Dog Friendly City Guide: Portland, USA

Portland is a city that kept its forest. A few minutes from the downtown grid the streets give way to Douglas firs and ferns, and a dog can walk for hours on soft trails without ever leaving the city limits. The rain that keeps everything so green also shapes the way Portland eats and drinks, out on all weather patios with the dog along whatever the sky is doing. Add old neighbourhood parks with fenced and open off lead fields, and you have one of the easiest cities in America to share with a dog.

Getting There With a Dog

A dog flying into the United States from abroad has to meet the rules of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the first question is where it has spent the past six months. If that time has been only in countries the CDC lists as rabies-free or low risk, the dog must be microchipped, at least six months old and travelling with a receipt for the CDC Dog Import Form, which you complete online before you fly. Time in any country on the CDC's high-risk list for dog rabies brings more paperwork and stricter checks at the port of entry, so read the CDC's guidance on bringing a dog into the United States well before you book.

Once you are here, a small dog can ride TriMet's buses and MAX trains, because TriMet's riding rules ask only that a pet travels in a closed carrier. A larger dog means a car, though the centre, the Pearl District and the east side neighbourhoods are all good walking.

Where to Stay

Of our ranked dog friendly hotels in Portland, four lead the way for a visit with a dog. Kimpton Riverplace Hotel, at 1510 South Harbor Way, holds a B and is the one to beat on price, because dogs stay free. It is a four star hotel of 84 rooms, most of which take dogs, and there is no weight limit, so a big dog is as welcome as a small one. A dog bed, bowls and free treats are waiting, your dog can join you on the terrace and in the lounge, the front desk can arrange pet sitting, and staff will point you to the green spaces and parks close by.

Canopy Portland Pearl District, at 425 NW 9th Avenue, holds a C. Most of its 153 rooms take up to two dogs with no weight limit, the room comes with a dog bed and bowls, and your dog is welcome in the bar, the restaurant and the lounge, which in a district built for wandering is a real pleasure. The fee is $50 per stay.

Staypineapple Rose, at 50 SW Morrison Street, also holds a C. Here too your dog has the run of the bar, the restaurant and the lounge, there is no weight limit, a settled dog may be left alone in the room, and the room comes with a dog bed, free treats, toys and poo bags. The fee is $25 a night.

Across the river at 509 SE Grand Avenue, Hotel Grand Stark holds a D but has a canine streak worth knowing about: most rooms take a dog, the terrace and lounge are open to them, and a bed, bowls and free treats are provided, with staff ready to suggest walking routes. It takes one dog of up to 70 pounds, and the fee is $50.

Eat and Drink

Portland meets its dogs outside, on patios built for the rain, and it does it well. On NE Alberta Street, Tin Shed Garden Cafe says your dog is welcome, and even encouraged, to join you on its all weather patio. There are water stations on the front sidewalk, and your dog can order its own meal from the menu, served in a dog bowl. The one house rule is that dogs stay on the lead and on the ground, never on the benches or in laps.

North Portland is the place for an evening drink. Bar Bar, the burgers and beer bar at Mississippi Studios on N Mississippi Avenue, says nice dogs on the lead are allowed on the patio. A short walk away at 4835 N Albina Avenue, Victoria Bar describes itself as having a very dog friendly patio.

Portland's food cart pods suit a dog well, and Springwater Cart Park, at 8145 SE 82nd Avenue, says so outright, calling itself a dog friendly cart park. It is one of the oldest cart parks in the city, a place where, in its own words, food, family and dogs come together, with carts cooking international flavours.

Walks and Parks

Begin with the city's own rule, set out on its page of park rules for dogs. Dogs are welcome in nearly all of Portland's parks on a lead, and may run free only inside a designated off lead area, fenced or unfenced, which the city provides in parks all over Portland.

Forest Park is the reason to bring a dog to Portland. At 5,200 acres of native north west forest, with more than 80 miles of trails, it carries you from the city into deep woods, and every one of its trails is open to people on foot and dogs on a lead. The spine is the 30 mile Wildwood Trail, marked every quarter mile with blue diamonds. For a quieter walk, the north end of the park offers BPA Road from the Lower Newton and BPA trailhead, Newton Road, Springville Road from the Upper Springville trailhead, and the Newberry Loop from the Wildwood and Newberry trailhead.

Washington Park, which holds the Hoyt Arboretum, the International Rose Test Garden and the Japanese Garden among its attractions, is a lovely leashed walk on paved and unpaved paths, and every dog in it must be on a lead. The Wildwood Trail begins here, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, so the two parks join up into one long walk.

When your dog needs a proper run, the east side parks deliver. Mt. Tabor Park covers 176 acres on an extinct volcanic cinder cone, with forest, stairways, open lawns, views over the city and an off lead area. Laurelhurst Park, 32 acres around a three acre lake, has an off lead area too. Down by the Willamette, Sellwood Riverfront Park adds river views and its own off lead area, and in the south west Gabriel Park has two off lead areas beside some 30 acres of natural area along Vermont Creek.

For a short wild walk in the south west hills, Marshall Park is a natural area of hiking trails in a canyon, with a small stone bridge over Tryon Creek. Dogs stay on the lead here.

A Day Out

Start early in Forest Park and walk part of the Wildwood Trail under the firs while the morning is still cool and quiet, then drive across the river to Alberta Street for a late breakfast on the Tin Shed patio, where your dog can order from its own menu. Give your dog an hour off the lead at Laurelhurst Park or on the slopes of Mt. Tabor in the afternoon. As the evening comes on, head up to Mississippi Avenue for a burger and a beer on the Bar Bar patio, or wander over to Victoria Bar on Albina Avenue, and end the day back at your hotel.

Good to Know

Off the lead areas carry rules of their own. Your dog should wear tags showing a current licence and rabies vaccination, go on the lead as you enter and leave, stay in your sight, and never chase the squirrels, ducks and other wildlife, and you should always pick up after it. Dogs are kept out of fountains, lakes, ponds and streams, sports fields and courts, and a handful of places are closed to them altogether, among them Tanner Springs Park, Whitaker Ponds Nature Park, Foster Floodplain Natural Area and the Mt. Tabor amphitheatre. Pack a towel, because a forest this green is a wet one and the trails show it.