Ace Hotel Portland - hotel review

Looking for a cool city break? You can’t get any more hipster than this Portland hangout, finds Miranda Thompson.
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Miranda Thompson4 August 2016

Discover peak Portland at the hipster’s spiritual home.

Where is it?

Portland, Oregon, aka the place ‘young people go to retire’. Mocked mercilessly by TV comedy Portlandia for its hipster values (tandem bikes are on the up) and (occasionally) humour-free liberalism, in fact, visiting this Pacific Northwest city - where entertainment is cheap and beer is plentiful – is a pleasure.

You’ll find the Ace Hotel Portland housed in the historic Old Clyde Building in the Pearl District, Portland’s most chi-chi, artsy neighbourhood, where rents are doubling and apartments go for $1 million a pop. Inside, there’s beards, babes, bike nuts and babies sprawled around its terrarium-littered lobby (where the wifi is predictably excellent).

Style

Cool, considered and aesthetically pleasing with a faded khaki utility feel. The rooms are high-ceilinged and airy with plenty of comfy touches to balance out any hipster minimalism – large beds lit with reading lights, Mailin and Goetz products in the wetroom-style bathroom, movie posters on the walls and the best bathrobes around. Score bonus hip points and bring your own vinyl to play on the in-room turntable.

Ace hotel bedroom
JEREMY PELLEY

Facilities

Everyone congregates (and Instagrams) on the long green couches in the lobby or taps out emails on the co-working-style desk that dominates its mezzanine. Hire bikes from the 24-hour concierge and get out into the city - cyclists love Portland and Portland loves cyclists – to take the riverside routes through the heart of the city or head up into Washington State Park (be warned – steep doesn’t quite cover the gradient) past the Portland Timbers soccer stadium for views through the cedars up to Mount Hood which looms like Mordor in the distance. And once you’re done, refresh your wardrobe with the fill-your-bag laundry offer for $10 – it must be one of the best hotel deals around.

Hotel lobby
JEREMY PELLEY

Extra-curricular

Portland is a neighbourhood-based city that’s split by the winding Willamette River and punctuated by twelve bridges – it’s not known as Bridgetown for nothing. Start out by exploring the Pearl District on the Ace’s doorstep and to the west of the city; once occupied by warehouses and industry, the area has undergone some serious gentrification and its streets now thrum with food trucks, craft-beer-heavy bars – and doughnut shops (Voodoo and Blue Star are top of the must-tries).

Just down the road, Powell’s City of Books is a must-visit; even beginner bibliophiles will find it difficult to tear themselves away from this block-long bookstore with its labyrinth of shelves (but a loaded pizza slice from Sizzle Pie normally does the trick). If you’re there on a weekend, don’t miss the Portland Saturday Market on the waterfront, where artisan makers rub shoulders with the city’s ever-popular food trucks (catch them parked up downtown on Alder Street during the week).

Make time to visit Washington State Park, home to Oregon Zoo (and a swanky super-sized elephant enclosure), the World Forestry Centre and the International Rose Test Garden for glorious summer scents.

At night, cross the river to the south-east of the city, where the vibe is a little more rough and ready, but the locally-brewed beer is cheap and delicious. There’s over 87 microbreweries in this craft-obsessed cities and sampling as many as you dare is all part of the Portland experience (we liked the accompanying food truck at Basecamp).

Food and drink

Begin your day with the $12 all-you-can-eat breakfast in the breakfast room 215; there’s homemade granola (don’t stint on the delectable dried cherries), locally cured meats, pastries, juice and copies of the New York Times. For something a little more substantial, Kenny & Zukes (attached to the main hotel) does just-like-Mama-makes-it homemade pastrami and deli-style sandwiches.

Coffee-lovers shouldn’t miss Stumptown Coffee Roasters, just off the lobby, which offers DIY cold-press party packs and growler-size portions as well as in-house roasted blends (ideal to kick the craft-beer hangover).

Try the long-table dining experience with hearty peasant-style food at almost-hotel restaurant Clyde Common (it also does room service!), before retiring to a booth for cocktails in style in the tiny underground tapas bar Pepe Le Moko, just below the main hub.

Clyde restaurant
JEREMY PELLEY

Which room?

Ask for a back-facing room – you’ll dial down less of the city sounds. But even the standard doubles are spacious and comfortable.

Best for?

Total immersion into the heart of one of Portland’s most alive areas.

Downsides?

A sliding bathroom door might not be to everyone’s taste, and the white blinds weren’t the best at blocking light out.

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