Travels 'N' Trails

An Afternoon in Portland

in Oregon, Travel on

Check out these great ideas for what to do with an afternoon in Portland Oregon. Travel adventures, bucket list, road trip, Oregon activities.

Back in September, J and I spent a week road-tripping through Oregon. It was an amazingly beautiful trip, and I’m going to spend the next few weeks recapping all our stops and showing you the best sights to see and activities to do, so that you can plan your Ultimate Oregon Road Trip too!

Our first stop was Portland! Portland is only about 3-4 hours south of Seattle (depending on traffic!), and I can’t believe it took me so long to visit. We only had an afternoon to explore, but even in a short amount of time, there is plenty to explore and get a feel for the city. Here are a few highlights that you should definitely hit, even if you only have a few hours here!

Powell’s Books

1005 W Burnside St, Portland, OR 97209

Powell’s Books is absolutely amazing. This gigantic bookstore covers an entire city block! Room after room after room is filled with thousands of books on all different topics. We seriously could’ve spent an entire day here but managed to limit ourselves this time. Powell’s sells both new and used books, and they have a counter set up to buy back your used books as well. It’s absolutely a must-see if you are visiting Portland for the first time.

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Each room is color coded and categorized by genre. Signs are located throughout the store to help guide you to whatever section you’re looking for. (Or you can wander aimlessly like we did!)

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One of the coolest parts was the rare books room, where old manuscripts and other unique books could be found.

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Deschutes Brewery

210 NW 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

 Just down the road from Powell’s is Deschutes Brewery, a great place to grab a beer and bite to eat. Deschutes is one of the largest craft breweries in the country and was originally founded in Bend, Oregon, and they now have a location in Portland as well. It’s another must-see location if you’ve only got a short time in Portland!

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They have great beer samplers!

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And excellent food, too!

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International Rose Test Garden

400 SW Kingston Ave, Portland, OR 97205

Portland is known as the “City of Roses” thanks to the International Rose Test Garden, which is home to over 500 varieties of roses! The garden is located a little ways out of downtown and is a nice place to stop if you are looking to get away from the city for a bit. It’s the largest public operating rose test garden in the United States (I didn’t even know that was a thing!). They test different types of hybrid roses for color, fragrance, and other characteristics. It’s a perfect afternoon stroll with a beautiful view!

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international rose test garden

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Voodoo Doughnut

22 SW 3rd Ave, Portland, OR 97204

 (also Voodoo Doughnut Too 1501 NE Davis St, Portland, OR 97232)

 When I began planning our trip to Oregon, I started asking people what we should make sure to see in Portland. Every single person responded with Voodoo Doughnut! This insanely popular doughnut shop was the last stop of our whirlwind afternoon tour of Portland. They have two locations – one downtown, and one outside the city. We drove past the downtown location twice and were completely amazed at the crowds of people lined up around the block both times! We discovered that there was another location a few miles away and decided to check out Voodoo Doughnut Too in hopes that the wait would be a little shorter.
The line was still out the door, and we waited for about 20 minutes to order. I had extremely high expectations at this point, and Voodoo did not disappoint!

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They had fun stained glass artwork surrounding the door!

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Inside was quite a sight to see! So much to look at and so little time. They were extremely efficient and getting people through the line.

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Here’s the display case with many of their crazy doughnut options!

We ordered 6 doughnuts to take with us for the next few mornings of our trip. I loved the box that they came in!

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These doughnuts were delicious and definitely worth the wait! You must try them next time you’re in Portland! I recommend trying Voodoo Doughnut Too if you’re short on time – the line was much more manageable than the downtown location seemed to be.

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That wraps up the first afternoon of our Ultimate Oregon Road Trip – stay tuned over the next few weeks for more updates and must-see Oregon destinations!

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Comments

  1. Love it! Portland is definitely one of my next destinations – I’ll have to check out all these places! Luckily we have VooDoo in Denver so at least I have that crossed off 🙂

    xo Katerina

    Reply

    • Hey Katerina! I didn’t know VooDoo had other locations, that’s awesome! Hope you can make it to Portland soon, it is such a fun city! Let me know what your favorites are once you visit 🙂

      Reply

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