Plodding through all the great posts and suggestions and can't decide on hotel - moreso on location. Am a Hilton member so am limited to Embassy Suites, Hilton or Doubletree in Portland. They all look good but I'm more concerned with location. We're seniors and want to be near local transportation, brew pubs, restaurants. After a few days we will rent a car. Opinions on the hotels sometimes speak of the ES close to bad area and can be noisy. Any honest opinions are very much appreciated.

Your best bet is the Hilton--it is very well situated for everything. Perhaps you can take advantage of the Portland package that includes parking and breakfast: http://www.travelportland.com/

Embassy Suites is on the fringe of downtown--not in the heart of the retail and core.

The Doubletree is located at the Lloyd Center; it's not in downtown Portland.

HTTY

I have always liked staying at the Hilton - they have a nice restaurant/bar on the top

The Embassy Suites gets a lot of good reviews. Large rooms and not in a bad area of town.
Better than the Doubletree..
The Hilton is on SW 6th & Salmon which is not a terrible location but I always preferred staying as In the Middle of town as I could. We lived there but when we stayed in hotels we stayed at the Monaco.
the Portland Streetcar runs all day until late at night in a large loop through town, on 10th and 11th .. here is their website, you can use it to look at how close your hotel is to the streetcar line/stops.. http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/

The Hilton it is! Your kind responses made up my (sometimes too informed) mind. Like the idea of the Travel Portland package. Thank you. And thanks for the streetcar url! Restaurant looks nice.