in Portland have come a looooong way from the corner hot dog stand that you might remember as a kid. It’s become a HUGE phenomenon, so much so that there are now over 600 mini-kitchens in the city, and the food has become so GOOD that in 2010 Budget Travel named Portland the “World’s Best Street Food”. You can eat just about any type of cuisine you could imagine on the street here, and I guarantee you will like it.
The town has done it right too. Instead of hap-hazard carts roving about all over the place, all of the trucks are permanently established in collections called “food cart pods“. There are 9 major ones and a bunch of smaller ones around the city. Opening hours do vary though. Some of the pods cater mostly to the working lunch-crowd and so have limited (or no) seating and will be closed on nights and week-ends, while others are more spacious & cater to the after-working crowd. The latter are better for folks with doggies in tow and this article has a good overview of which those are. Doggie and us love all the food carts, but we’re particularly fond of Good Food Here.
Portland Food Cart Maps -> Click HERE and HERE.
Bring Doggie? YES. All the food carts we’ve been to have been outdoors and dog-friendly. Not all have seating though so if you want a sit-down meal, check before you go.
4/ Get Outside For A Hike (or Bike)
I’ve already written a bit about some of the amazing parks & hikes around Portland. Ontop of the splendid area that is the Columbia River Gorge just east of town, there are over 200 parks, gardens and recreation areas within the city itself. Once you’ve had your fill of coffee and food, these green areas are perfect for walking off some of those calories and getting your outdoor fix.
Besides the Rose Garden my top pick for the area is actually a lesser known park called Sandy River Delta just ~15 miles east of town. This is locally known as “doggie paradise” and with over 1400 acres of mostly off-leash trails that wander beautifully through meadows, forest and water, Polly absolutely concurs. We found this little gem thanks to a blog follower and went back several times while we were in town.
Another awesome calorie-burner is city biking. Portland calls itself “Bike City USA” and with over 315 miles of bikeways as well as the nation’s highest percentage of bike commuters, it certainly offers something for everyone on two wheels. I’m not much for city biking, but I do like the Marine Trail close to the RV Park where we usually stay which offers lovely views of the Columbia River without the hassle of city streets.
Portland Hiking Areas -> Click HERE and HERE.
Portland Biking Maps -> Click HERE.
Bring Doggie? MOST DEFINITELY!!! All the parks in Portland are dog-friendly & if you go to Sandy River Delta you can go off-leash too.
5/ Have A Brew
There are many places that call themselves “Beervana” and we’ve been to quite a few of them. Some would say Portland has a claim to that nickname too, and with 58 breweries within city limits it’s certainly got the goods to back that up. The big thing in Portland is IPA’s and although that’s not my favorite (more Paul’s style) I did find a few I really liked even though we only had time to hit a few spots.
By far my #1 pick was Gigantic Brewing Co, a laid-back (and dog-friendly) brewery in a quiet part of town that I hit together with The Snowmads while they were in town. Everything we tried there was good, with my absolute fav being the “Ginormous”. Another interesting spot, mostly because it was so unusual was Cascade Brewing Barrel House (no dogs allowed) who specialize in barrel-aged sour beers. Honey Ginger was my pick there. We managed a few others, but they were not noteworthy enough to make the list. I’ve clearly got much more “research work” to do here!
Portland Brewery Map -> Click HERE.
Bring Doggie? DEPENDS. Not all breweries offer dog-friendly seating, even if they have an outdoor patio. General rule of thumb is that if they serve food, they don’t allow doggies. Bummer, I know…
That pretty much wraps up my short time in Portland. There are TWO other items which warrant mentioning before I sign off, and that’s a trip to unique Salt & Straw for ice cream lovers (SO many super-creative flavors, although I was partial to their honey wildflower and salt caramel), and a visit to Vintage Cocktail Lounge for their chocolate martinis (oh me oh my they’re good). We did both in one night and almost died a happy death of sugar-love overdose.
With that we’re off East to rivers, mountains and lakes, at least for a while. See ya at the next spot!
Where To Stay? When we come to Portland we always stay at the same place which is Columbia River RV Park. It’s your typical row-on-row private park, but the location is great for city exploration and the price is totally right. There are nicer parks outside of town (e.g. Champoeg State Park gets excellent reviews), but you’ll be further from town.
I’m extremely envious–the Rose Test Gardens are absolutely stunning this time of the year! I hope it was clear enough for you to look to the east & see Mount Hood. One of my stellar memories of Portland is being in the gardens early in the morning as a piper played his pipes. There’s just so much to love about PDX!
I have to admit we were lucky to hit the Rose Gardens at the absolute PERFECT time. I’ve never (ever) seen so many roses in full bloom at one time. Just amazing. The only thing that could have made it better was music 🙂
Nina
Roses and coffee? You’ve piqued my interest. Sounds like a great city.
Sooooooo many roses, and soooooo much coffee. It is sooooo good!
Nina
This will be our second summer in three years hitting Portland in our RV. I spent lots of time figuring out our activities, but totally overlooked the food pod culture, so that one has just been added to our list, thank you!
We’ll be there in early August, in time to participate in an event titled “Canines Uncorked” where a group of Willamette wineries will be opening their doors for dogs and their people. All proceeds to go to the Oregon Humane Society, which warms my heart.
Your photos are beyond gorgeous. 🙂
Oh sweeeeet! That event sounds JUST up our (and Polly’s) alley. I volunteered at the Humane Society in San Diego for several years before we went RVing, and we found Polly there (actually we fostered her), so that organization has a special place in my heart.
Soooo many things about Portland I have yet to discover.
Nina
How funny. We have been at the Columbia River RV Park since last Friday. We leave for Tacoma tomorrow morning.
Oh geez. We must gave been there at exactly the same time!! Sorry we missed you.
Nina
You probably saw us walking the huskies. Our paths will cross again. Enjoy the coast. We’re headed for Alaska.
Oh yeah totally! I remember seeing your pups. I think I even petted one of them at one point, unless someone else has 2 huskies in that park. Oh well! Enjoy your epic trip to Alaska. The doggies will be in their element up there.
Nina
LOL…no one else would be so foolish to travel with two boundless sources of energy. Sometimes I wonder what possessed us. The cats are so much easier. They just sit on the dash and watch the world go by. Take care.
One of our favorite cities also, and the only major city on the west coast (in the USA) we haven’t lived in yet. Thankfully we have family in both Portland and Vancouver, WA so we have plenty of opportunities to visit. I am sure you have also found the awesome wine districts all around Portland. Great article, I will be sure to save it for our next visit.
Oh yeah, WINE!! In fact we spent over a week in the McMinnville area last year and had a total blast. Here’s our blog post from there: Big Planes & Big Wines – McMinnville, OR
Nina
I have lived my entire life in Portland ( or its suburbs) and I admit I sometimes take all the eclectic life wonders available here for granted !
We start full time next year when I retire , and know we will need to return often for our fix I have always traveled a lot over the years and always miss Portland and Oregon and ( I’ll add Washington also ! ) unique community , diversity of people and things to do ! But just keep it to yourself don’t let anyone know lol safe travels ! Btw I see you are now in another great spot hopefully boondocking on the Columbia .. What view out the window can be had there !
Your secret is safe with me LOL. And yes, got a lovely site on the Columbia River for a few days. Of course that famous Gorge wind came out of nowhere last night and woke us up, but that’s just part of the deal here. It ain’t known as a windsurfers paradise for nothing 🙂
Nina
I’ll bet the gluten free offerings are off the charts in Portland. You definitely piqued our interest, Nina….thanks!
Totally!! In fact just about any dietary restriction has TONS of offerings here…vegetarian, vegan, gluten free. There is an insane amount of good food choice.
Nina
yep there is even a gluten free brewery in town…
Hey Nina
You’ve hit on almost all my main criteria for choosing a place to live. I’m almost hooked. Never been to Portland, but when I finish my East Coast and back trip, I need to plan a portland trip.
I’m not hooked on the wet thing, being a midwest escapee to the desert. And bugs. No real bugs in the desert. But culture, coffee, chocolate and dogs? Sigh…
tina, at Meteor Crater RV park, AZ
Well I can’t deny there’s wet stuff here…it’s a green wonderland after all. But the coffee, roses, gardens, food, beer….oh my! They more then make up for a few grey days.
Nina
Love Portland and can’t wait to get back next year! We’ve spent two 10-day stretches there, one in the RV and one staying with my brother, but I think when we go back next time we may spend a month or so there. Love all the pics, especially the big Polly smile!
I could totally live in his city, I really could. I think this is our 4th time in Portland since we started RVing. It’s become a regular stop for us.
Nina
What timing! I just got back from Portland, where a nephew graduated from Lewis and Clark. Portland is now on my list of favorite cities, too. But what about “Read a Book”??? I spent a lot of time in Powell’s, the worlds largest new and used book store…
Oh totally love Powell and it’s definitely worth a mention. In fact I love just walking around the whole Perl district…having a coffee, looking at shops, going into Powell, maybe walking over to the Chinese Gardens. That’s a day in itself!
Nina
Actually, I can’t stop myself….how about “Play Yer Fiddle”?? I am a contradance and Quebecois fiddle music nut, and you won’t find better musicians than in Portland 🙂
Pam
Oh how fun!! This one I didn’t know about at all!
And totally agree on the great music. So much awesome music in town, on the streets, at the markets. We had a fabulous bluegrass band playing for us while we waited for out Salt&Straw ice creams on Friday night. What a blast!
Nina
Another super article, Nina!
We will definitely use this as our guide for our Portland visit in September! 🙂
September should be lovely, weather-wise. Sadly, there won’t be much of any rose blooms left at that time, but there are so many other awesome gardens in the area. Enjoy!
Nina
Actually the Rose garden was in full bloom in late September when we went there. The MAX rail is so good for getting around.
FABULOUS! I actually had no idea the roses lasted that long. Cheers for chiming in.
Nina
Portland has been on our must see list, but now I really want to go. All those places sound wonderful.
Many years ago my brother and I visited Portland, and loved the rose garden. Your pictures are gorgeous as always ! Thanks for sharing so much, you’re blog rocks !
The rose garden was definitely the highlight of my trip this time around. I actually wanted to write a dedicated post for it, but ran out of time. What a place!
Nina
Ninna,
I love taking pictures of flowers this time of year. I have a similar DX camera to yours. What do you do to keep the colors from flooding the sensor? My method is to use live view and just play with the settings to see if I can lower them. I also try other cameras like my cell phone and iPad to see what is best. Then as a last resort I try film. Film works, but when you scan it the colors sometimes overload the film scanner.
I have been to Portland many many times over the years and it has become more wonderful over the last 30 years. All that nice fix-up downtown used to be a pretty run down area. The rose garden and the Japanese gardens have always been great. The other great thing about Portland is that it is only a two hour drive to Manzanita. A great ocean side village we found last year because of your writings. Thanks.
I usually lower the exposure settings a tad (using the +/- button). I typically lower one or two stops to darken the image and preserve all the color detail. That usually works and then I can make final corrections in Photoshop.
For multiple of the rose shots I also used Extension Tubes. They’re my “cheap macro” trick and I love playing with them to get close-up pics with nice brokeh. They don’t really affect the exposure much, but are SO much fun to use and so much easier (and cheaper) to carry around than a dedicated macro lens. I always use them with my 50mm fixed lens. I wrote about the tubes way back in this post:
https://www.wheelingit.us/2011/01/13/capturing-the-perfect-shot-cheap-macro/
Nina
I just know I’m going to love it there.. Thanks for the information. Can’t wait to see the town. In addition, the show Portlandia is a hoot!!!
Kelly
Believe it or not I’ve never actually seen that show although I hear rumors that it’s fun. Plus I’ve had local Portlanders (is that what you call them?) tell me that good parts of it are not that far off the truth LOL.
Nina
Nice to hear you love Portland. Ronda Leigh and I are relatively new to Portland and love it as well. Keep your thoughts posted. We met you all in Bend a several weeks ago and are not far behind you in transistorizing to a more mobile lifestyle.
Bill
Hillsboro, OR
HAVE FUN in the big city while you’re there. Hope you get to try a few of the items we did (and yes, I definitely remember you!).
Nina
I’m with you — love nature, and also love cool cities. Portland is one of our favorites — especially this time of year. We’ll be there in about three weeks for a few days and hope to catch the roses still in bloom. (Your rose photos are lushly gorgeous.) Nice roundup of the variety of things to do!
The rose garden should still be amazing when you get here. Enjoy!
Nina
We love Portland, too, and look forward to some time there later this summer. We especially love the downtown Farmer’s Market. A couple of kind-of-off-topic things – first, we just spent a week in Joseph, OR where you are headed and fell in love with the place. There is a company providing “rail bikes” (http://jbrailriders.com/) that was such fun! Reservations were a must for us, even early in the season. Second, we heard a story on a Seattle station last night that WA State Parks could close starting in July if the state legislature doesn’t pass a state budget by the end of June. Hopefully it won’t come to that, because we’re booked into a few! UGH!
Cheers for the tip! I’m totally looking forward to Joseph and if you have more tips for the area I’ll take them! Favorite hikes? Best food? We have 2 weeks there.
Argh about WA state parks. Definitely hope that doesn’t happen coz otherwise we’ll be out of a summer job and camping spot. I’ll have to look it up and keep an eye on it.
Nina
Steven put together a beautiful photography blog – https://slate.adobe.com/a/BxBza?v=61
He mentions Hat Tip Point, which is an overlook with stunning views. And his favorite hike. My favorite activity was riding the rails. Great fun! We were there early in the season so not everything was open for business. Lots of restaurants were open only on the weekend. We mostly ate at home. You should have more options when you get there. It is a gorgeous place we look forward to going back someday.
What a lovely photo log!! Thank you. I had some of those areas on my “list”, but others I did not.
Nina
OK, the rail bikes look pretty fun! We’re going to be arriving in Portland in a few days, we may have to check that out!
The Rail Bike tip was for our next stop in Joseph OR (NE Oregon). Don’t think they have any in Portland?
Nina
STUMPTOWN is definitely my wife and I favorite city for all the reasons you cited. The first time we were there, downtown taking in the sights, a naked bike protest took place with little attention paid by other folks. Too bad it rains nine months out of the year, I can’t handle that much gloom.
LOL!! Yeah, that sounds like Portland all-right. The “World Naked Bike Ride” is actually a yearly thing now. Next bare-event happening June 27th for those participating or…ermmm…attending in other ways. I understand it’s quite the thing to experience.
Nina
We just Love Portland too! It one of those awesome cities that you can find something new every single time you visit. So many cool neighborhoods! We’ll be there next summer.
Indeed. It’s a great place to spend dome quality time.
Nina
Great roundup of an awesome city! You hit up all of my fave spots and gave me a ton of new spots to hit this fall. And man, I really wish the internet had scratch and sniff photo capability…those roses look amazing!
Yeah, scratch and sniff would ROCK! So totally wish I could describe how amazing those rose scents were.
Nina
Although we did not have a good feel of Portland when we visited, I’d say our stop at the International Rose Garden test was pretty amazing. Rows and rows of pretty colorful roses!
It was truly the place to smell the roses, all kinds of roses!
We moved here to Portland one year ago, after visiting here frequently (visiting our son who lives here) for many years. We love exploring and seeing all the sights, all the great shops, eateries, parks, etc. After living on the north coast of CA (in Eureka, now that’s where it’s rainy and foggy) for 25 years, we’re quite happy to live here where we have regular seasons, lots of beautiful Spring and Summer days as well as lovely Autumn days and even mild winter weather (rain, but little or no snow) so we can be out all over the city doing all the things and going to the places you mentioned, and more! We’re loving all the roses blooming right now, we have many of them right here in our yard. It’s making it hard for us to think about loading our RV for traveling this summer, with all this beauty right here (but we will)!
Happy Travels!
I don’t blame you for not wanting to leave, especially right now. Apart from a few hot days the weather here has been just perfect. What a great town to settle down in!
Nina
So…you’re in a town where you get to smell roses on the way to the coffee and chocolate shop, grab some eats from the food carts on the way to your daily hike-n-bike biathlon, and stop for some well served cold micro brews afterwards?!?!
Girl, you have got it figured out! To a science! Where do I sign up? 🙂
This one was WELL planned I must admit LOL 🙂
Nina
Haha, thanks. It just seemed to be laid out in a logical order that way on your post, so I just couldn’t resist the temptation to run with it. Gotta have some fun when we can.
I hope you’re enjoying your boondocking and look forward to future posts on that. Have fun!
I fall in love more and more with Portland everytime we visit. And that so many dear friends have selected it as their homebase, has to say something. So glad you enjoyed another wonderful visit there!
Couldn’t agree more!
Nina
Portland is on our top 5 if where to live… For all the reasons you mentioned… Where r u staying in Joseph? … We loved it there.. Took many drives… Remember Laurie Brown.. She has written about it inher blog she had …have fun… We r on our way to 395…
We’re booked at Wallowa Lake State Park. It gets good reviews so I have high hopes we’ll like it. Enjoy your trip up 395!!
Nina
If it is the park we drove through, it is lovely as is the whole area there . Cute town… Lovely drives and views an some nice hiking… All right up your alley…
Also has some nice National Prairie lands there
Now I’m wondering if we should be putting Portland on our list for this summer. After this post I feel another visit would be worth our time. Beautiful photos Nina!
Ah Portland! What a great post about a few of its most awesome features!
I moved to the Portland Metro area in 1998, and have been full-time on the road since 2009, but still home-base there. I would have been back there already a month ago if I hadn’t injured myself out at Lake Mead and have been laid up recuperating in Las Vegas – your blog post has me eager to heal even more quickly and get back there! Oh how I miss good coffee and good food and the flowers and the Gorge and the… everything!
Thank you thank you thank you for the Portland fix – I can rest more easily now knowing it’s all still there, waiting for me and anyone else who wants to experience Portland’s amazingness. Thanks for the gorgeous photos 🙂
Thank you for the great article Nina. In fact I think the City of Portland should hire you as their PR person and pay you royally for this beautiful write up.
Being an immigrant from Europe we couldn’t have landed at a better place than Portland. It’s a cross between USA and European culture. I love the fact that they have a special connection with my home country, the Netherlands. They often send groups of people to work and study the bicycle infrastructure we have in Holland and hope to implant it and learn from it in Portland.
So happy you had a marvelous time here. I loved your photos and seeing ‘my city’ through the eyes of another explorer.
Oh and you know that wet stuff? We call it liquid sunshine! 🙂
Safe travels!
Finally catching up on some blog reading. Love the three shots of the city at the top. We are going to spend some time in Portland in the fall, so this will come in quite handy!
Brenda
btw, your blog looks great, your hard work paid off! Everything is nice and neat and even, and easy to find.
All this chatting about our city, and no one mentions Voodoo Donuts? Next time you are here you MUST go!!