Portland Travel Guide
My family recently took a Pacific Northwest trip to Seattle and Portland, one we’ve wanted to take for years but finally did this year since it’s our “last family vacation” before I move around the world for a while. Although my family may or may not have been annoyed at me a few times during this trip for dragging them to weird restaurants and spouting off random historical facts, I think we had a really great time together in these cities and in nature.
Portland is a city that’s so much more than snippets of sketch comedy in Portlandia, no matter how much I quoted it while I was there. I could so see myself and/or my family living here for real. It’s refreshing to be around pine trees, mountains, and creative and progressive people. If you’re planning a trip soon, I’d recommend getting free copies of the Travel Oregon Visitor Guide or Travel Portland, as you’ll get insider knowledge of where to go, eat, and what to see. For now, let me give you my take. Here’s my guide to everything we did in Portland and what I’d recommend. And you can put a bird on that.
Food (the most important part)
Por Qué No? A top two spot for us in Portland. We were staying just down the street in the Hawthorne neighborhood, and our Airbnb host recommended eating there after we dropped our bags off at the house. Even on a Monday night this place had a line out the door, but it was WORTH IT. Grab a margarita while waiting, order chips and guac and a couple tacos (would highly recommend the shrimp and pineapple), then find a seat on their cozy and colorful back patio. Wish we would’ve eaten here again! Hawthorne
Pine Street Market: Portland’s downtown food hall, across the street from Pedal Bike Tours where we had just finished our Columbia River Gorge bike trip. They have around ten trendy food stall options, perfect for a family who can’t agree on anything. I had excellent roast chicken and beer from Pollo Bravo. Downtown
Cartopia: Portland, among a dozen other things, is known for their killer food trucks. Most of them are arranged in little pods around the city, and Cartopia was the one closest to where we were staying. It was a cozy space of picnic tables and lights surrounded by a dozen carts offering pizza, chicken, fries, sandwiches, cupcakes, gyros, and the like. Again, something for everyone!
The Fireside: We happened across this breezy bistro while shopping in Nob Hill, an affluent neighborhood in Northwest Portland. It’s a great lunch spot for a salmon burger, fries, and a glass of wine, and a cozy spot to grab another drink in the evening. Nob Hill
Tilt Burgers: After spending an hour at Powell’s Books in the Pearl District, we walked over to this industrial burger spot that seemed to be popular with the downtown lunch crowd. The portion sizes are heaping, but at least you’ll have leftovers. Pearl District
Farmhouse Thai: A casual but hip place with dishes inspired by the chef’s childhood in Thailand. I couldn’t get my family to branch outside of fried rice (and honestly, I had Pad Thai, so I’m not much better), but it definitely rivaled our favorite Thai place ever, Siam Orchid, in Bellevue, Kentucky. Hawthorne
Blackbird Pizza: We chose this pizza place per recommendation from our bike tour guide, and also because it had gluten free pizza slices for my dad. Pizza-by-the-slice is a convenient lunch option for my family, and they had plenty of beer choices for me as well as arcade games for Kai. Hawthorne
Bamboo Sushi: I am seriously still dreaming about the lemon-zested salmon nigiri I had here. It’s been only EIGHT DAYS since this meal, and every night since I’ve wanted it again. This sushi spot is a highly popular, trendy place that serves only sustainably-caught fish. While that might make it more expensive than the half-price sushi at Cloud 9, this is a place I highly recommend–but make sure you get a reservation. I ordered edamame, the Ocean Farmer roll, and king salmon nigiri. Would do it all over again tomorrow. NW/SW/SE/NE
Sights
Portland Japanese Garden: The only other Japanese garden I’ve been to is the one at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, which was actually very different. While in San Francisco they filled the garden with pagodas and bridges and a tea house, in Portland it was more about the gravel “water” gardens and a couple unadorned replicas of traditional Japanese buildings. I loved them both for different reasons, but the Portland one was so serene and had an amazing view of Mount Hood.
International Rose Test Garden: Next door to the Japanese garden is the rose garden, which is filled with rows of roses in every shape and color for the City of Roses. They smelled amazing.
Hawthorne (shopping, restaurants, theater): Hawthorne was such a cute place to stay. The vintage shops and breakfast spots were great draws for an afternoon exploring. We even saw a showing of The Lion King at the historic Bagdad Theater one night.
There are many other awesome neighborhoods as well, including Mississippi Avenue, Alberta Arts District, Division, Nob Hill, and Pearl District. Check them all out!
Powell’s Books: Behold, the largest independent bookstore in the country! This maze of a place is five stories and an entire block’s worth of books, which color-coded rooms and even a ~ r a r e b o o k s r o o m ~ where I almost cried at the first edition novels and colonial literature and the $400,000 worth of Lewis and Clark’s journals. Take me BACK.
Gems
Everything on this Portland list could be its own gem, so here I’ve included a day trip we did that didn’t fit in any other category and that felt like a world away from the rest of the state and country.
Astoria and Cannon Beach: We took some detours off the 101 on our drive from Seattle to Portland, two of those being to Astoria, the coastal town from The Goonies, and Cannon Beach, also featured in The Goonies and home to Haystack Rock. In Astoria, we saw The Goonies house (you can’t get too close though), the jail where the Fertellis escaped, and the bowling alley where Chunk slaps his pizza slice against the window. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but I almost wish it would’ve been more misty to really get that mysterious Pacific Northwest “vibe” from the movie. We also ate lunch at Mo’s Seafood for some shrimp skewers, then headed about thirty minutes down the coast to Cannon Beach, which was so lush and majestic with that giant rock sticking out of the water. Then we headed to Portland!
Outdoors
Washington Park: Don’t miss this park when you come to Portland. The park includes the Oregon Zoo, the World Forestry Center, veterans’ and Holocaust memorials, Hoyt Arboretum, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, and over a hundred miles of trails.
Columbia River Gorge: I loved crossing Portland’s urban growth line into the wilderness of the gorge. My family took a bike-and-hike tour of the gorge’s waterfalls with Pedal Bike Tours. I loveeeed this experience because we got to bike along the nation’s first scenic highway from one waterfall to another. Definitely take this tour, or bring your own bike and do it yourself, across this route. Portland is crazy lucky to have the Columbia River Gorge so close.
Happy Travels!
Click here to see my Seattle Travel Guide!
