Zinester's Guide to Portland: A Low/No Budget Guide to Living in and Visiting Portland, or

This is the "cool" guide to Portland. I definitely felt cooler having this in my back pocket. It took me to all the hip spots and upped my out-of-town indie cred. Great guide for your first trip to Portland.

On my last trip to Portland I came across a huge stack of copies of this book at Powell's Books near the front of the store. It only took a brief browsing to tell that this was a keeper and I spent the entire trip back to Seattle on the Amtrak reading it. This is the fourth edition of this guide and is primarily useful for lots and lots of cheap (or relatively cheap) restaurants, coffeehouses, bookstores, bars, clubs, record stores, etc. It is broken down by the various parts of town and has additional chapters on Bridges, The Multnomah County Library System, Bicycling in Portland, City Repair, Museums, Hiking in and around Portland and Skateboarding. It is basically intended for locals as it's full of the kinds of places that one would frequent if one lives in Portland as opposed to the four star hotel rankings and expensive retail stores that often make up the listings in a more typical travel guide. The design and layout of the book is especially appealing...small, easy to carry in a pocket, with lots of illustrations by Portland zine/comic artists and easy to read type.

Excellent guide to keep with you while roaming the city. Filled with lots of tips. Great buy. Jim