Pacific Northwest - need advice on where to stay in Portland

Hi folks

as mentioned on earlier threads, the wife and I are visiting portland in the first week of October. we're coming for a mini vaca but also hope to scout out future living and working opportunities (we're life long NYers).

Regardless of whether I can line up any interviews we plan to rent bikes and use public transport - ideally avoiding renting a car if possible (from what we've read and heard, it seems totally do-able, much like here in NYC).

we were trying to pick a decent hotel - lots of choices, all of them fairly steep in price, but we were also concerned with location of our trip lodging, since we will only have a few days and I may need to zip around promptly for appointments.

If someone asked me, I certainly wouldn't be able to speak on hotels here (since I live here already I never stay in hotels here), but I would def. have advice or input on advantages of where to stay in and around NYC depending on what one wanted out of their trip here.

I was hoping for that type of feedback or advice from you folk for the Portland area. It seems we can stay pretty much any where and hop a train or bus and make it to the downtown area in an hour or less.....unless I am mistaken about that?

we narrowed down the hotel choices to a few, but are open to any other suggestions - again, any feedback on the lodgings are welcome, but we were more concerned with the areas thay are in, and how conducive it would be to getting around. Especially in relation to the best bike shops, business districts, libraries and museums (I'm an archivist/librarian), etc. I believe most of the places we picked are downtown but one or two we considered were in areas like Northwest, etc. - would the streetcar get us to the downtown and business districts fairly quickly? (God, I am imagining the roasting I'd give the MTA if someone coming to NYC was asking me these types of questions......)

Our Candidates (no particular order):

1. Four Points By Sheraton Portland Downtown, one block from Tom McCall Waterfront Park and the Willamette River.
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll/qscr=dspv/htid=440831

2. The Paramount Hotel, 808 SW Taylor Street
http://www.coasthotels.com/roomInfo?GroupCode=&RoomType=K2&Adults=2&Children=0&NumberOfRooms=1&selectHotel=PHP&RateType=AAA&CheckInDate=20071003&CheckOutDate=20071006&SpecialOfferCode=&CompanyID=&IATA=


3. Hotel Lucia, 400 SW Broadway
http://www.hotellucia.com/

4. Hotel deLuxe, 729 SW 15th Avenue
http://www.hoteldeluxeportland.com/


I realize this is a tall order - I don't expect anyone to be able to give me a perfect solution, but please -any input is appreciated! anyway, we're getting pretty stoked about finally making it out there! Looking forward to riding near Forest Park, etc. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions thus far and in advance for any more ideas.
p

I do not live in Portland, but get there fairly often. I have no experience with the hotels you mentioned. But, you might want to check out www.bikeportland.org (http://www.bikeportland.org), especailly the links to maps. You can download a bike route map of the greater Portland area with color coded routes informing you about various aspects of the routes. You can also take your bike on the light rail system and hook it onto the front of many busses.

Right now, downtown Portland is completely torn up due to construction that will be going on for 18 more months. I would consider The Jupiter (http://www.jupiterhotel.com/), which is just across the river.

I always stay at the Residence Inn - Lloyd Center, which is just across the river from downtown. It is right on the light rail line (Max), has great restaurants in the neighborhood, and a shopping center nearby. I like the spacious rooms, and it is quieter than downtown hotels. Good bike shops are just to the south on MLK Blvd, and you can take the Max to Beaverton and walk to Bike Gallery and Performance Bike Shops.
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/pdxlc-residence-inn-portland-downtown-lloyd-center/

Thanks for all the tips so far! Especially about the construction - we noticed a lot of complaints about construction noise from recent reviewers on Expedia.com, so good to know that is still an issue....

to avoid the commotion downtown we were considering the Inn at Northrup Station, 2025 Northwest Northrup Street

http://www.northrupstation.com/ins_homeNEW.html

Does that seem like a hassle in terms of location?

We had already looked at the Residence Inn/Lloyd Center and it indeed looked great but they are already full...:(

You'll have to go through all the construction to get from there to anywhere east. You'll also have to go through construction to get from there onto the freeway that would take you over the West Hills and into the Tualatin Valley (Beaverton). If what you want to do is walk or take streetcar from that location into downtown and public transit connections eastwards or walk to the MAX to get you to the westside, you'll be fine. If you do want to use your car on the trip, you might want to consider a place to stay that is east of the river.

..another vote for the Jupiter. Inexpensive, east side of the river, close to downtown, also close to bike shops and kind of/nearby the Lloyd Center neighborhood.

Plus, it's prototypically grunge northwest, kind of rundown (converted motorlodge) with a hip bar/restaurant attached, the Doug Fir. Live music, hipster crowd.

sorry to revive, but just wanted to :

1. thank all here again for their kind advice. We just got back from a first three day visit and we loved portland. :love:My wife hates cold weather, and it was unseasonably cold during our stay (low 40s-upper 50s) - she still wants to move there! We definitely need to go back for a longer stay and check out more neighborhoods. btw, the food was great everywhere we went. We walked and biked a lot and I still think I gained weight......:rolleyes:

2. offer up my two cents for anyone else planing to visit - we stayed at the Inn@Northrup Station, which is at the outer edge of the streetcar line - while not right in town (we stayed away due to all the construction, and indeed there is a lot of work being done all over), it is super fast and easy by bike or streetcar. we even walked most of it - might be a bit much if you are not used to walking a lot, but in any case it's extremely easy to get around. The Inn was reasonably priced, super clean, very quaint if a bit bright and the service was outstanding. :beer: More mainstream than hipster but We'd stay there again in a heartbeat.

Btw we didn't rent a car at all as we only stayed three days. we did take a bus up to Washington Park and across the Morrison Bridge. Mass transit is very nice and easy to use. Next trip we'll drive to Beaverton, etc.

bike shops there were great too. I dropped way too much dough.....Bike Gallery (beautiful big shop) had the nicest clothes (I picked up some new Showers Pass gear, among other stuff) but i also grabbed some cool stuff at 21st Ave (which is right around the corner from the inn and who had 2 of the most ****** bike mechanic bays I've ever seen......love it) and we rented comfort clunker monstrosities from City Bikes on SE Akeny, very reasonable prices and staffed by very Nice folks!

I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed yourself in the Land of No Sales Tax. :D I'm originally from Michigan and I look at it this way: Michigan (and New York) has just as many overcast days as Portland, but we don't have the extreme low temperatures here. It is so much easier for me to be physically active in the rain than in the snow, and if you really want snow, just go up to Mt. Hood. Get wool clothes and you can stay warm even when you're wet.

It's also nice to hear about another nice place for our out-of-town visitors to stay at - thanks. :)

so cool, donnamb - I rarely need help splurging but there's nothing like no sales tax to help me rationalize blowing most of my money:p My wife got a great wool jersey which indeed provided superb insulation as wool always does.

of course i had to ship some stuff back home, which cost about $35 - easily more than the tax woulda been, but I always do that on vaca - we hate to check extra bags and schlepp them home in a cab at the end of a trip so it's worth the $20-40 I usually pay to send my dirty laundry home (so I can admire my new gear on the plane....):D

we love love loved it there....will be back soon. E train commute and hot muggy NYC with all kinds of feces and raw food debris on sidewalks, about a 1000% increase in pop. density and the ever-present terrorist bullseye on our backs makes this a no-brainer. p-town here we come

Portland can never have too many bikes on the road. :D