I'm planning a trip to the northwest. Since my time is limited I have to choose between Portland or Seattle. I'm flying up from Los Angeles. Many people say Portland is a nice small charming city while Seattle is more big city like. Is Portland worth visiting? rain/rain/go/away Heck yeah. It depends what you are into because you can get it all in Portland. Go down to the coast for a day. that is what the beach should be like. Seatlle is difficult to get around. Honestly, I love Portland, grew up in Portland, and my heart will always be in Portland. It is a very nice small charming city, friendly people and interesting things to see, its definetely worth a visit. I currently live in LA now, and miss Portland very much. But Seattle in my opinion caters to tourists much better, and there is alot more to see and do. The nightlife is better, there are more attractions, and lots more to explore. You can see most of Portland over a weekend, Seattle will take a little longer. seattle really isnt that hard to get around.
i live in seattle and there is soo much to do!!
i honostly dont know much about portland, except that it is a smaller town so people can give their opinion about what it is like but ill give you my view on seattle.
in Seattle you can do many things, if the City is what you want, there will always be something to do.
the Seattle Center has some fun things--the Space Needle of course, it is really worth it if you are visiting--but for the residents of seattle its not that big of a deal..haha..but that is something that is really on your to-do list!
umm the EMP (Experience Music Project) is alot of fun! when you go in it you can see all the memorabilia of sooo manny famous musicians--inside theres outfits that they have warn-like the rolling stones etc. haha and michael jackson....you can also play with drums and sing and do so many different activities---and on occasion there is some concerts--in the past-baddle of the bands..
Pike Place Market is something that is always fun to go. i always have to find time to go and visit because it is really unique! different culture foods--and our famous Pike fish throwing guys.haha not actually sure what they are called..
and underground downtown seattle--never been in it but i have heard it is really cool.
umm..thats the major things you can do--i never mentioned all the great restraunts on the water. and if you want to get out of the city for a while you can always visit different towns..
I say that it is VERY worth the trip!!! And there is PLENTY of things to do at night--everything continues when night comes! clubs etc.
good luck and hope this helps!
and TONS of shopping! but that can get kind of boring-haha-but if your visiting you can spend about 2-3 days on shopping around town! probably
Seattle is a lot more crowded but bigger so if you like more big cities you should go there but if you like smaller cities that are still kinda big, Portland You have a tough choice on your hands. they are both worth visiting. Portland has beatiful gardens, great scenery and a fun unique feel to it.
Seattle has similar, but less accessible, views and scenery. It has more of the big city feel to it. It has a better shopping district and a more developed cultural center, not to say Portland's ins't very developed.
So you pretty much have a choice visit one now, and another later. If you miss one of these cities, you're missing a lot. I've lived in both cities, and from how you describe your aims, I would suggest you visit Seattle. Portland is indeed charming in its way, but it's rather unremarkable, except perhaps in some of its living amenities. However, living amenities aren't really very important when you're just visiting.
While there are a few things to do in Portland, Seattle is a real city, so it has more large-scale things to do and see. The Seattle Underground tour was really fun, and Pike Place if you're a newcomer/visitor. The Seattle Art Mueseum has been remodeled since I lived there, but it was pretty impressive (for a city that size---I've also lived in New York, and there's no comparison), the monorail is fun and a great way to get to the EMP/Space Needle area. Gasworks Park is a sight to behold, UW is beautiful, Capitol Hill is good for trendy strolling, Belltown and downtown really feel like a city, and the piers and shoreline are awesome.
The entire area of Seattle is astounding. The way the water works together with the land is gorgeous. In some ways that makes me want to live there, although when I first saw it I found it intimidating. It's smallish in population, but it's a real city. Portland is a sweet town that thinks it's a city and tries to pretend it's cultured and dynamic. It's not. Maybe in another 20 years or so, especially if the population changes as much as the architecture.
One thing I will say is that Portland has a much better bar/music nightlife than Seattle. Neither one is a place for clubs---the "clubs" are laughable---but Seattle is also weird because the bars close dead early, like 1am or 1:30, and they don't allow smoking. There also just aren't that many places to go to. Case in point: on my last visit, I ran into some people at a show and we planned to meet up afterward. When we called each other, we found that we were in bars that were on the same block. That night I kept mentioning another bar I'd liked on my last visit, trying to figure out its name and location, and guess what? It was also on that block. This is unlikely to happen in Portland, since there are so many bar options, even similar types catering to similar clientele but in vastly different neighborhoods. However, this probably is either the egg or the hatched chicken of the fact that the nightlife of Portland is largely populated with irresponsible, hard-to-respect alcoholics. You may find intellectuals or interesting people, but they won't be people meeting their full potential. They'll be people who spend lots of time at many bars, and those are the people Portland loves.
Seattle FAR surpasses Portland in terms of fine dining. There really is no true fine dining in Portland. Seattle abounds with fantastic restaus, large and small.
If you do go to Portland, go to Powell's Bookstore, see the Rose Test Garden (up by the zoo, not the Rose Garden Arena!), walk around downtown (it's small enough), and I guess you may as well go to the museum. If you're in town near the first or last Thursday of a month, there are art openings in two different sections of town (one first, one last). You should also look for local live music if you're going out at night.
One lasy thing: You said your choice is between Seattle and Portland, but for nearly the same amount of travel time (flying, that is) you could probably get to Vancouver, BC. Vancouver is gorgeous, easily rivaling and possibly surpassing Seattle in true "citiness," architecture, culture, sights, and melding of city with bodies of water. The shopping is fabulous also, even though the Canadian dollar doesn't make it bargain shopping anymore. A side trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island is an extra bonus. On the ferry you're likely to see seals undulating through the waves, and there's a great historical museum in Victoria. portland!!! less confusing, less steep hills, and oh.... NO TAXES!!! the people of portland are great and very friendly Here the short of it:
Portland to live
Pros:
Compact so it is easy to walk almost everywhere.
No sales tax
Free Public Transportation in the downtown area. Portland has really good public transportation system
The square
Rose Garden
Japanese Garden
Weekend Market
Seattle to visit:
Pros:
Bigger
Most advanced library in the country
More big city things to do
Space Needle (touristy but good)
The Market which is there 24/7
Lots of other stuff. |
