Frugal Portland Travels

Japanese Garden

My recent trip to Portland was fantastic! Portland is beautiful, green and easy to navigate. I immediately felt at home in the city. The climate, bike culture, and walkable streets made me smile. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave.

If you’re looking for a cheap vacation, Portland is the place to go.

Hostel Fun

After a fantastic slumber party, Steph dropped me off in North West Portland and I checked into the North West International Hostel. The staff were friendly, the hostel was clean and it was within walking distance to many attractions.

Walking the City

I literally walked the city and saw some amazing sites. I felt completely free and unconstrained taking pictures and enjoying my long walking tour of Portland. Some of the places I toured and walked to included:

• Stumptown Coffee was amazing and yummy.
  

  View of Mt Hood

• Powell’s Books is a must see. I literally got lost in the book store.
• Washington Park, the Rose Garden and the Japanese Gardens are beautiful.
• The Portland Rebuilding Center
• Touring tiny cottages in the Mississippi District rocked (don’t worry, I’ll be doing a separate post on my tour)! Walking back to Northwest Portland was a trek but worth it because I was able to walk over the Broadway Bridge and take some photos of the river.
• Portland is divided up into districts and I walked through most of them, including the, Alphabet District, Mississippi District, Nob Hill, the Alberta District, the Pearl District and, the Cultural District.
• The Portland Farmer’s Market is right on the edge of Portland State University. The market is beautiful and the university is definitely worth walking through.

Stumptown Coffee

Tiny House Meet-up

Steph, Amanda and I talked about tiny homes and simple living over lunch at the Pearl Bakery. It was so good to meet both of these amazing women in person.

Food and Coffee

A friendly guy at Stumptown told me about a recent New York Times article focused on frugal traveling in Portland. I experienced this first hand via Portland’s simple, healthy and cheap assortment of restaurants. Some of my favorite places to grab a good cup of coffee and food included, Stumptown Coffee, You are Here (a 1950s, retro restaurant), the Pearl Bakery, Rams Head, and a few Thai restaurants.

Plus, there are over 400 low-cost lunchtime spots to eat, with food choices ranging from Japanese and Thai to Kazakh and Mexican. You can’t beat eating from a tiny trailer.

Tagged as: Portland, Simple Living & Tiny Homes, tiny house, vacation