My husband and I are visiting the Columbia River Gorge area for our honeymoon at the end of May. However, we are flying into Portland a day before our reservation starts, so we would like to experience a little bit of Portland or the surrounding area. We will be renting a car at the airport. Any suggestions on where to stay/what to do for such a short time? Will downtown be too much trouble with a car? We also wouldn't mind going to a good disc golf course

Portland's downtown is a grid of one-way streets. But it's a small city, and if you are used to driving in cities, it's an easy city to navigate. If you are not used to driving in cities, it can be unnerving.

You could always put off picking up the car the first day (pick it up downtown the next day instead of at the airport) and take the MAX train into downtown Portland from the airport - very easy. You might stay at the Monaco or the Hotel Vintage Plaza downtown, a few blocks from the MAX stop. Portland is an easy walking city - you could walk easily from either of those hotels over to the popular Pearl District and wander around, enjoy a nice meal, browse the amazing Powell's Books (whole city block of books, a major attraction here).

Are there any other options that would be more affordable than the Monaco or Hotel Vintage? We don't have to absolutely be downtown, as long as we are in an area with other things to do/places to see, or easy access to downtown. This is our first time to be in this part of the country, so we are open to just about anything.

You could stay on the east side of the Willamette River near the Convention Center/Lloyd Center (get off the MAX train a few stops sooner) and probably get a better rate at places like the Doubletree, the La Quinta, or even a Motel 6 - and take the MAX into downtown and the Pearl. While the neighborhood around these hotels is safe, it's boring compared to downtown. You could also try the Hotel deLuxe on the downtown side in not as good of a location - not as nice as the Monaco or the Vintage Plaza, though.

Another way to save money and still stay downtown is look for discounts. First of all, try the site travelportland.com for discounted prices.

To REALLY save money - but be locked into a non-refundable reservation - you can try Priceline.com's "Name your own price" service and probably get a 4-star hotel like the Vintage Plaza or the Monaco (or several others, you won't know which til Priceline accepts your offer price) for around $60/night. If you're not familiar with Priceline, it can be scary the first time you try it, but many of us here on the forums swear by Priceline. Read up on Priceline before blindly making a bid - a good site to check out is betterbidding.com; on that site, you can see what hotels people have been getting in Portland with Priceline, for what prices.

I'd probably not bid with Priceline for lower than a 3-star in Portland, preferably 4-star (only the downtown zone has 4-star hotels in Portland). You also need to look at the regular prices on hotels the night you'll stay. If things are more expensive that night than others, you might not score on Priceline. But if it's not Rose Festival in Portland, May is probably a decent time to get a hotel here.

Have you looked at the Inn at Northrup Station? It is in the NW part of town, which is an easy walk to the Pearl and downtown and is a very nice area. I don't know if it fits in your budget or not, but it is less than the Monaco and others downtown.

The Ace, the Mark Spencer and the Portland International Guest House are a few more moderately priced options for downtown or close to downtown.

Why not stay at the Edgefield - which is close to the airport, close to the Columbia Gorge, close to a couple of disc golf courses at Rooster Rock State Park, has its own (pitch and putt) golf course on site, as well as a movie theater, numerous pubs and restaurants/cafes, a winery, distillery, funky art, inexpensive rooms, and which is 20-25 min. from downtown if you want to go into the city? (Long sentence, that.)

http://www.mcmenamins.com/edgefield
http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_175.php

Oh and forgot to say, congratulations!

I thought of the Edgefield too (although it's not closer to the airport than downtown Portland is) - but if this is their only chance to see Portland, I'd opt for spending a nice in the city instead, if it were me, and just stop at the Edgefield for lunch the next day on the drive out to the Gorge. Yeah, I know I'm biased because I live in Portland and love it, but I do think it's a worthy city worth checking out, if only briefly.

Portland is a nice town. Well worth visiting. At this site you can often get a good hotel rate that includes parking and breakfast: http://www.travelportland.com/

I should have noted that we usually have a worthwhile savings when we pick up a rental car at a downtown office even if we are going to return it to an airport.

HTTY

How long is the Columbia River Highway drive? We'd have 3 to 4 hours total starting from downtown Portland. I'm wondering how far we could expect to travel with photo stops on a weekday? Thanks for your help.

curiousgeo, assuming you don't hit traffic on I-84, you would have enough time to take a brief tour of the Gorge and some of the waterfalls. Get off at Corbett exit as you head east on I-84, drove up the hill and make a left on the Columbia River Scenic Highway. Stop at the Womens' Forum (great view of Vista House) and at Vista House itself before winding down into the woods, where you will pass a few waterfalls until you get to the big one, Multnomah Falls. You probably won't have much time to hike, but once you make it to Multnomah Falls, you can judge how much time you have left and hike up toward the top of the falls as much as you can. You can hop back on I-84 from there (not directly, a mile or two out of your way) without having to backtrack through the wood all the way back to Corbett - just follow the signs for I-84 west.

Thanks for the information Andrew. Judging by the Highway map we'll get to see a few of the falls that you mention (Latourell, Shepperds Dell, Bridal Veil and Wahkeena) up to Multnomah Falls. I'm not sure we'll do any hiking other than to stretch our legs and take some pictures. This is a drive I've always wanted to experience, too bad our time is so limited. I would have loved to do the entire drive but will gladly take in what I can.

Thanks so much for your suggestions everyone! I just booked the RiverPlace Hotel on priceline.com for $65...I would have rather been closer to the center of downtown but I'm sure this is close enough. It seems like we got a great deal (my first time to use priceline), and we are looking forward to seeing the city!

The Riverplace Hotel isn't that far from the center - you can walk a few blocks over to the Portland Streetcar if you won't have your car the first night (if you have a car, figure $20-$25/night to park it at the hotel). Or you can walk into the center of town, it's really not very big. On the upside, you can walk along the river in the morning or during your time there.