TRAVEL INFORMATiON

travel to Portland, Oregon

Portland is located near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. It is conveniently situated about an hour’s drive from stunning, wind-swept beaches and rugged, snow-capped mountains. Portland is a bustling urban landscape full of cafés, restaurants, food carts, parks, museums, entertainment venues, and plenty of oddities that keep us ‘weird.’

Air Travel

Portland International Airport (PDX) is currently served by more than 15 international and domestic airlines offering about 500 scheduled passenger arrivals and departures daily. More than 60 U.S. cities offer nonstop flights to Portland, including Atlanta, Orlando, New York, Boston and Chicago. Internationally, you can fly direct to PDX from Amsterdam, Calgary, Frankfurt, Guadalajara, London, Puerto Vallarta, Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. PDX offers more than 60 nonstop flights to cities near and far, including international destinations.

Local Transit to/from airport

There are several ways to get to and from Portland’s airport. The most popular is the MAX Light Rail, which has a station on the airport’s lower level. The Red Line takes riders from the airport to downtown in approximately 38 minutes. Other options include taxicabs, ride-share services and shuttles.

If you’re trying to get to the PDX airport from outside of Portland, you can connect to Portland’s Trimet system through other transit agencies or hire an Oregon shuttle service.

Car hire to/from airport

On average, the taxi fare from the airport to downtown Portland is roughly $45 before gratuity (note that this can vary widely depending on traffic and time of day). It’s slightly less for ride-shares such as Lyft or Uber, averaging roughly $35. The one-way trip takes 20–40 minutes. You can find car hires waiting in the center section of the airport terminal’s lower roadway outside of baggage claim; to get back to the airport from the city center, you can order a cab through the city’s main operators or from a hotel with a dedicated taxi stand.

regional Bus and Rail travel

Portland’s Union Station is a nexus of public transportation with convenient access to Trimet public transit (MAX light rail, bus lines, street cars) as well as e-scooter and e-bike rentals.

The Amtrak Cascades and Coast Starlight train routes form a north-south spine connecting Seattle, Portland, Albany, Salem, Eugene, and California. Greyhound bus routes also connect smaller communities to Amtrak stations along these train routes or to Portland itself.

If you’re traveling from within Oregon from smaller communities on the coast or Willamette Valley, The POINT intercity bus service is a convenient option with daily roundtrips from Astoria and Eugene. Another option within Oregon itself is Megabus with intercity routes from Bend, Redmond, Salem, and Sisters.

FlixBus has extensive routes throughout the Pacific Northwest with frequent service between Portland and numerous communities in Oregon and Washington, connecting to destinations as far away as British Columbia in Canada and all of California. The FlixBus stop in Portland is located just north of Union Station on Northwest Station Way near the city center.