looking for a hotel near Aladdin Theater (Portland, Bend: rental car, rental)

[delta07]

My husband and I will be traveling over to Portland next week to see a concert at the Aladdin Theater (SE Powell and Milwaukee). We then have to catch a flight out of PDX the next day. Ideally we would like the hotel/motel to be within walking distance of the theater so we can have a few drinks, but I've only found one, Motel 6, on SE Powell that appears to be close. However, the reviews for this place are bad. We don't really care about a nice room, as we are only using it to sleep for the night. But we do want the area to be safe to walk at midnight or 1 am when returning from the concert. Since I don't know Portland very well, I thought I would ask for opinions here. Is that area relatively safe to walk or would you stay somewhere else and take a cab and/or public transportation (I don't know the max lines at all) to the Aladdin and avoid staying on Powell?

[Nell Plotts]

Frankly there are no nice places to stay within walkable distance. At that hour bus transportation in that area is infrequent. Take a cab to a hotel near light rail, take light rail to the airport.

[philwithbeard]

Just so you know,

a couple of blocks straight north of Aladdin Theater, is 11th and 12th streets. 11th runs one way south, and 12th is one way north, until Burnside Street. 12th street continues north up to the South end of Lloyd District and the hotel cluster around the Convention Center. Many large and small hotel chains are located up there. Many with Internet discounts.

Red Line MAX light rail to and from Airport. Max has stations at Convention Center and just south of Lloyd Center (which is an indoor shopping mall.)

Bus line 70 runs from the Lloyd center hotel cluster to near Aladdin Theater. As Nell pointed out, bus service late at night is like 1 hour apart, and I wouldn't care to wait for a bus at 11:56pm in that neighborhood when all the normal Aladdin theater patrons have left the area. On weekends, service ends around 10 to 10:30pm on line #70.

Not a theater district or other high population night life neighborhood; US-26 (SE Powell) has a lot of traffic that may not be looking our for pedestrians at that time of night. Odds are you would be safe, but as you posted, you don't know the Portland.

However:
TriMet: Public Transportation for the Portland, Oregon, Metro Area
no crime in checking out the bus path, and you using Line #70 route for a rental car driving path. Rent a car up in Hotel Cluster, for one day, and use MAX to and from Airport?
(aside: Fare is $2.35 from an automatic fare machine, does not make change at airport stop.)

as always when it comes to visitors to PDX, YMMV. Street and road signs are generally speaking missing or covered by tree branches.

Phil

[delta07]

Thanks for the replies! Phil, I live in Bend so we will have a vehicle with us (just wanting to catch a concert the night before our flight leaves out of PDX), so we can drive, just wanted to avoid it so we both have have a few beers at the concert. I've been to Portland twice, once we stayed at a motel near the convention center to go to a concert at the Rose Quarter and the other time we stayed at a hotel downtown. Both of those times everything was within walking distance, but when I googled the Aladdin I realized it wasn't anywhere close to either place I've been.

My husband just found us a place to stay (a coworker has a condo and said we could use it), so now I just need to figure out where that is in relation to the Aladdin and see if we can find public transportation or if a cab is the way to go.

Speaking of cabs, is it best to call ahead? I'm not worried about getting to the venue but rather, getting home after the concert ends. I know in some cities you can hail a cab, but others (and I think Portland is one of them), it's illegal.

[Minervah]

Where is the condo? Chances are that time of night you will not be able to find bus service that time of night. You should call and reserve your cab ahead of time. Besides the fact that you are not allowed to hail them from the streets, you won't find any just hanging out there to hail even if it was.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Where is the condo? Chances are that time of night you will not be able to find bus service that time of night. You should call and reserve your cab ahead of time. Besides the fact that you are not allowed to hail them from the streets, you won't find any just hanging out there to hail even if it was.

Thanks Minervah! I don't know exactly where the condo is yet, but I do know it's somewhere close to downtown (whatever that means). I'll be sure to call ahead for a cab if that's the route we decide to go.

Does anyone know what the parking is like at the Aladdin if we decide to drive? I remember downtown Portland being somewhat difficult to find parking for our oversized van.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by delta07

Thanks Minervah! I don't know exactly where the condo is yet, but I do know it's somewhere close to downtown (whatever that means). I'll be sure to call ahead for a cab if that's the route we decide to go.

Does anyone know what the parking is like at the Aladdin if we decide to drive? I remember downtown Portland being somewhat difficult to find parking for our oversized van.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong. The last time I was at the Addladin it was to see Eric Idle some years ago. From what I remember there was only street parking in the neighborhood.

[philwithbeard]

Per Google Maps...

Minervah, you are correct. Street Parking.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Someone please correct me if I am wrong. The last time I was at the Addladin it was to see Eric Idle some years ago. From what I remember there was only street parking in the neighborhood.

Originally Posted by philwithbeard

Per Google Maps...

Minervah, you are correct. Street Parking.

Thank you both! Minervah, I always forget about that google maps street view feature. We don't have that for Bend, so it's not something I regularly use. Thanks again!