Gay Portland Portland City Guide

A newcomer to international attention, Portland, Oregon has quickly gained the notice of cultural tastemakers from Brooklyn to Tokyo as a 21st-century model for healthy urban living. This modest former logging town now inspires many young creatives to start new lives in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. The region's vast wilderness, moderate climate, and fertile valleys, along with a DIY West Coast entrepreneurial spirit, provide an ideal setting for one of the world's most exciting farm-to-table food scenes and a relaxed progressive culture committed to social equality and environmental sustainability. While downtown, on the west side of the Willamette River, has excellent hotels, higher density, and many noteworthy attractions, it’s the east side—more expansive and relaxed—where you’ll find much of Portland's culinary, outdoor, and creative pulse. Hop on a bicycle using the city’s innovative bike share program, BIKETOWN (a partnership with locally based Nike) and discover why the city is so widely admired. For your definitive Portland gay guide, you’ve come to the right place.

The best hotels in Portland

Let’s start this gay Portland travel guide with a roundup of the best hotels in Portland. Locally headquartered Ace Hotel has enjoyed great success applying its context-focused, neo-bohemian design philosophy to a growing number of destinations, from Palm Springs to London. Room amenities at this trendy and historic West End lodging include custom murals (fawns, graffiti, mountainscapes, trolls, cats), shared or private baths, LPs and turntables, claw foot tubs, and locally made vintage furniture. Many of downtown’s noteworthy new shops and restaurants are nearby, including the Ace’s excellent high-end tavern, Clyde Common, and underground bar, Pepe le Moko.

Downtown’s luxurious 331-room The Nines occupies the upper ten floors of the former Meier & Frank department store, a striking glazed terra cotta building with a stately elegance that pays homage to the site’s history. The swanky décor adds a bright, modern twist to the historic interiors. Two restaurants, farm-to-table steakhouse Urban Farmer, and celeb LGBT chef Gregory Gourdet’s spectacular rooftop pan-Asian eatery Departure provide the perfect opportunities to see and be seen.

The posh Sentinel, part of the trendy Provenance Hotels group, offers a classic, inviting sensibility that includes lively Rock and Roll-era photography, in-room Salt & Straw ice cream delivery, and rooftop beehives producing BeeLocal honey. The hotel also featured in local auteur Gus Van Sant’s queer epic My Own Private Idaho.

And for those seeking a livelier, casual East Side roost, the Jupiter Hotel—set in an ingeniously updated mid-century modern motor lodge—features a top-notch music venue, bar and restaurant, Doug Fir Lounge, whose lumber-chic aesthetic evokes the dreamlike Pacific Northwest of Twin Peaks.