I had the chance to visit Portland in 2015 for OSCON and 2018 for Rustconf. The city has a hipster vibe, and I like it.

I’m writing this in 2023, so it’s been 5 years since I was there for the last time and my memory will totally fail me in many aspects, so please take my recommendations and descriptions with a grain of salt.

The things I enjoyed the most was actually walking around the city. 🙂

Stay

In 2015 I stayed in the Hotel Eastlund. I have nothing to complain about the place and their service. It was paid by the company, though, so I have no other info about price or anything.

In 2018 I stayed in the Northwest Portland Guesthouse. The experience was OK, just a bit far from most of the things I wanted to visit.

Airport

The PDX airport was quite nice for what I remember. I didn’t do anything fancy in any of those trips. Just got in time for the flight or arrived there and got transportation for the city.

There’s a train from the airport that takes you to the city center. It works quite well and the price is reasonable. I would totally recommend everyone to use this option after arriving there.

I usually travel light nowadays. At the time it was “light enough” as I usually had a carry on bag and it was quite easy to use the train either way.

Transport

Both times I just walked around and used the tram inside the city. I found it to be quite good and simple to use.

Some friends of mine usually recommend to get bikes to ride around the city. They are mostly everywhere and you can pay using the app. I didn’t get that, but I would totally consider it next time I visit.

Places

I didn’t have much time to visit places in Portland. I was there for work and didn’t take many days of vacations after that. Here are some places I visited (and still remember):

  • Ground Kontrol: a bar with arcade games. I had a lot of fun there. It’s probably the place I remember the most and would visit again.
  • Portland convention center: I went there for a conference both times and the place is quite good. It’s not a place you can casually visit, but I wanted to add this here in case someone is going there.
  • Powell’s city of books: Amazing bookstore. Totally worth a visit. I got some interesting edition of Tolkien books from there.
  • Mozilla: I had the chance to visit Mozilla in Portland and it was quite nice to know the office. I have no idea how things are after the pandemic though.
  • OMSI: Museum of science. It would be amazing for kids, and I have to say I found it quite interesting visiting it by myself too.
  • Free walking tour: I did a free walking tour booked at the hostel and it was nice to walk around and know about the story of the city. We did some walking through the streets that inspired Simpsons characters and many other interesting places. I don’t have a name to recommend anymore, but I would totally check Guruwalk and look for something.
  • Washington park: Nice park, great rose garden. It was definitely a nice walk around there.
  • Lan Su Chinese Garden: An OK visit. Quite small, but beautiful. I’m not sure if I would visit again, though.

Food

As usual, don’t take my food recommendations very seriously, as I mostly don’t know what I’m doing. If you want better food recommendations, check Caffo’s recommendation for Portland. I visited most of the places he recommended.

  • Denny’s: It was quite close to the hotel I was staying and I just remember asking for something for brunch and being full until dinner. 😂
  • Burgerville: Great burgers and beer (for what my friend told me, as I don’t really like beer).
  • Voodoo Doughnut: I’m not a big fan of doughnuts, but I had to try it. I would recommend people to try it too, just be ready for a ton of sugar.
  • Lardo: Pretty good burger and drinks. Highly recommended.