The Tourist's Guide To: Portland, Oregon

Traveling with me is quite the undertaking. I never like to have a moment go to waste, so I always make sure days are jam-packed and pre-planned. Before I go anywhere, I spend countless hours on Pinterest and reading blogs about the top sights to see, the best spots to drink at, and places only the locals know about. From there comes organization (in the form of a saved map) and general prioritization (musts, maybes, and next times).

For my most recent weekend getaway, my friend Carly and I hopped on a plane out of SFO and headed up to Portland, OR.

Where to stay in Portland Oregon

Starting with our accommodations, we opted for a tiny house via Airbnb – what a gem! (#tinyhouseportland – @TinyHousePortland)

 

Things To Do & See In Portland Oregon

Due to the fires recently (01/2018), Multnomah Falls was pretty much completely closed. 

This was a massive disappointment after driving all the way out there, but we decided to not let it get us down and took a Highway 30 along the main Highway 84. We passed through cute towns like Bridal Veil, and from there we discovered the best waterfall ever: 

Latourell Falls in Corbett, OR

Speaking of Multnomah...

Multnomah Whisk(e)y Library in Downtown Portland

What a cool experience! So, I'm not a whiskey drinker. I drank too much brown sugar liquid in college and have been repulsed by it ever since. Even as ritzy as this place was, we sat at the bar and explained our backgrounds on whiskey: none. 

A bartender was there to guide us through the process, encourage us on tastes, and just make us feel extremely at ease as young women out of our element. For that reason alone, go here.

  

Pépé Le Moko

There's a sort of dance you have to do when hitting the cool bars in Portland. We started by standing in line and putting our names down for the extremely cool, semi-underground Pépé Le Moko. With a one hour wait, we walked over to Multnomah Whiskey Library and secured a spot for a few hours from then. We then settled in for a drink and waiting to get a text from Pépé. Everything went smoothly and we successfully did two of the coolest bars in Portland in one evening/night!

  

Heart Coffee Roasters + Good Coffee 

Carly works on the coffee team at Blue Bottle Coffee based in Oakland. This meant that we did a full-scale coffee tour of Portland. We hit all the best, most prized coffee roasteries/shops and graded them based on the house recommended, single-origin espresso, environment, and customer service.

As a Q-certified grader of coffee, Carly was hard on the product itself, where I came in pretty critical of the customer service (or lack thereof). Oh, hipster Portland and their seeming hatred of nonlocals.

Our coffee tour included:

1. Proud Mary
2. Barista
3. Coava
4. Heart
5. Good
6. Guilder

And the winners were... Heart Coffee Roasters and Good Coffee! 

Also, please check out this incredible Matcha Lavender Latte from Good Coffee. I died and went to heaven.

Mother's Bistro in Downtown Portland

My god, Mother's Bistro will rock your entire brunch-loving world. I wasn't sure if this place was painfully overhyped – I live in San Francisco, I know good food! – but no, it wasn't. That's why you get a picture of my half-eaten corn flake dipped french toast. It was a life-changing breakfast experience.

Pro-tip: Go here. Put your name down. Go to Portland sign. Check out the older area. Come back in an hour and eat.

  

Shopping along NW 23rd Street (Map to NW 23rd & NW Johnson)

We're big on shopping and worked to stake out a good spot to walk along and shop at different stores. The best neighborhood for this is by far NW 23rd Street.

We stumbled into the most amazing store with the most reasonably priced, handmade jewelry. Make sure you stop in at Artisan Avenue Marketplace! Carly found her wedding earrings here and we got to talk directly to the craftswoman/shop owner. A must visit in Portland!

 

The ever-iconic Portland Sign

We hiked out on a bridge in the pouring rain for this picture. It was a bit traumatic and wet, but totally worth it.

 

McMenamin's Kennedy School (Soaking Pool and 6 Bars!)

This was our last and final stop before boarding our plane, but we needed so much more time here! I didn't fully understand the scope of how insanely cool/creepy this place is. They have tons of bars, some with just closet-sized spaces, along with a public soaking pool for $5 p/person.

I'm so happy we opted to use the soaking pool even though we had no towels or really any preparation at all. Sitting in hot water at 6pm with a bunch of people in the rain is a pretty cool experience. All the plants are nice too.

 
Herbarium

Such an awesome place to get to make your own tea. Unfortunately, it was a bit busy when we visited, so not a ton of help on different herbs and what they do, but lots of Googling and smiling to coax out information from the woman working there – and we felt pretty great about the concoctions we left with!

House of Vintage

Woah. Carly almost killed me in this place because I wouldn't leave. I was able to look through about half of the store in a couple hours. One word: insane. This image is from House of Vintage's website since I didn't have a spare moment to take a picture of the craziness.

The Official KB Map For Portland, Oregon: