I'm a heavy smoker, visiting Portland for 10 days in July, staying downtown in a nonsmoking hotel. My trip to this beautiful city would be more comfortable if I knew there was someplace safe and legal to smoke. Are there any bars where I could smoke? Any parks? Sidewalks? I thank any response heartily.

As of January 1 all Oregon bars and restaurants are completely non-smoking. There are exceptions for smoke shops, which I'm sure exist, but I don't know where any of them are. I'd guess your hotel might be able to help you with that.

You can certainly smoke outdoors (at least 10 feet from the entrance to any public building or business) in parks, on the sidewalk and whatnot. And Portland is full of parks. Downtown, you can take a nice stroll down to the Willamette River and walk along the waterfront, if you like.

On the streets of Portland, you will see people lurking in alley ways and odd corners puffing on cigarettes. You might join in with them.

Or perhaps you would consider heeding the words of Yul Brynner that have been echoed by Larry King, "Don't Smoke." My sister used to always say she would rather die than stop smoking. She died. I miss her greatly.

If these options don't appeal to you, you might vacation in a country where smoking is more prevalent, such as Kenya, Bangladesh, Laos, Kyrgyzstan, Niue, Myanmar, Moldova, Djibouti, or Belarus.

Thanks for the info.

couldn't you find a hotel that offered some smoking rooms? There's definitely not bars or restaurants that allow indoor smoking these days (most not on patios either).

Something else that might make your visit more comfortable would be to consider taking one or more of those electronic cigarettes that can be used even in nonsmoking places.

LOL loving the neo-Puritan 'just don't smoke' responses.

Portland actually has LOTS of awesome bars with patios that still allow smoking, and the weather should be good enough around your time of visit to take advantage of them. Be forewarned: they will probably be super crowded.

Eastburn is a bar close-in to downtown Portland on the east side of town that has an awesome patio complete with chair swings, and they allow smoking (1800 E. Burnside).

New Old Lompoc also has a big patio (1616 NW 23rd) but I haven't been there since before the smoking ban went into effect this year, so I'm not sure if the patio is also non-smoking. Worth a shot though. I would do a search for "patio" on Yelp for Portland, OR and find some close to your hotel. It's almost a definite that most of the bars with patios you will find on your search will allow smoking (and we have some AWESOME bars here).

Also, to my knowledge Waterfront Park allows smoking, as well as the Park Blocks that run through the middle of downtown Portland (look for Park Ave and follow it south).

Good luck with finding places and have a great trip in PDX!

P.S.: The big concrete and brickwork patio in the middle of town known as Pioneer Square does NOT allow smoking, no matter how obvious a choice it would seem to be to allow it. The transit police in the area will harass you almost as soon as you light up, so avoid smoking there.

melindab: P.S.: The big concrete and brickwork patio in the middle of town known as Pioneer Square does NOT allow smoking, no matter how obvious a choice it would seem to be to allow it. The transit police in the area will harass you almost as soon as you light up, so avoid smoking there.

Apparently, lots of things are not allowed at Pioneer Courthouse Square. You can't use a tripod there without permission if you are a photographer; the few times I've tried, I've quickly be approached by a rent-a-cop dutifully informing me of such. Sometimes I'll pick out a shot I can get quickly and then walk into the square to shoot it on the tripod before being kicked out. Other times I like to set my tripod up just off the square (even on the street if it's not busy at the moment) and shoot from there if I can, just to annoy them...

You probably wouldn't like MN. We banned smoking in all public buildings including bars and restaurants back in '07!

You may want to check out the State's website for more info... http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/smokefree/thelaw.shtml
While you can smoke in many outdoor areas, melindab's comment about patio smoking is not completely accurate. The new law prohibits smoking within 10 feet of any door, window, ventilation system, etc. So you may want to confirm with the restaurant/bar before you just assume you can smoke on their patio area.

Hopefully, no where.

vaping in nonsmoking areas not legal

This is 10 YEARS old people.