- Portland, Oregon, is easy to navigate, and as a local I typically walk or bike everywhere I go.
- If you're visiting Portland, here are all of the best transportation options for getting around the city.
- Visit Insider's hub for travel guides, tips, and recommendations.
I grew up in Portland and have been a journalist here for nearly a decade. In high school I'd ride the TriMet bus to campus, with a backpack and a french horn in tow. Now I generally bike or walk around the city.
Portland has a convenient and easily navigable transit system. But it's not the most auto-centric city — many locals, including me, prefer to bike or take public transit, as the routes are more direct than driving. Many roads and highways are only two lanes or one-way, and you'll often see lanes painted green or red, which means bike or bus only.
If you're planning a trip to Portland, here are the best ways to navigate to and around the city.
Portland International Airport
Portland International Airport, at the north end of the city along the Columbia River, is the best commercial option for flying into the region. It services both national and international flights and has been ranked among the best best airports by Travel + Leisure magazine numerous times for its street prices (meaning the airport's shops have the same prices as their downtown counterparts) and famous carpet.
At the airport, you can rent a car or catch a taxi or a ride from a ride-hailing service. (If you rent a car, the downtown-parking app you want is Parking Kitty.)
To get into the city from PDX, you can hop on the MAX light rail — you take the Red Line to Gateway Transit Center, where you can connect to all parts of the city.
Greyhound
If you're looking for cheap transportation and don't mind spending hours in a bus, Greyhound offers rides into Portland from across the US. The old station in Old Town Chinatown closed, but the new location is a few blocks north along Station Way. (You can still buy tickets and get information at the old spot, though.)
Car rentals
In Portland, where there are plentiful modes of transportation, a car is a luxury and not a necessity. Still, if you want your own wheels on your visit, rental options at the airport and throughout the city include Hertz, Kyte, Avis, Enterprise, and more.
I recommend using the app Parking Kitty, which allows you to pay for street parking on your phone.
Public transportation
Portland's public-transport agency, TriMet, has the MAX light rail, buses, and the Portland Streetcar, which navigates the downtown area. The streetcar is convenient to hop on to take a loop around the city.
It costs $5 for an adult day pass for all TriMet lines. You can use its Hop app to buy tickets and track arrival times.
Bikes, e-scooters, and Segways
Downtown Portland is relatively small and mostly flat, so bike or scooter rentals can be a convenient option for hop-on, hop-off exploring. Grab a Biketown bike, pick up a Lime e-scooter, or hop on a Segway.
Before taking off, make sure you know the rules of the road here for bikes and e-scooters. Many streets have dedicated bike-ways and are the safest for bikers to use. (The green lanes are for bikes, while red lanes are buses only.)
I've been biking around the Portland metro area my whole life, and many locals practice for the Hood to Coast relay, so cyclists generally take road safety and sharing very seriously.
Navigating Portland
Portland is organized into neighborhoods or districts on either side of the Willamette River, which separates the city into east and west Portland. There's Nob Hill in the northwest, the Southwest Hills and Goose Hollow, the Pearl District, and the South Waterfront.
The west-side neighborhoods have windy, hilly roads, and on the east side you'll find downtown, the industrial district, and several cute neighborhoods, each with their own Main Street, organized in a more grid-like manner.
On either side of the Willamette, the streets running parallel with the river are in ascending numerical order in both directions (for example, SW 2nd Street and SE 2nd Street are both two blocks from the river, on opposite sides). If you're north of West Burnside Street, all roads are in alphabetical order from south to north.
There are 12 bridges across the Willamette River connecting the east and west sides. The newest bridge, Tilikum Crossing, is open for cyclists, pedestrians, and public transit only — no cars are allowed on this bridge, aptly nicknamed the Bridge of the People. If you're not in a walking mood, however, you can take the MAX light rail's Orange Line to get across.
The Steel Bridge is also a good choice for cyclists, as there's a below-deck pedestrian and bike path, so you don't have to haul up to the main overpass. You can access this from the Springwater Corridor and Eastbank Esplanade on the east side, or the Waterfront Park Trail on the west side. Keep in mind that this is a through-truss, double-deck, vertical-lift bridge — meaning that if it goes up, you will have to wait for a barge to navigate through.
As for highways, if you're in a car, know that Interstate 5 goes north-south, the 26 goes east-west, the 405 takes you downtown, and the 205 loops south before heading northeast to the airport. And always, always yield to the TriMet buses.
View Insider's comprehensive guide to visiting Portland, Oregon.