Last week I traveled to Portland, Oregon with my Stepmom and one of our closest family friends. This was my first time in the Pacific Northwest and I was excited to explore! You probably saw a good chunk of my trip on social media, but also wanted to do a quick travel diary with some of our favorites and not so favorites for our Weekend in Portland, Oregon. I only spent a few days in Portland, so I am hardly an expert but here is a little from our trip!
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Like I mentioned above, this was my first time in the PNW and I wasn’t sure what to expect. To be completely honest, I was a little dissappointed in Portland. I was excpecting a very clean, outdoors-y town (I think I was picturing something similar to Denver) but it wasn’t quite like that. I don’t like being negative, I still had an absolute blast, loved spending time with my stepmom and good friend, and the wedding we attended was beautiful. A weekend in Portland was just not my favorite weekend getaway, especially when factoring in travel time, expenses and overall city.
Before I dive into all the things we did love, I want to explain my thoughts more. I am very happy I went, I’m happy I saw Portland and I had a blast on our trip. BUT is it somewhere I want to visit again? No. I’ve seen it and don’t care to go back. My flight was more expensive than I would usually spend travelling within the US, especially for a weekend getaway. Plus, it took 7+ hours of travel time and the city wasn’t as outdoors-y or mountain-y as I expected. I do want to travel to the PNW again, but instead of a weekend in Portland I would opt for Seattle and/or Vancouver. Portland for me is just one of those cities that I do not see myself visiting over and over.
Ok, so now you see why I didn’t love Portland as a regular destination but I did love my weekend in Portland! Here are some of the best parts:
WHERE WE STAYED
We stayed at The Hoxton. This is a hotel “chain” but really is a boutique style hotel with properties in a few locations. I have followed them on social for a while and was excited to experience the hotel. Since I work with hotel properties for social media, I have a whole new perspective when looking at hotels and was excited to see how things were done.
If you ever get the chance to stay at a Hoxton, I highly recommend it! The hotel was very, very cute. Not only was it reasonably priced, the rooms were nice and the ammenities were great.
Our particular hotel had a coffee shop in the lobby, a downstairs restaurant + bar, a rooftop restaurant + bar, and a basement speakeasy. It was nice to be able to do so much without leaving the property. The food + drinks were delicious. One of my favorite things was the homemade granola bars they delivered each morning with the complimentary breakfast.
I’ll share additional photos below and I have a room tour under my ‘Portland’ IG Highlight on Instagram (@RileySitton).
WHAT WE DID
TBH we didn’t get to do too much exploring but I will share a few things we loved + one thing I wish we would have had time for. Our main purpose for our weekend in Portland was to attend my good friend’s brother’s wedding. In addition to all the fun wedding festivities we explored downtown, walked by the river and saw a gorgeous winery!
We stayed on one side of the river (I’m not sure the name) but we traveled to the Division area for a delicious Italian dinner at Ava Gene’s. I loved this little area and wish we would have had more time to explore. I highly recommend both this restaurant and this area if you are traveling to Portland.
We spent most of the day Friday at a vineyard outside of the city limits. We were suprised the locals had a hard time recommending a vineyard to visit but we finally settled on Durant Winery and absolutely loved it. We took an Uber about 45 minutes outside of Portland to this beautiful property where we had a wine tasting, explored the vineyard, met livestock, saw an olive grove and then did an olive oil tasting. We sadly wrapped up the day by sipping wine while overlooking the vineyard and listening to live music. This was one of my favorite parts of our weekend in Portland and highly, highly recommend visiting this Vineyard.
The rest of the weekend was left for brunching, exploring and girl time. While this was a blast, it wasn’t really anything specific I have to offer for your list. However, my mom recently travelled to Portland and recommends the Misssippi Area and Powell Books! Someone at the wedding mentioned they went to the Mt. Hood area, went up the mountain and enjoyed a very scenic bar. This sounded so fun, but unfortunately didn’t learn about it until the night before we left.
WHERE WE ATE (& loved)
- Ava Gene’s – delicious Italian food. Be sure to try the salad sampler, it was phenomenal.
- Lovely Rita – this was the restaurant in the bottom of our hotel. I loved their avocado toast.
- Tope – Mexican restaurant on the roof of our hotel. Super cute atmosphere + great small options.
- The Roxy – This is a 24 hour diner in Portland. We woke up so early because we were used to EST and found this to be one of the few places open but it was delicious! The atmosphere is funky and fun, the food was yummy and portions were huge!
- VooDoo Donuts – Delicious donuts! Fun atmosphere and unique options, a must see.
- Salt and Straw Ice Cream – I’m a sucker from yummy ice cream. Grab unusual flavors that you’ll fall in love with.
WHAT I WORE
Linking all available products below the photos!
MELANIE: Sweater | Boots | Hat (50% off!) |
RILEY: Leopard Dress | Hat (40% off!) | Shoes | Bag |
sorry, bad quality but such great pieces I wanted to share!
What do you think of our Weekend in Portland, Oregon? I didn’t get to explore as much as I’d like to before sharing a guide but wanted to post what I could! If you have any questions, comments or recommendations – drop them below so others can see too! XO
Check out more Weekender’s Guides here!
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