Can anyone recommend any nice places to stay in Hood River or elsewhere in the Columbia River Gorge area? We could just stay in Portland and visit for the day, but thought it might be more relaxing to spend a night and then have part of the the next day for more exploring before driving to the coast.

However, I've been reading tripadvisor reviews and it doesn't sound as if there's much in the way of nice places to stay. I guess for one night it doesn't matter.

Maybe we should stay at Timberline Lodge near Mt Hood instead of Hood River?

I hear about the Columbia Gorge Hotel
columbiagorgehotel.com
and the Hood River Hotel
hoodriverhotel.com
on TripAdvisor a lot. and my friends love Timberline Lodge.


But it is only about 30-45 minutes from downtown Portland, so we always just spent the day at the Gorge , home by late afternoon ( if you really take your time) and slept in Portland.
It is a lot of moving around to stay at a hotel here for a night or two then move on to the other..it cuts into your Fun time, packing, unpacking , checking in..

Yeah, I know what you mean, Scarlett. We're torn. I know we can drive the Gorge easily in a day, but we would like to hike some as well and my husband likes to take LOTS of photos. I also enjoy stopping to eat frequently! Ed also wants to visit Mr. Hood, and on another post I read it would take about 4 hours to drive the area not including hikes, so I started to think changing hotels mights actually be more relaxing.

Reviews on tripadvisor for Columbia Gorge Hotel were not as good as I thought they would be, but I'm probably being too picky. I'll go read up about Timberline Lodge now.

You can hike some. We would stop at each of the waterfalls, a lot are not visible from the road, we would hike up to where they were, wander around, have a picnic somewhere..the drive home from Multnomah Falls ( the last along the drive) is 30 minutes to the hotel on #84.
You are gonna be SO happy with the photography opportunities!

look at this site... portlandbridges.com

Andrew posts here on Fodors and on TA.

I'm not a big fan of the Columbia Gorge Hotel--not a good value for the money, IMO. Timberline is pretty pricey for what you get as well, but it's got the whole historic building and location thing going for it. For hiking and picture taking that would be my choice, assuming you decide to stay over rather than make it a day trip.

I agree with NWW.

We like a room with a balcony overlooking the river at Best Western Hood River Inn and dinner at Celilo.