5 Days in Portland
Portland, Oregon Travel Guide & Itinerary
5 Days in Portland, Oregon USA
A visit to Portland and the surrounding areas of Mount Hood, Tillamook, and the Oregon Coast.
Day 1:
Lodging: We stayed in an AirBnB in the Lloyd area. It was pretty convenient to get to other areas but I would strongly recommend staying in the Pearl District. This is where we spent most of our time, even though it might be more expensive to stay in this area you’ll spend more money on ubers getting in and out.
Getting Around: We biked, ubered, and walked most places. On two days we rented a car for day trips outside the city.
Gastro Mania Deli
Gastro Mania was good for a quick lunch! The porchetta sandwich and bacon wrapped dolma were mouthwatering. On a nice day, grab a seat outside and enjoy some fresh air.
10 Barrel Brewing
10 Barrel is a really great environment, especially on a nice warm day since they have a roof top area. The beer flight was great, filled with 10 unique beers for a really good price!
Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House
Keep the beer-tasting going and indulge in Deschutes amazing hot pretzel. Deschutes is walking distance from 10 Barrel Brewing, which is an added bonus! (We didn’t check out Fat Head but it’s really close as well.)
Walk to the Waterfront
Take a stroll through Portland’s Chinatown to the Willamette waterfront, take some photos along the bridges. Stroll south and head back into the Pearl District. Then walk towards Tasty N Adler/Indio Spirits.
Tasty n Alder
Tasty n Adler is terrific!!! Most of the reviews and pictures on Yelp are related to brunch but dinner was great. On a Wednesday night around 7 pm it was around an hour to an hour and a half wait. (As said above, Indio Spirits made it go by fast!) We ordered a few items to split between us:
Low Country Hushpuppies: cooked perfectly and made me miss Texas!
Grilled Spanish Octopus: We actually sent it back the first time because the bottom was burnt. The waiter was really nice and brought out a new one then comped our bill. The new one was terrific with great flavor!!!
Bulgogi Short Ribs with homemade kimchi: was pretty good!
Radicchio: Favorite thing on the menu! This salad was terrific!
Salt & Straw
Can’t visit Portland without visiting everyone’s favorite ice-cream shop! We visited the location off of Division Street since it was closest to our AirBnB.
Day 2:
We rented a car from Enterprise (the Burnside location) and got a really good deal to head out of the city!
VooDoo Doughnuts
Can’t visit Portland without stopping at VooDoo Donuts. Locals will tell you to skip VooDoo and go to Blue Star but we felt like it was a bucket list item to check off. Everyone says that the line is massive, but we actually had no line and were able to walk right in! Maybe Thursday mornings at 9 am are the golden hour!
Tilamook Cheese Factory
Around an hour and a half outside the city, you’ll find heaven, aka the Tillamook Cheese Factory. There are viewing balconies to see the factory floor, a cheese tasting room, and endless gift shop, restaurant, and ice-cream parlor. I had the New York pastrami melt and tomato soup (it was a rainy day) and absolutely loved it!!! Didn’t know if I was making a mistake by not going classic grilled cheese, but was completely satisfied with my decision. Finished up the tour with the Tillamook mudslide ice cream! Yum!!!
Oregon Coast
Continue heading west out to the Oregon coast. The Oregon coast is beautiful…. supposedly…unfortunately it was an extremely rainy day with low visibility due to a storm so there were just a few highlights for us to enjoy. But what I hear from others is that it’s normally beautiful! Our path was from Rockaway Beach, Nedonna Beach, Hug Point State Park, Cannon Beach, Seaside, to Astoria. We stopped along at random beaches and even came across Elk.
Mirakutei Ramen
Mmm…nothing like a big bowl of ramen on a frigid day! We got the tonkotsu ramen, gyoza, and karage. Everything was really good! They also have sushi if you’re interested! The karage was a little smaller pieces of chicken than I’ve normally had. The tonkatsu ramen noodles were perfect!
Day 3:
Slappy Cakes
Choose your favorite batter, ingredients, and make your own pancakes!
Bagby Hot Springs
This was our favorite part of the trip!!! The Bagby hot springs are about an hour and half drive from Portland, then it’s a beautiful 30-45 minute hike through the forest to the hot springs. These hot springs are extremely different from any ones I have ever been to. They are giant wooden tubs that you scrub down then fill from the hot spring waterspouts. Then pour in water you collect from the creek to cool them down. Make sure to bring $5 per person to pay for entrance into the hot spring area. We set our GPS to Ripplebrook Ranger Station, where you can get a map and directions to the hot spring (only during their open hours). Note that you won’t have cell phone reception about half way through the drive.
Old Town Pizza & Brewing
Haunted pizza?! Yes, well kind of. The Old Town Pizza and Brewing is located in an old hotel where the ghost of Nina haunts. Want to get the best seat in the house? From the counter you order pizza from go left and take a right towards the end of the hallway, then head all the way to the back where there is a small sitting area with a red couch. This is the base of the old elevator shaft where Nina’s body was found and if you look closely enough you will find her name carved into the wall! Spooky!!!! The pizza and beer here is good! The house special was great and a small was enough food for two hungry people to split. We also tried the garlic knots, they were just alright.
Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade
Very Portland! Classic video games, pinball machines, and a funky DJ make Ground Kontrol a great stop on your Portland trip. They have an extremely fun game called Killer Queen where teams of 5 compete against each other! If you have a big group or want to make friends, this game is a blast!!!
Day 4:
Pine State Biscuits
Great way to start out the morning with a savory biscuit sandwich complete with fried chicken, egg, bacon, then topped with gravy. Ladies and gentleman this is what we call the Reggie Deluxe. I would really recommend ordering this! We also got hash browns and hushpuppies. The hushpuppies were great while the hash browns were nothing special. How else could this breakfast get better, throw in an excellent Bloody Mary with the perfect kick! We visited the Schuyler Street location, which is tiny, and the line can get long so try and get there early.
Washington Park
Washington Park features various beautiful gardens and lush green areas. We strolled around the area but didn’t stay long since it was raining. To be honest we were surprised to see some of the Washington Park offerings as the top items on TripAdvisor, it did seem a little overrated and underwhelming.
Powell's Books
Check out one of the largest book stores and pick up a book for the trip home!
Distillery Row
Think Portland is just about beer? Think again! Distillery Row is where it’s at! Featuring 8 distilleries, almost all in walking distance. You can purchase a souvenir passport for $30 that gets you a tasting at all of the distilleries. Since we only visited 3 we just elected to pay each tasting fee, which was $5. The distilleries we visited were: Rolling River, Eastside and New Deal. Each distillery was very unique! Rolling River featured vodka, pepper vodka, gin, white dog, coffee spirit, aquavits, and ended the tasting with an aquavits warm cocktail. At Eastside you can try vodka, multiple types of gin, bitter liqueur, brandy, chocolate, coffee, and ginger liqueur. New Deal was the first to offer rum (multiple types), vodka, and multiple types of bourbon.
Whiskey Library
Get here right at 3:50 pm, maybe even a little earlier! If you don’t have a reservation they will let in a few small parties when they open at 4 pm. We were probably 10th in line and had to wait to get in. The waiting room is perfect though because it’s another bar! What is the whiskey library? It’s heaven! It’s absolutely beautiful inside, almost an east coast high-end feel with an incredible selection of whiskeys and other beverages. This place is a must even if you’re not a whiskey drinker, just to enjoy the ambiance.
Andina
I can never turn down Peruvian food especially when they have a great happy hour! I think we arrived a little before 6 pm and they had discounted drinks, appetizers, and empanadas. The food was terrific! The vegetarian and meat empanadas were cooked perfectly. The ceviche had the perfect mix of sour and sweet. The lomos saltado was tinder and brimming with flavor. Make sure to get a pisco sour! The staff was great here as well. Since it was a little earlier, we were able to walk in without a reservation but on the way out it looked like it was starting to fill up!
Huber's Cafe
Word’s cannot describe how cool this is! Head to Huber’s Café, walk in, go past the kitchen and you’ll find a beautiful bar with similar tones to the Multnomah Whiskey Library. Sit down at the bar and order a Spanish Coffee. You will sit jaw dropped as the bartenders perform practically a magic show with fire while making your drink! It’s mesmerizing to watch and the drink taste great!
Day 5:
BIKETOWN
BikeTown is one of the coolest ideas! It’s a bike rental service with stations all over the city. For $12 you get access to a bike for 24 hours and can ride it for 2 hours, when you check a bike back in your time pauses until you check it out again. There are stations all over the city, it’s extremely easy to use and really fun. We biked from our AirBnB in the Lloyd district to the waterfront, crossed the bridge, rode along the other side of the waterfront, and looped back on the southern most bridge. We then rode all the way to Pok Pok. There is a Biketown station a few blocks down from Pok Pok at Division and 30th.
Pok Pok
We dropped off our bikes around 10:30 am and Pok Pok didn’t open until 11 am so we explored the area a little bit. We returned to Pok Pok around 10:50 am to see a line starting to form very quickly. By the time the restaurant opened the line was probably 30 people deep already. Pok Pok’s food was really good, especially if you enjoy exotic flavors. If you’re not a big fan of fish sauce or Asian food I would skip this place. Since I love Thai food, I was in heaven. The ambiance, food, and drinks transported me to being back in Chiang Mai. We ordered the fish sauce wings, papaya salad, and the house special chicken (I can’t remember the name of it but it was the first item on the menu). Then we had two Thai iced teas. Everything was perfect and really good portions for two people to split. I would really recommend the papaya salad to compliment the meat dishes.
Tips and Tricks:
Public transportation is really good in Portland and so is the Uber coverage, so you don’t really need to rent a car unless you are going outside the city. It’s actually pretty hard to find parking within many parts of the city including Pearl District.