If your charmingly small Fo Po home is like mine, “two bedrooms” really means “two rooms with a tiny Jack-and-Jill bathroom sandwiched in between.” Our bathroom is so lilliputian as to require creative shelving solutions. I’ve never before been so enamoured of organization stores. Storables is my new home decoration mecca.
While we are on the lookout for a fold-out couch for the second room, I’m planning on tactfully recommending that any holiday guests book a room instead. Being fairly new to the ‘hood, I’m not sure which reasonably priced nearby hotels to recommend. Given the recent shooting there, The Del Rancho motel on 82nd is out. (Shame– that fabulous sign appeals to my sense of Reno-inspired rundown fifties style.)
In a glowing article titled “Rain or shine, Portland Becons,” Chicago Tribune writer Lauren Viera recommends the Hotel Modera or Hotel deLuxe, both of which are smack-dab downtown. Ms. Viera recommends Portland as a desirable travel destination where locals, like Chicagolanders, “love organic food, strong coffee, independent bookstores and locally brewed beer. We like our cities near the water, preferably with a river running through them, and we don’t let poor weather stand in the way of going out. We support the arts; we support our home teams. And we have killer independent music and arts scenes.”
While I appreciate her praise for P-Town, I’m a bit miffed that Ms. Viera’s only recommendations are downtown. What if you’re looking for something on the east side, especially closer to FoPo? The Jupiter could win awards for hipness, but is still a good hoof away. Any suggestions, long-time residents? What are your recommendations for best FoPo-friendly hotels?
Top photo, showing The Palms in No Po, by lowly tootle.
Technically, I don’t think there are any good hotels in the FoPo area. There is one that sits on 79th / Powell that looks descent, but anything near 82nd is sketchy in my opinion. My best recommendation is to have them stay at the Hawthorne Hostel. There are also some hidden guest houses on Division.
We’ve had grandparents stay at one of the chains just off of I-205, north of Powell but south of I-84 such as the Holiday Inn Express right at Stark / Washington.It fails the walkability test and certainly isn’t FoPo, but it’s <10 minutes by car.Hopefully it will change, but the places on and right near 82nd are just too sketchy.There is a place on the south side of Powell around 76th or so that changed ownership / management recently; I haven’t gotten a look at it inside, though.Did you end up settling on any place?–JT
Thanks for the recommendations, JT! I will use these in the future for sure. So far, we’ve had my partner’s parents stay in the second bedroom. That was almost too much even for one night. This is such a small house that any noise travels throughout. A friend of mine also stayed for a couple of nights in the guest bedroom (we got a sweet fold-down futon couch from Ikea), but that wasn’t so bad, since it was only one person. We also have a couch-futon in the garage, where I think I’ll have peeps stay when it’s warm enough. Or we could just pitch a tent in the back yard…