Travel Dates: September 2022
Hotel:
Embassy Suites by Hilton Portland Downtown – we chose this hotel given it was right across the street from Hertz Rental. Also, if you were to drop off your rental after Hertz’s closing hours, you could leave the keys with the front desk at the hotel. The hotel shows signs of its age, but we were upgraded to a corner suite bedroom with our Hilton Diamond status. The stay comes with complementary breakfast, which consists of an omelet station and continental style breakfast.
Hilton Portland Downtown – the location of this hotel is located in the heart of Downtown Portland, and that made it much easier to walk to local bars and restaurants in the area. As with most hotels, on-site valet parking is on the pricey end at $55/night, but there are a few garages nearby to choose from (ranging from $18-$25/night).
Food:
Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen – Vietnamese restaurant where you order at the front, and then help yourself with utensils/water and finding your own seat. I would skip this unless you’re craving Vietnamese cuisine. We found the food to be on the heavy/salty side.
Afuri Izakaya – based on the famous Afuri ramen shop in Tokyo, this restaurant was pretty decent. I really enjoyed their Afuri roll, which consisted of bluefin tuna and salmon, covered with plentiful tobiko and ikura (different types of fish roe). Their yuzu ramen was fine, but was not up to par compared to the one I had in Tokyo at their original store.
Multnomah Whiskey Library – if you love whiskey, I highly recommend checking out this intimate lounge. It’s a whiskey club that is only accessible to members who pay an annual fee. But the public is able to get “hall passes” for one day at $25 per person to be able to enter (fancy way of implementing “cover charge”). These passes are sold online two weeks in advance and tend to run out. They have over 1,000 bottles of whiskey and many are top shelf, hard to find. There’s also other spirits, wine and beer, non-alcoholic cocktails/drinks, and some food. The bartenders are very knowledgable in whiskey, and you can ask them for a flight to try out several different types based on what you’re looking for. It can get pricey based on what you order, and the custom sample flight ran us ~$125 for 4 whiskey tastings.
Activities:
Multnomah Falls is 30 minutes outside of Portland, and nice for a quick half-day trip. If you Google Maps the location, it will take you to a parking lot “in the middle” of the highway that is a 5 minute walk to the falls via an underpass. There is a parking lot right by the falls itself, but it’s much smaller and may take longer to find a spot.
There is a Visitor Center with bathrooms and a concession stand. The falls have two levels, and if you want to get to the upper falls bridge it’s a quick 10 minute hike, although a tad steep.
Mount Hood is a stratovolcano that is 1.5 hours outside of Portland. In the winter you can ski and snowboard, while in the summer you can mountain bike, hike, or take the lift (Magic Mile Skyride) up towards the top for $20 per person. There are several mountain bike trails that you can ride down and take a lift back up–just be aware of bears and mountain lions that may be in the area. They also have mountain bike riding classes and rentals if needed.
There’s also the Timberline Lodge and a restaurant/bar here, and the Timberline company is the one that manages all these recreational activities.
Mount Hood was a nice detour on our way to Crater Lake. Otherwise, feel free to skip this unless you are looking to ski/snowboard or mountain bike, which I would definitely recommend coming here.
Globe Trotter 