I am planning a trip with girlfriends to Portland. We plan on staying in Portland for 3 nights then would like to go to the Willamette Valley for one night. Does anybody have any good suggestions of routes to take and places to stay that will be fun for 8 (married, middle-aged) women?

Also....what is the best place to stay in Portland? We are looking for the best location and a nice hotel.

I would suggest staying in downtown for the Portland portion. We live in a suburb, but when we stay overnight in downtown our go to spot is the Monaco. I have also done a girls trip there, and it works really well. You can get connecting rooms.

For the Willamette Valley, are you thinking of going wine tasting? That is the usual big draw here. Anyway, with 8 I would do a tour. One that is well regarded here, and I have been on and can vouch for, is www.anoseforwine.com . Fred and his wife obviously love what they do as it shows the minute you interact with them. They will arrange a day tour for you based upon what you are looking for, and best of all, IMO, they will take you to some smaller gems and not just the big wineries. The smaller ones are where you will most likely have a better experience.

Anyway, If you do not do a tour, be really careful as the police have a heavy presence here and there are red light cameras that will get you for even turning right on red, to the tune of $260 a pop. So you can see why I suggest a tour, especially with 8 ladies

Two places that I would suggest to stay for this portion are the Inn At Red Hills which is a nice boutique hotel in downtown Dundee. You can walk to some great restaurants and tasting rooms. The other is The Allison in Newberg. You can't walk to anywhere interesting from here, but they have a fantastic spa and a great restaurant.

Thank you!!

Another very strong recommendation for spending a day or 2 with Fred Gunton. We spent a full day with him last August (wish we had time for a second day), and he was one of the highlights of our 11 day Oregon trip. Great guy. He knows the wines, the winery owners, the roads, the history of the area, everything. He can get you discounts on wines, too. And he has lots of neat stories, if you can get him talking about himself. It was great not having to have a DD. We were staying in Portland and he picked us up at our Inn for our wine trip into the Willamette Valley.

There is a wine region east of Portland in the Columbia Gorge area. http://www.columbiagorgewine.com/visitors-guide.html
Hood River is well known as a kite boarding area on the river.
If you go to McMinnville, you can see the "Spruce Goose" in the Evergreen Aviation Museum.

I thought the Epicurian Walking Tour of Portland was fun and a great way to taste local foods and learn a little history of the city

https://tickets.portlandwalkingtours.com/?interface=4