10 Things to Do in Portland on a Small Budget

Portland Street Murals can be found all over the city, which is famed for its public art installations, and they don't cost a dime, just the time you take exploring. This town has a hot public art scene, and it's fun to travel the city and look for the wealth of stunning murals and intricate modern art sculptures you can find on just about every street corner and in every public square.

Among the most famed murals is the "Keep Portland Weird" sign. Still, you can spend an entire day driving all over the city looking for creative, colorful murals, each of which seems to convey its own unique message to locals and visitors alike.

Washington Park offers miles of hiking trails among unspoiled nature and is one of the most popular among Portland's 279-plus parks that are within the city limits. This park brings in over 3.5 million visitors every year, which is over 5 times the city's population. Still, even with so many visitors, the park is vast enough that it's easy to find some time alone here to reconnect with nature. Among the best trails in the park is, without a doubt, the Redwood Loop Trail, named for the massive redwoods that line the path.

While here, visit the Hoyt Arboretum to see and learn about the native plants of the region. It's 5 minutes west of downtown.

Forest Park bills itself as "America's Premier Urban Forest" and offers more than 5,200 acres of unspoiled woodland with more than 7 miles of multipurpose hiking and biking trails. It also overlooks Northwest Portland and offers fantastic panoramic views to capture for your social media feed. The city maintains a Forest Park Conservancy Calendar, where you can check to see what's going on during regularly hosted discovery hikes. You might even encounter something like a guided beer hike where a local brewer teaches you how to harvest local plants for ethical beer brewing processes.

Whether you're getting educated or just getting exercise, this park offers a prime chance to get away from it all. It's 16 minutes north of downtown.

Hoyt Arboretum in Washington Park is 2 miles west of downtown and offers more than 6,000 trees with miles of scenic hilly hiking trails. This vast urban park is free to enter and is open daily for a fun and budget-friendly activity in Portland. You can, if you want, book a 90-minute guided tour that takes you through all the plant collections and talks about the importance of plants and trees to our ecology, and it just costs a few bucks.

Alternately, you can forego the tour and just wander the trails all on your own without paying a dime. Either way, this park is great for escaping the hustle and bustle or getting in your steps for the day.

Witch's Castle is an old, abandoned stone house ruin in the middle of the forest with haunted legends surrounding it and is among the more popular city destinations. Legend has it that Danford Balch hired Mortimer Stump to help him clear the area and build his house. Stump lived with the Balch family until Stump fell in love with the family's eldest daughter, Anna. Balch murdered Stump, then accused his wife of witchcraft at his trial. The defense failed and Balch became the first legal execution in Oregon.

Are the ruins haunted by the spirits of the story? The only way to find out is to travel 17 minutes west of downtown and explore them yourself.

Powell's City of Books is an unusual animal in today's world: a massive independent bookstore covering a full city block with millions of books. Powell's keeps the tradition of indie booksellers alive with around 4 million books on sale at any given time covering multiple floors and dozens of rooms offering rare, used, and collectible books to current bestselling novels. This bookstore is among the largest in the world of its kind and is so popular that weddings have been held here.

Looking just to explore or kick back and read a bit? You can do that with comfy chairs and sofas set up throughout and even a café. It's all in the heart of downtown.

Oregon Rail Heritage Center is a thrill for kids or anyone who is a railroad enthusiast to see historic trains and learn about railroad history. This museum is completely free and you can see actual full-sized historic railroad cars, including no fewer than 3 vintage steam locomotives. On the holidays, the locomotives run and you can pick up a ticket for a nominal fee to take a scenic ride on a historic train along the Willamette River just like people did in the olden times.

Other exhibits include a machine shop and many exhibits with artifacts and ephemera related to trains and railroads. A gift shop onsite lets you find a souvenir. It's 4 minutes east of downtown.

Portland Saturday Market is a way for residents to celebrate all things local, offering over 350 vendor stalls selling handcrafted artwork and specialty foods. Here, you can find everything from handmade scented soaps to jewelry, clothing, accessories, wall art, musical instruments, birdhouses, wood and leathercraft, and other creative and visual arts and crafts forms. You can also grab a bite to eat at specialty food vendors selling everything from burgers to food from Uruguay. Bands play on the main stage almost every week to add a bit of live entertainment to the experience.

There's no fee to get into the market, but you might be tempted to buy something while here. It's only 5 minutes north of downtown.

Springwater Corridor Trail is part of a 21-mile-long multipurpose trail that originated with a 1903 brainstorm and today offers scenic wetlands, fields, pastures, and even residential neighborhoods. If you want to take a long hike that offers a wide range of different sights and experiences, this corridor is what you want. It offers wildlife viewing (especially dozens of species of birds), native shrubs and plants, open water and marshlands, and forest. You'll even have the option to cross over any of at least 10 bridges over a rushing creek that's home to native aquatic life.

The start of the trail is 16 minutes southeast of downtown. It's an entirely free way to get back to nature and experience local ecology.

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Site is about a 40-minute drive from downtown Portland and includes famous sites like the Multnomah Falls waterfall and miles of outdoor adventure. The gorge spans 80 continuous miles and winds along the Columbia River. Besides Multnomah, you can experience at least a dozen other stunning waterfalls and hundreds of miles of hiking trails. When you reach Multnomah, you can walk across a bridge that takes you directly in front of and over the top of the falls, making for stunning photographs.

Beside the falls, you'll walk miles of spectacular, unspoiled forest landscape. Get incredible views from Mitchell Point, Indian Point Loop, or traverse the Rowena Plateau trail for prehistoric geology.