From Portland’s most family-friendly neighborhoods to suggestions for crafting a perfect weekend in the Rose City and beyond, the Welcome Guide is an invaluable resource for visitors and new transplants — and will even help longtime residents rediscover some of the best family-friendly fun in Portland.
It’s an eternal question from visitors and recent transplants: What is there to do in Portland with kids? We’ve got the ultimate answers.
Looking to make this summer unforgettable? Cue up one (or all!) of these family-friendly destinations.
Here’s how to have fun with your kids during a play, concert or ballet at one of Portland’s youth performing arts organizations.
Driving or walking through Eastmoreland’s tree-lined streets full of large, elegant homes, you’re struck by the neighborhood’s beauty. And that’s not an accident. According to the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association, the neighborhood was laid out by devotees of the national City Beautiful movement of the early 1900s.
Minutes from downtown, this charming and quintessentially Portland neighborhood centers around a main street that boasts breakfast joints, gift shops, bakeries, a beloved toy store and much more. And a yearly summer parade and street fair is a much-cherished community event.
The neighborhood of Rose City Park was incorporated the same year as the inaugural Rose Festival. Today, this Northeast neighborhood comprises a diverse mix of established Portland, with gentrified updates and hip eateries. It’s also family- and dog-friendly with outdoor spaces, parks and shopping.
Like this North Portland area’s name suggests, this compact neighborhood is named after a university — the University of Portland. In fact, the Catholic campus takes up a large swath of realty in the neighborhood’s southern corner.
Originally called Boone’s Landing after a descendant of Daniel Boone, Wilsonville got a name change in 1880. The name hasn’t been the only change in its history; Wilsonville has transformed from ferry site to port to train depot, and finally to the southernmost suburb in the Portland-metro area with a major freeway artery running right through its center.
Niche.com’s No. 1 Best Place to Raise a Family in Oregon is closer than you might think: this year’s choice is Bethany, a small suburb of Portland in Washington County. This tracks with what locals say of this safe, quiet neighborhood with good schools.
14 Places to Get Kid-Friendly Take-Out
Check out these kid-friendly to-go spots, where the grown-ups will love the food, too!