Saturday 23 June 2012

US Road Trip Review: Portland

Portland's unofficial motto is 'Keep Portland Weird' and I have to say I found this offbeat and slightly nerdy city utterly charming.
We arrived after a long drive from Seattle (4 hours) and easily made our way to the Hotel Fifty.  This was a cool, boutique hotel with a large room, delicious restaurant and on a great location by the waterfront in downtown.  The only problem is that hotel parking is expensive but we found a cheaper parking lot over the road.  Read my Tripadvisor review here
Portland Activities

  • Another great city for kids.  Portland is fairly small so you can enjoy walking the streets with your stroller.  The tram is frequent and easy to use.
  • Always check your destination for events.  We were so lucky the Rose Festival was on during our stay, essentially a big carnival with lots of fun rides for our toddler, yummy food and music during the evenings
  • Portland has a bustling street food scene, take your kids for lunch at the Food Carts and have great fun picking bits from all over the world for a picnic http://www.foodcartsportland.com/
  • Washington Park has a plethora of museums; the Children's Museum was a massive hit with our 2 year old with water activities and a pretend theatre.  We didn't have time to go to the zoo but had a hike around the enormous park
  • The guidebooks raved about the Portland Aerial Tramway  We were disappointed with this, yes it was a great view over the city but the journey only lasted about 5 minutes and the start/finish were quite far out of town.
  • If you're a fan of Man Vs. Food, sample giant mancakes at the Stepping Stone Cafe.  You might have to queue so make sure you have something to entertain the kids with

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