Portland holidays

About Portland

Voted the 8th most popular city in America, Portland is renowned for its street food, numerous micro-breweries and tax-free boutique shopping. It's one of the greenest in the world with a significantly high number of its population choosing to cycle or walk rather than drive. Participation in farm to table dining is also one of the highest in the world. The unofficial motto, and mantra for its inhabitants, "keep Portland weird", is a slogan to promote Portland businesses, but also encompasses individuality, expressionism and local art, as well as atypical lifestyle choices and leisure activities. Portland is becoming ever more popular with tourists, with some impressive new hotels opening in 2018.

For anyone thinking of booking a trip, here are some great things to see and do in the city:

Washington Park - has miles of trails, an International Rose Test Garden with over 10,000 rose bushes of more than 650 varieties, a zoo, and Japanese Garden "the most authentic outside of Japan". A new Cultural Village was opened here in 2017.

Brewery bike tour - a novel way of seeing the city, experiencing its many micro-breweries and getting slightly more tipsy with each pedal of the way! one of the largest urban forest reserves in the United States, stretching for 8 miles and covering more than 5000 acres.

Tom McCall Waterfront Park - located on one side of the Willamette River and named after the Oregon Governor, a staunch advocate of recycling, environmental preservation and urban planning. A great place for picnics, jogging and chilling, there's also a fountain whose water patterns change with the city’s mood. The very best time to visit is in spring when all the Park's cherry blossom trees are in stunning full bloom.

Oregon Historical Society Museum - just the idea of visiting this museum to witness the Portland Penny, the coin that decided Portland's name on a best-of-three coin toss (ahead of 'Boston'), brings back familiar memories from the tv series 'Parks & Recreation'. The Museum, opened in 1898, contains many thousands of artefacts relating to the history of the local area.

A half hour drive or tour out of the city will bring you to the spectacular Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. Recognisable to fans of the 'Twilight' films and 'Grimm' tv series, the magnificent 611-foot cascade drops in two major steps with the Benson Bridge spanning the first tier's misty base. According to Native American lore, Multnomah Falls was created to win the heart of a young princess who wanted a hidden place to bathe.