Seattle Travel Answers

Both are awesome for that. I wish I could give you a better idea. Seattle is larger and is on the ocean.

You will probably get more people answering Seattle on this one if I were to guess. It's been a while since I've been to Portland so can't say much about the city. Been to Seattle a number of times and I think you will find a fair amount of shopping and live music for your adventure.

Portland by a LONG shot. Much more organic. Great brew pubs with music. Young, cool population. Biggest bookstore in the US. It's how Seattle was 15 years ago.

YVRDave wrote:
Both are awesome for that. I wish I could give you a better idea. Seattle is larger and is on the ocean.

Seattle is NOT ON THE OCEAN.  It is on a body of water called the Puget Sound which leads to the Pacific Ocean. 

Based on what you have told us so far about your interests, I would suggest that maybe Portland would be your better choice because we don't have a sales tax - though Seattle is higher income (Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and many others...) so you can get nicer things there.

Seattle has traffic jams that are legendary, but those can be avoided with transit.

Both have decent live music scenes, though Seattle has more people and therefore more venues.

Both have free newspapers that come out once a week (Willamette Week and Seattle Weekly) that have a lot of good guides about what band is playing where and when.

Seattle has a number of decent museums in it, including four art museums. Portland has a few museums in it as well but not quite as extensive as Seattle. Physically our main art museum is larger.

On a clear day, the winner is Seattle hands down as they are ringed with snow capped peaks: Rainier in the south, various minor peaks in the Cascades to the east, the Olympic Mountains to the west, and Mount Baker and lesser peaks to the north. Portland has Mount Hood and what remains of Mount Saint Helens after it blew up (which has several volcano related museums and visitor's centers at it these days - but it is a day trip from Portland to get there). Seattle has three National Parks that are decent weekend trips from it, while Oregon's only National Park isn't quick or easy to get to from Portland (too far south with no major roads going there). We do have the Columbia Gorge and the Oregon Coast, which are much closer to Portland than the equivalent attractions near Seattle.

Seattle has a number of different water tours that are available, plus you can get out on one of the Washington State Ferries and take a two hour boat trip for less than $10. In Portland, the only options for getting out on the water are very expensive, and not anywhere near as scenic (assuming a clear day).

On a hot day, Seattle is colder due to the ice cold blast that comes off the Olympic Mountains west of there. On a cold day, Portland is colder because of the winter blast that comes down the Columbia River Gorge from the Great Basin.

Both have horribly unpredictable weather most of the year, so you have to plan for a variety of weather.

It would be hard to say much more with such limited information about your interests.

Of course it matters what you are interested in, but if your looking for a vibrant downtown I would go for Portland Seattle is great if into the outdoors water climbing etc. but, Portland is changing into a really neat downtown. Lots of new restaurants and clubs. I would definitely pick Portland for the action. Last time we were in Portland they had concerts going on in the square downtown and lots of things on every corner.. You could tell that the young people on the streets were having fun.
Go for Portland

It depends on what day. Sometimes Portland has those types of festivals, but at other times downtown doesn't have as much going on.

We have the First Thursday Gallery show in northwest Portland, and the Third Thursday art show in Northeast Portland, but Seattle also has those types of shows, and only on certain days.

If those are the types of things you want to make sure you see, the best thing to do is check the community schedule of events - because those types of things just don't happen every single day in either city.

Two nice cities but i personally prefer Portland.
I really like the vibe of that city and would love to stay there for an extended period one day.

Great comments glabah, will certainly helpful!!

Thanx every one for your help...really appreciate the time you have taken to help me out....its gonna be a hard decision :)

Please let us know which city you choose.

Yes I will for sure :)

Quite a lot depends on what day of the year you plan to visit. For example, if you are coming on a particular day in June, I could suggest the Fremont Solstice Festival in the Fremont area just north of Seattle. Aside of all the naked people running through the streets they do have some other interesting bits of culture happening.

There is also the annual Seattle Hempfest in August, which is one of the biggest marijuana smoking events in the Pacific Northwest (including live bands and other events too - not just getting stoned).

In Portland we have the Bite of Portland, the Portland Rose Festival, several beer brew festivals, and quite a number of other things.

The other thing is maybe visit both cities? After all, it is only a 3.5 hour train ride between the two. They have WiFi on the train so you could do e-mail and stuff while you travel, the regular ticket price is in the $31 range (sometimes there are discounts as low as $16), and the scenery isn't too bad - in fact on a clear day, if you get the "water side" of the train, there is a really nice view of the Olympic Mountains for about 20 minutes as the train approaches Tacoma - a view you don't get from Interstate 5. If it isn't a clear day that 20 minutes still gives you a decent view of Puget Sound and its surrounding scenery.

So, depending on your reasons for wanting to visit one or the other and not both, you may not necessarily have to choose one or the other.

Thanks for the information...I will be arriving November and the train sounds like a gr8 idea...I Amtraked it from LA to San Diego last year and it was pretty good, plus the fact it is cheaper than flying and a lot less stressful :)...that way I get 2 c both
Cheers
Kaz :)

blondie1405 wrote:
Thanks for the information...I will be arriving November and the train sounds like a gr8 idea...I Amtraked it from LA to San Diego last year and it was pretty good, plus the fact it is cheaper than flying and a lot less stressful :)...that way I get 2 c both Cheers Kaz :)

 The "Best of Both"  -  I like it.  Train trips are fun!

November is certainly not the month I would choose to introduce our part of the world to someone, but it that is when you are coming I hope that you do find a way to enjoy it here.

That second photograph I have on my Washington Page?
"High Desert and Heavy Rain: depends on where" - Washington State by glabah
That second photograph was taken in the middle of *August*, on what we in this part of the world consider a nice bright warm day. November looks similar, only darker, colder, and wetter.

Just be prepared. The weather here can be interesting.

I have a bit about the train here, scattered into 3 separate tips due to the 10,000 character limit VirtualTourist has on its tips:
"Amtrak Cascades" - Washington State Transportation Tip by glabah
"Amtrak Cascades Part II (please see Part I first)" - Washington State Transportation Tip by glabah
"Amtrak Long Distance Trains in Washington & Oregon" - Washington State Transportation Tip by glabah

Flying between Portland and Seattle is a joke, really. The only reason to do that is if you are trying to connect to another flight. BoltBus operates an express bus between the two that isn't as comfortable as the train, but can do the trip in 2 hrs 40 minutes, and ticket prices that are quite cheap. Thanks to airport security and the process of getting from and to the airports, that $170 flight from Portland to "Seattle" (the airport is actually in SeaTac - two cities south of Seattle) also takes about 2 hours 40 minutes to get from downtown Portland to downtown Seattle.