Portland At A Glance

We hope you like lush, green parks, glistening rivers, and distant mountain views, because Portland is brimming with enough breath-taking scenery to astound any nature enthusiast. This City of Roses sits snuggly between the banks of the Columbia and Willamette rivers and 70 miles from the Pacific coast. 

The Willamette Valley wineries and Timberline Lodge are short distances away, but you’ll find too many excuses to bother with leaving town too often. Leave your car at home and hop on a bus, trolley, light rail car, or any other vehicle of Portland’s award-winning mass transit system. Or better yet, put on your walking shoes and peruse the streets of Portland on foot for some scenic exercise. Short blocks and a wealth of sights including public art, fountains, and foot bridges are evidence that the city was built with walking in mind. 

Residents enjoy and share the health and environmentally conscious mentality of Portland, made possible by the local government’s commitment to preserving the natural beauty of northwest Oregon. Since 1973, Portland has enforced strong land conservation policies that preserve valuable farmland and keep Portland relatively free of big-city problems such as traffic congestion, pollution, and litter. 

Most Portland citizens unwind with a visit to one of the city’s many brewpubs at the end of a busy day. Portland has more breweries than any city in the nation, twenty-eight in all. Care to use that delicious beer to wash down some quality food? Portland’s growing restaurant scene was recognized by the Food Network as 2007’s Delicious Destination of the Year.