Portland is the Pacific Northwest’s most self-consciously eccentric city, and it earns the reputation. Set on the Willamette River an hour from both the Oregon coast and the Cascade volcanoes, it combines serious food and coffee culture, a walkable grid of distinct neighbourhoods, one of the finest urban park systems in the United States, and a mild, grey, persistently drizzly climate that its residents accept as the price of living somewhere this green. It is smaller than Seattle, cheaper, and considerably stranger in the best sense. It sits at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, framed by the Cascade Range and close enough to both Mount Hood and the Oregon coast to make it an excellent base for wider exploration.
We have visited twice: once on the way from Seattle to Astoria (Oregon); the second time coming in the other direction from Vancouver. I remember having lunch in one of its nice parks and staying overnight at a very friendly hotel.
A Little Background
The area was home to the Chinook and Multnomah peoples before European-American settlers arrived. Portland was established in 1845 on a flat plain on the west bank of the Willamette — the story goes that its name was settled by a coin toss between two New England settlers, one from Portland, Maine, and one from Boston, Massachusetts. The loser got to name the main street, which is why the city has a Lovejoy Street. The city grew as a timber and shipping hub in the nineteenth century; its deep port on the Columbia River made it the commercial centre of the Pacific Northwest until Seattle’s railroads overtook it.
The twentieth century brought waves of migration — Black Americans arriving during the Second World War for shipyard work, then systematically displaced from their neighbourhoods by urban renewal; a significant Asian American population in the Old Town Chinatown district; and, from the 1990s onward, an influx of young people drawn by cheap rents and a particular cultural atmosphere that valued independent bookshops, bicycle commuting, and artisanal food before these things became a national cliché.
What to See and Do
Powell’s City of Books occupies an entire city block on West Burnside Street and is the largest independent bookshop in the United States — a full block of floor-to-ceiling shelves, divided by colour-coded rooms, stocking new and used books side by side. It operates a buy-sell-trade system; people sell their books at the front desk and buy more with the credit. Allow longer than you think necessary. Free to enter; very hard to leave without spending money.
Forest Park is 3,100 hectares of forested ridge above the west side of the city — the largest urban forest in the United States. The Wildwood Trail runs 48 kilometres through it, from Macleay Park to the northern edge of the city, mostly through Douglas fir and western red cedar with no road crossings for long stretches. The Hoyt Arboretum at the southern end is a more manicured introduction if you don’t want a full hike. Free entry.
The International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park has been operating since 1917 and contains over 10,000 rose plants across more than 600 varieties, with views of Mount Hood visible on clear days above the city. Free entry. The adjacent Japanese Garden (adult approximately US$20) is one of the most authentically designed Japanese gardens outside Japan — five garden styles across 1.2 hectares, best in late spring.
Lan Su Chinese Garden in Old Town is a Ming Dynasty-style garden designed and built by craftspeople from Suzhou, Portland’s sister city. Walls, pavilions, tea house, a central pond. Compact and extraordinarily detailed; one of the best things of its kind in North America. Adult approximately US$14.
The Portland Art Museum on the South Park Blocks is the oldest art museum on the West Coast, with a strong Northwest Coast Indigenous art collection, solid European holdings, and good temporary exhibitions. Adult approximately US$25. The museum anchors the South Park Blocks, a leafy linear park running the length of the university district.
Voodoo Doughnut on SW Third Avenue is a small pink shop that opens at all hours and sells unconventional doughnuts — bacon maple bars, cereal-topped, and worse. The queue is generally long and the doughnuts are better than they need to be. This is mentioned not as the best food in Portland but because it is unavoidable and the queue is, in fact, worth it once.
The food cart scene is a genuine Portland institution — not food trucks but permanent pods of carts, clustered in dedicated lots around the city. The pods on SW 10th and Alder, and in the Hawthorne and Mississippi corridors, cover cuisines from across the world at prices that require no apology. Dinner from a pod before drinks in a neighbourhood bar is the correct Portland evening.
Day trip: Columbia River Gorge — an hour east of Portland, the Columbia River cuts through the Cascades in a gorge of volcanic basalt with waterfalls dropping from the rim on the Oregon side. Multnomah Falls (189 metres, the tallest in Oregon) is the most visited; the Historic Columbia River Highway, built in 1916, runs between viewpoint and waterfall for 75 kilometres. A car is required.
Getting There
Portland International Airport (PDX) is 11 kilometres from downtown, connected by the MAX Red Line light rail directly to the city centre (approximately 38 minutes, US$2.50). The journey is easy and the service is frequent. Amtrak’s Empire Builder runs from Chicago to Portland (approximately 46 hours) and the Coast Starlight connects Portland to Seattle (approximately 3.5 hours) and Los Angeles (approximately 35 hours).
Cost and Hours
Portland is one of the more affordable major West Coast cities, with no state sales tax and a food and drink scene that sits at reasonable price points outside the high-end restaurants. Mid-range hotels run US$150–250 per night. Allow three days; four is comfortable for including a day trip to the coast or the Gorge.