Spend 3 Days In Portland With Us

Are you planning a trip to Portland anytime soon? Need ideas on what to do in Portland? Oregon is such a beautiful state with its lush greenery and nature. There’s an abundance of places to visit during 3 days in Portland.

Since the girls were little, we’d have mommy-daughter dates to spend individual quality time with one another. Now that the girls are adults, I still want to keep this tradition. Below, I share what my daughter and I did during our three-day mommy-daughter trip.

This post is all about our itinerary for 3 days in Portland.

Transportation

We landed at Portland (PDX) Airport on Saturday at 8 in the morning. From the airport, we ordered a Lyft. We walked toward short-term parking garage to meet our rideshare.

Follow the signs that say transportation if you’re opting to use rideshare as transportation. The rideshare pickup will be on the first floor in the short-term parking lot. When you order a ride share, you will be assigned a zone number from which to get picked up. The zone numbers should be indicated on the columns. This area was designated for both Uber and Lyft.

I’m not sure, but I believe you can also order a taxi from the first floor of the short-term parking, too. However, you will need to confirm this, as we didn’t take a taxi.

Our Lyft from the airport to downtown Portland cost $36.97. It was about a 20-minute drive.

Accommodations

We stayed at Hotel Lucia. I felt that the location of the hotel was pretty central. It was a great location to walk to most places. We were near Pioneer Place, a shopping center, CVS, Nordstrom, and many more. We were also near plenty of restaurants and coffee shops.

Hotel Lucia was a nice hotel, and the price was very reasonable at $150 per night. The lobby was nice and modern, as were the rooms. The bed was nice and clean, and the room was cute and modern.

The only small con was how outdated the bathroom was. You can see some mold build-up behind the soap dish attached to the shower and between some nuts and bolts. I bought Clorox bleach wipes from CVS to do a quick wipe of surfaces, toilet seat, handles, remote, switches, and knobs. It’s a great hotel for someone not looking to break the bank but also wanting a nice place to lay their head.

We got to the hotel at 9:20 am and couldn’t check in until 3 pm, which was expected. My daughter and I checked in our bags and set out to get breakfast. After breakfast, I unfortunately had to work.

Thankfully, the hotel lobby was nice and had multiple areas for me to choose from to work. I opted to work by the window facing the street. There, they had multiple charging stations for your use. They also have water, and below the hotel is where the bathroom is and free pinball machines. From 5 pm to 6 pm, they also offer beer. The first beer is free per guest.

If you’d like an early check-in, and it’s available, they will offer it for $25 extra. Or you can wait until 2 pm to see if they have a room available and will offer it for free.

I forgot my toothbrush, and like most hotels, they provided us with a toothbrush kit with both a travel-size toothbrush and toothpaste. Our room had a small refrigerator but no microwave. Which was fine because I had the front desk warm up my leftover breakfast later on the first night we were there. The staff was professional and sweet.

During our stay at Hotel Lucia, they informed us that housekeeping would not be refreshing our rooms. This was fine for me since I usually don’t want housekeeping services during my stay. They stated that if we needed anything, we should let them know.

Would I stay at Hotel Lucia again? Most likely if my budget is limited. It’s a nice hotel with a clean room, bed and sheets. As mentioned earlier, the bathroom was just a bit outdated and could be cleaner. On top of the tiny mold buildup, there was also a lot of dust on the baseboards in the bathroom. But everything else made up for it.

Check-out is at noon. They were able to hold our luggage until we were ready to pick it up and head to the airport.

Day 1

For breakfast, we had Grits N Gravy. This was such a yummy place, and it had a great selection for breakfast. If you love grits like my girls and I do, this is a wonderful option to fill your belly. I ordered shrimp and grits, and my daughter ordered country fried steak with grits.

For her order, she had the option of fried grits or buttered grits. Fried grits, they said, was like a polenta patty. She opted for buttered grits and was very happy with her order. I was also pretty happy with my order of shrimp and grits, but it was super heavy, and they gave you a large portion. The coffee was unlimited and really good. They use Cafe Du Monde coffee, and I had three cups

Our breakfast came out to about $40. We both ordered the most expensive items on the menu. I know my shrimp and grits were $19. For drinks, as mentioned earlier, I ordered coffee, and she ordered sweet tea. She enjoyed her sweet tea, too.

We also got lattes and beignets from Java Man Coffee. My daughter also enjoyed her latte, and the beignets were good, but I felt like you could taste the oil.

When we checked in, we freshened up and headed out to Powell City of Books. It was about a 5-minute walk from Hotel Lucia. We love books so spending hours there can be easy. They have such a huge selection. They also have such long lines. However, there are a lot of different areas to pay.

After Powell City of Books, we walked around that area and checked out some stores nearby, like Buffalo Exchange. Patagonia and Dr. Marten’s were also next door.

There’s no sales tax in Portland!

It was a cool little area and like most cities, you need to be aware of your surroundings and also try not to step in shit when you’re walking around. For the most part, I felt pretty safe. In my opinion, Portland felt a little safer than San Francisco, and I grew up in Oakland, CA.

Overall, the people in Portland are pretty nice.

We had dinner at Nong’s Khao Man Gai, which was recommended to us along with other suggestions we tried in our 3 days in Portland. Nong’s chicken is similar to Hainan chicken. However, instead of offering a garlic scallion sauce, their sauce was thicker in consistency and tasted like there was lemongrass and herbs with garlic and shallots in it. I loved it. But I also love Hainan chicken.

At 8 pm, we booked a ghost tour, which my daughter was excited about. She had never been on one before. Ghost tours, or any walking tours in general, are a nice way to get to know the city better. This ghost tour was like most that I’ve done. There wasn’t really anything special about it except that they provided an EMF reader (at an additional cost- They also didn’t have enough for everyone) and told us to download GhostTube.

If you have a chance, try to do a Shanghai Tunnel tour instead. We didn’t know about the Shanghai Tunnels until we did this ghost tour. The history of the Shanghai Tunnel was super interesting and scary.

Day 2

On day 2, we headed towards one of the other recommendations, which was Tanaka. Tanaka is a cute cafe that has what is described as Japanese comfort foods. Their menu consisted of sandwiches, sides, and salads.

My daughter ordered the spicy pork katsu sandwich, and I ordered the egg salad sandwich. I preferred her pork katsu sandwich over mine, and she wished she had ordered the regular pork katsu instead of spicy. We also shared their katsu chicken nuggets, which we both enjoyed. I definitely would like to go back and order more from their menu.

Afterward, we walked for 40 minutes to the Japanese Garden. I like walking whenever I’m visiting a city. However, the walk does have an incline to the garden.

If you choose to drive, it’s only an 11-minute car ride. Like I said, I didn’t mind the walk since I got to see more of the city. When you get close to the garden, you enter into such a beautiful neighborhood. Located next to the garden is also a rose garden. Unfortunately, during our visit, the roses were all pruned.

When we got to Portland, the snow was melting away. However, we were able to see some of the snow. This only made the Portland Japanese Garden even more beautiful! It made me feel like I was in Japan again. Although the garden was smaller than I expected, we spent a good amount of time walking slowly through it.

The garden has a cafe, tea house, gift shop, visitor center, and small waterfall. My daughter and I found a small bench and sat there while she read the book she bought from Powell City of Books. After we walked through the garden, we went into the small learning center to learn origami.

We spent a couple of hours in the garden and decided to Lyft back to our hotel. The rideshare pick-up is next to the rose garden. If I were to do it again, I’d Lyft to the garden and walk back to our hotel.

The Portland Japanese Garden is open from 10 am to 3:30 pm. We decided to go to the garden first because it closed earlier. Afterward, we wanted to hit up the Portland Art Museum, which closes at 5 pm. However, we were both pretty tired after the garden and opted to go back to the hotel and freshen up.

When we got back, we decided to order pizza at Sizzle Pie for pickup and have a movie night. We got a pizza, soda, and ice cream sandwiches to splurge on for the night in. We wanted a chill night since we’ve had such an eventful year.

Day 3

Here we are, 3 days in Portland. My daughter decided to get her nails and feet done as a treat for herself and went to Nail Lab PDX. Later, we planned on going to the Portland Art Museum but didn’t realize they’re not open on Mondays. They’re also not open on Tuesdays. Keep that in mind when planning your trip.

Instead, we decided to walk around Pioneer Square before we headed to the airport. Here’s what I would do differently next time.

Summary

The first day was perfectly planned. We checked in, got breakfast and a small treat, went to Powell City of Books, walked around, had dinner, and then did a ghost tour. I’d keep everything as is, but instead of a ghost tour, I’d like to check out the Shanghai Tunnel tour.

On the second day, instead of walking to the Japanese Garden, I’d rather get a car to get there and then walk back to the city center. This would have saved us more time since the last part of the walk is uphill, which meant walking back would be downhill.

I enjoyed movie night with my daughter, but the 5-minute walk from the Sizzling Pie made our pizza cold, and we didn’t get to enjoy nice melty cheese. I told my daughter that next time, we should eat at the restaurant.

On day three, I would have opted to go to the Oregon Zoo, which is about a 15-minute car ride. But to do this, we would have had to wake up and head out to the zoo earlier. Because we only had 3 days in Portland, I wished I had planned the last day a little better.

Here are some places I’d love to check out in Portland: the Portland Art Museum, the Lan Su Chinese Garden, the Shanghai Tunnels, and the Oregon Zoo, and although this would not have been my first time going, I would have liked to take my daughter to Pearl District.

What I Packed For 3 Days In Portland

We went to Portland during President’s Day Weekend. The weather wasn’t too cold. When we got there, it stopped snowing, and the snow was starting to melt. It did rain every day we were there, so pack a good raincoat.

I packed my raincoat I got from REI, which I love. It has saved me on numerous rainy travels. They no longer sell the one I have, but you can click here to find a similar one. I like these rain jackets because they don’t take up a lot of space in your luggage.

I also packed a few base layers like my Uniqlo Heattech long-sleeve scoop neck, their Airism camisole, and their scarf. When I travel somewhere cold, I will most likely pack Uniqlo pieces. They are great layering pieces that keep me warm and are thin enough to make them easy to pack.

I also packed a pair of wool hiking socks and a pair of running socks. I like packing hiking or running socks when I travel because I walk a lot. This makes it easy to know my feet will be comfortable.

However, I did make a rookie mistake and only packed one pair of shoes I hadn’t walked in long enough. I brought with me my black all-leather platform Chuck Taylors. I assumed that because I could walk in my white canvas Converse platform for a long time, I would be able to do so in the leather ones.

The leather ones are not as forgiving. They are more rigid than the canvas Chucks. Because I haven’t walked in the leather ones for that long, I didn’t know how much it would rub on my heel (even with my hiking socks on).

I had to tie my shoes so tight that my feet felt like it was falling asleep if I wasn’t moving them. This was the only way to prevent my heel from rubbing significantly on the back of the shoe.

As I mentioned earlier, they were the only shoes I brought. Since I’m on a budget, I didn’t want to buy any new shoes. Instead, I remembered watching a video where someone stuck a pantyliner on the back of their heel.

And that’s exactly what I did for the remainder of our trip. I stuck the sticky part of a new panty liner onto my Achilles heel to help buffer the rubbing. It worked wonders!

I would highly suggest packing good walking shoes or even hiking boots. Everyone wore hiking boots out there, so you won’t stick out. I mean, it’s a beautiful city to explore, and with the right shoes, you can visit the beautiful natural surroundings of Portland. Even if you, too, are only spending 3 days in Portland, there is a lot of natural beauty to see.

This was my second time visiting Portland that I can remember. I may have visited when I was younger, but I can’t remember. Anyhow, instead of spending 3 days in Portland, I would love to spend more days there next time. However, I am grateful I got to visit.

Have you been to Portland? How long did you stay, and if you only had 3 days in Portland, what did you do?

You can check out some of the items I packed with me below! As always, thanks for reading.

Love, Sutivi.