Visiting Portland for the First Time? Here’s What To See and Do

If you’re wondering where to begin in Portland’s natural playground, check out Forest Park, one of the country’s largest urban forests. Here, you can choose among 80 miles (129 kilometers) of trails, with a number of the trailheads right in town and accessible by public transit. For a quintessential Portland hike, take a guided urban hike up to Pittock Mansion, where you'll find panoramic city views as well as the chance to spot Douglas firs, trillium flowers, squirrels, and more than 100 species of birds.

Insider tip: Need gear or outerwear for your hike? Portland is home to a number of name brands such as Nike, Columbia Sportswear, and Keen.

Portland is famously a foodie city, but its culinary culture is also a casual one. Enter the city's food carts, which are just as frequently visited by locals as tourists. The trucks function as incubators for innovation, and successful carts may expand their mobile empire, or move into brick-and-mortar locations if you'd prefer a sit-down experience. Start by trying Cartopia, Piedmont Station, Hawthorne Asylum, Alberta cArts—or take a food cart tour if you can’t decide. With half a dozen carts or more per pod, you’re sure to find something to sate the appetite of everyone in your party.

The Portland Japanese Garden is part of Washington Park, a top Portland attraction. The greater park includes the Oregon Zoo, the World Forestry Center, and the International Rose Test Garden, showcasing the fragrant beauties that give the city another one of its nicknames, Rose City. The Japanese Gardens span 12 acres (5 hectares) and include strolling paths, ponds, as well as a café, gallery, and learning center. The garden is a symbol of friendship between Japan and the US, and showcases both Japanese and Japanese-American culture.

Insider tip: To include the Japanese Garden on your Portland sightseeing day, you can make it a stop on a hop-on hop-off sightseeing trolley.

It’s no secret that Portlanders love their coffee. The cool, rainy weather that dominates for most of the year is a perfect excuse to always have a (travel) mug in hand, and you won’t get far before stumbling on a café, coffee shop, espresso cart, or drive-through. Stumptown Coffee got its start in Portland, but you can also try Case Study, Coava, or Bison Coffeehouse in north Portland, the city’s only Native-owned coffee shop. For a sweet treat with your coffee, the perfect accompaniment is doughnuts, of course. Sample the ever-popular Voodoo Donuts on a doughnut tour that will help you discover more local favorites.

Reading is a pastime that Portland takes seriously, and Oregon has produced a number of famous authors, including Beverly Cleary, Ursula K. LeGuin, Chuck Palahniuk, and Ken Kesey. It's probably not a surprise, then, that the city is also rife with independent bookshops. Any Portland sightseeing tour should include a stop at Powell’s City of Books, one of the world’s largest bookstores, which covers an entire city block. You’ll also find scores of smaller shops dedicated to different niches: A Children’s Place for kids’ books, Bishop & Wilde for an LGBTQ+ focus, Vivienne for cookbooks, and Grand Gesture Books for romance.

You can’t throw a rock in Portland without hitting a brewery or brew pub, and the city's signature ales flow through the city almost as copiously as water. With more than 80 breweries in Portland alone, including employee-owned Breakside Brewery and Steeplejack Brewing (whose NE Broadway location is inside an old restored church), there's a brew for every palate in the city. If you don't know where to start, you can sample the best of the city's beers on a Portland brewery tour.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is one of the best places to visit in Portland. Known locally as OMSI, the museum offers hands-on, science-based exhibits where people of all ages can test physics, explore space, try chemistry experiments, play with thermodynamics, and much more. There’s a kids’ play area where toddlers can roam, a planetarium for the star-struck, and a café and snack space to buy provisions (though you can also bring your own).

With vibrant scenes ranging from folk to punk to classical, Portland’s music community is thriving. Indie and alternative acts such as The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, Esperanza Spalding, and King Black Acid are just a few of the artists that have come out of Portland, and the city is still home to up-and-comers across genres. You can go to a gig (or three) each night of the week. The Alberta Rose Theater, McMenamins pubs, and the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall are just a few venues with regular performances.

Insider tip: Check the local alternative weeklies, Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury, to find out what’s on.

Portland’s own NBA team, the Trail Blazers (aka the Blazers), play at the Moda Center in the Rose Quarter. Their loyal and friendly fandom gives Portland yet another one of its nicknames: Rip City. Portland is also home to two pro soccer teams: the Portland Thorns FC (National Women’s Soccer League) and the Portland Timbers (Major League Soccer). Both teams play home games at Providence Park.

Did you know?: The "Rip City" nickname was originally coined by local sports announcer Bill Schonely during a Blazers game in the team's first season.

Located on downtown Portland’s attractive South Park Blocks and a short hop from Portland State University, the Portland Art Museum showcases contemporary, modern, and pre-modern art. The handsome, four-story museum has galleries dedicated to different collections that reflect Portland’s history and diversity, including European art, Asian art, American art, and Northwest art, among others. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art is especially noteworthy, comprising two floors in the museum’s main building, and holding more than 3,000 pieces from Indigenous groups across the continent.