Welcome to Portland

Portland is the largest west coast city between San Francisco and Seattle. Besides being home to major corporations like Nike and being referred to as the “Silicon Forest” we have a reputation for great beer, awesome coffee, countless food trucks, yummy donuts and for being weird.

Weird

Even before Portlandia we kept things weird around here for over 20 years. You want to explore the strange and unusual? Travel Portland has an excellent primer on "Portland Weird Culture", check it out!

Video Games

Of course, Portland loves video games and we have a thriving game scene! Besides being the host to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo since 2007, this city has multiple amazing arcades. Check out the best of them at Ground Kontrol and fall in love with their amazing collection of games old and new. We also have many videogame stores specializing in retro games, pay Video Game Wizards or SideQuest a visit. Or better yet: attend a Portland Retro Gaming Expo and have all the stores in one giant convention.

Food and Drinks

Great coffee, micro-brewed beer, yummy donuts and more food trucks than most out-of-towners have ever seen, yes, Portland has all that. We don’t even know where to start with all the delicious coffee and beer but for tasty and/or weird donuts visit Voodoo Doughnut (and check out their t-shirts as well!). And if you’re looking for many diverse food options in one spot, go and visit the food trucks, there are so many of them, we lost count. Many of these options are also close to the Oregon Convention Center.

Music

We’ve always loved great music. Bands like the Kingsmen (“Louie, Louie”), Everclear, Sleater-Kinney, the Shins and Modest Mouse and many others either came from here or have made Portland their home.

Sports

Portland is home to many successful sports teams: the Timbers (MLS), the Trail Blazers (NBA), Rose City Rollers (WFTDA), Thorns FC (NWSL) the Winterhawks (WHL) and many others. Together these teams have won four WFTDA Championships (Rose City Rollers), one MLS Cup and one MLS is Back Tournament (Timbers), one NBA Championship (Trail Blazers), three NWSL Championships and one Challenge Cup and one Women's International Champions Cup (Thorns FC), two CHL Memorial Cups and three Ed Chynoweth Cups (Winterhawks), not too shabby.