Visiting Portland over 4th of July - question about lodging (Burns: apartments, condos)

[marylandur]

Hello,

My wife and I are visiting Portland over July 4th for a little over a week. We have narrowed our
lodging choices to The Paramount hotel and Lion and Rose B&B.

I have never been to Portland before and we want to stay in an area where we can walk around
and have a lot to do, such as sampling food markets, restaurants, parks etc.. - we don't want to stay in a boring part of downtown or suburbs. We will be taking some side trips to some other areas, but it would be great to not have to drive everywhere.

Has anyone stayed in one of the two above places? Any other places you recommend to stay?

Thanks,

Marylandur.

[Leisesturm]

How did you come to be so specific about these two establishments? Word of mouth? Yelp? I know there is a hotel in town right next to Macy's across from Pioneer Square. I've never been in it but I see people that are staying there all the time. They have the look of people that would know a good hotel and they've chosen this place. FWIW. Another place I don't know anything about is the Mark Spencer. The name just keeps coming up all the time. Again, FWIW.

H

[Metlakatla]

I always stay at the Ace Hotel when I visit Portland.

Ace Hotel : A friendly place, continually new.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by marylandur

Hello,

My wife and I are visiting Portland over July 4th for a little over a week. We have narrowed our
lodging choices to The Paramount hotel and Lion and Rose B&B.

I have never been to Portland before and we want to stay in an area where we can walk around
and have a lot to do, such as sampling food markets, restaurants, parks etc.. - we don't want to stay in a boring part of downtown or suburbs. We will be taking some side trips to some other areas, but it would be great to not have to drive everywhere.

Has anyone stayed in one of the two above places? Any other places you recommend to stay?

Thanks,

Marylandur.

I've never stayed at the Lion and Rose, but I've had out of town guests stay at The Paramount, so I'm very familiar with that one. It's a decent boutique style hotel--it's very centrally located--right near the MAX and right near Director's Park and the South Park blocks of downtown. You're right near the Portland Art Musuem and performing arts venues also. Lots of food carts nearby up on 10th and Alder, some other good restaurants near by like South Park, Shigezo, Gruner, Jake's Grill or Jake's Famous Crawfish, Clyde Common and so on. You're right in the hear of downtown so it's a lot easier to walk to places in the more interesting part of downtown up towards Burnside and over to the Pearl District. Basically anywhere in downtown is an easy walk and you can talk the streetcar up to NW 21st and 23rd or take the MAX up to Washington Park for the zoo or the Japanese Garden/Rose Garden/Arboretum. Really convenient for anywhere in the central core you might want to see.

Lion & Rose is in basically on the edge of the Irvington residential area and NE Broadway--not a bad area, but for a visitor not the most interesting area either. You'd be busing it to get to other areas without a car. Go for the Paramount if you want to get around without a car.

[doggiemama]

The Ace is so cool. Very Portland.

[Nell Plotts]

Of the two you mention the Paramount is the best located if you don't need a car.

Take the MAX to the Galleria stop (10th), walk a couple blocks and you are there.

[PNW-type-gal]

I like the Paramount and generally stay there when I don't have a car (like most downtown hotels, their parking fee is nuts). I usually hunt around for a deal and spring for one of the rooms with a balcony - even the little juliet balconies are nice. The concierge will know your name by the second day of your stay. The only down side is that breakfast is not usually included (although I believe you can find packages on-line that include it) and I am not wild about the breakfast in the restaurant. On the other hand, there are a ton of other choices right around there for food (The Heathman Hotel has a great breakfast). Also if you are there on a Saturday, walk down the South Park blocks to the Portland Farmer's Market for breakfast. Excellent choice.

There is a tiny deli right across the street, Elephant's, which opens up at 6:30 during the week and has fabulous grab-and-go stuff, including some breakfast-y things
https://www.elephantsdeli.com/
(it's the Elephant's Flying Fox location).

I have also had very good luck with VRBO for finding condos and apartments, often with parking - I had to be in Portland for two eye surgeries, 10 days and 12 days each stay, and stayed some fun places.

[EnricoV]

Both are nice, but the area around the Lion & Rose has less to do, and what is there is going to close up earlier.

Personally, I'd go for the downtown hotel. It's a great location.

[marylandur]

Thanks so much for our opinions on these areas and the hotels. We are about to book reservations at the Paramount. We are meeting some relatives in Portland (i.e. a few are coming from California), so we all had some things we wanted for a vacation, such as easy to walk around, lots of stuff to do. We looked on Yelp and other reviews for lodging.

Before we return home, we want to stay a few days at somewhere outside the city. My first choice was Crater Lake, but that will probably have to wait for a future trip. I had an old friend who moved to Oregon and would go to Crater Lake once a year, he liked it so much.

[EnricoV]

Crater Lake is something to see, for sure. The beach is always a good choice, too. Or down into wine country. Or up the Columbia Gorge. Or over to Central Oregon.

So many choices!