Throughout my road trip I stayed in a variety of hotels and Airbnbs. While I was in Portland, I stayed at an Airbnb in a cute historic neighborhood.
The historic home is divided into several apartments. I stayed in an apartment on the ground floor (with the bay window in the picture above). The apartment was cute (it had a few quirks due to it being a historic building, but that is to be expected). The hosts communicated quickly and considerately left helpful tidbits in the apartment for guests.
Before I left for my trip, the host messaged me on Airbnb and gave me the code to the apartment key lock box, explained the parking options, and asked if I had any questions. I asked her for restaurant recommendations and she replied with several options. She was really sweet!
Also, when I arrived at the apartment, there was a binder with the wifi code, maps, bus routes, on street parking instructions, take out menus, and other helpful information. They also left some snacks, breakfast options, a few bottles of water, juice, and milk. Since I arrived late Sunday night, it was so nice to sleep in and eat breakfast in the apartment and not have to go out in search of food options.
The parking for this Airbnb seemed odd to me, but it appeared fairly standard for that neighborhood. I could either park on the street or in one of the spots next to the building. During my stay, the street parking near my Airbnb was always occupied. Additionally, people are only allowed to park on one side of the street certain days of the week and the other side of the street other days of the week. It seemed a little complicated, so I chose to park next to the house.
It may not appear small in the picture, but believe me the space is incredibly tight and scary to park in. Your car must be within the white line otherwise cars can't drive past the parked vehicles on the left. I would hate this if I lived here, but since I was only staying a few days it wasn't too bad.
For more specifics about this Airbnb, watch the video below! Also, for $40 off your Airbnb booking click here!
Parking in downtown Portland:
Don't do it!!! Seriously, if you can avoid it, do yourself and your wallet a favor and avoid parking downtown.
When I was researching Portland, several people said that parking in Portland was crazy. I took this to mean that it was hard to find a spot to park. Little did I know that it isn't difficult to find parking spots, rather parking downtown is ridiculously expensive!
Portland is filled with parking lots. However, most of the parking lots are privately owned and charge by the hour. My first day exploring in Portland, I paid $38 to park for five hours. The second day I paid $32.50 to park for the entire day (one of the few lots that had a daily rate). That's insane!
The city of Portland does have a page on their website about parking. However, when I was visiting the page had not been updated in over a year. For example, a parking lot on the website that said it was $3 an hour had been bought out and the new owner charged $8 an hour. In hindsight, I wished I would have taken an Uber to and from my Airbnb each day. Well, you live and you learn :)
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