The Best Portland Tourist Spots for Locals

Here’s the opposite of a spoiler alert: City Cast Portland host Claudia Meza and lead producer John Notarianni have NOT frequented two shockingly obvious tourist destinations. For their shameful secrets, you’ll have to listen to the podcast.

Guest Eden Dawn, author of “The Portland Book of Dates” and co-host of the “We Can’t Print This” podcast, helped them talk through a list of spots we shouldn’t cede to the out-of-towners.

Here are some of their picks for summer fun:

🛥️ Jetboat Excursions

“It’s an adventure-slash-tour. So if someone gets you on a jetboat, it's going really fast. You do little ‘Tokyo drifts’ on the Willamette while you're learning all about every bridge that you go under.” — Claudia Meza

🌹 International Rose Test Garden and Peninsula Park Rose Garden

“I love Peninsula Park, right? That one is such a special rose garden. But at the one at Washington Park, it's also over the whole city. So it's the drive up. It's getting to look out over the views. It's just different. It's lovely. Both are great in their own ways. I'm sure it's like dating twins: They have similarities, but each has their own personality.” — Eden Dawn

🔥 Huber’s Cafe

“[It’s] the ultimate tourist thing. This place has been around for 144 years and it's this old, old restaurant and they have this entire ritual around making Spanish coffee where they coat a glass the rim in sugar, and then they put some overproof rum in the glass, light it on fire so that it caramelizes all the sugar around the rim. The bartenders have this whole choreography that they do while they do it, and then they fill the glass with coffee and a little bit of Kahlua and whipped cream.” — John Notarianni

🍩 Bonus

To live life like a tourist you could always visit Voodoo (or figure out if you really want to) with “The Great Portland Doughnut Throwdown” podcast.

What’s your view? What tourist spots should everyone visit? Are there any locations we should cede to out-of-towners? Have any shameful secrets about where you’ve never been?