Portland rewards a thin wallet: rose gardens and volcano summits cost nothing, a full plate from a cart runs $12, and a TriMet day pass is $5.60. Three days built around free parks, public markets and viewpoints you reach by bus.
Portland's 4.5-acre test garden in Washington Park holds around 10,000 bushes across 650 varieties and has been free to enter since 1917. Open daily 7:30am–9pm; peak bloom runs late May through June.
The 1988 fountain pushes 4,924 gallons a minute through 185 jets and cycles between three patterns. Wading is allowed and costs nothing, and it anchors the 36-acre riverfront park built over a demolished freeway.
The open-air market runs under the Burnside Bridge in Waterfront Park, March–December, Saturdays 10–5 and Sundays 11–4:30, with roughly 250 craft stalls. Browsing is free and the food court plates run $8–12.
Cross the 1910 Hawthorne Bridge on foot, then walk the Esplanade's 1,200-foot floating walkway, which rides on pontoons directly on the Willamette. The full downtown loop back over the Steel Bridge is 2.6 miles.
The flagship market fills PSU's South Park Blocks every Saturday 8:30am–2pm year-round with about 140 vendors. Entry is free, most produce stalls hand out samples, and Hood strawberries and hazelnuts are Oregon staples.
Nong Poonsukwattana started with a single cart in 2009 and still sells essentially one dish: poached chicken over rice with a ginger, garlic and fermented soybean sauce, wrapped in butcher paper for around $12.50.
A Latino public market on SE Foster with roughly 15 stalls and outdoor carts covering Mexican, Cuban, Venezuelan and Argentine cooking. Arepas and pupusas run $5–9, entry is free, and there's a covered communal patio.
Single tacos run roughly $4.50–6 here, with the fish taco and carnitas as the anchors and rice-and-bean plates near $12. Counter ordering only, no reservations, and the horchata is worth the extra $4.
An extinct volcanic cinder cone inside the city limits, 636 feet high, with three open reservoirs dating to 1894 and a west-facing summit that frames downtown and the West Hills. Open 5am–midnight, no fee.
The tram runs 3,300 feet of cable from the South Waterfront up to OHSU on Marquam Hill in about three minutes, climbing 500 feet with Mount Hood dead ahead on clear days. Round trip is $6.35.
At 1,073 feet this is the highest point in Portland, built on the site of a 1907 amusement park. On a clear day five Cascade volcanoes line up — Hood, St Helens, Adams, Rainier and Jefferson. Open until midnight.
The park sits directly under the Gothic steel arches of the 1931 St Johns Bridge, on the beach where a Lewis and Clark party camped. Free, with a boat ramp, sand and a clear sightline down the Willamette to the sunset.