American Airlines Flights from Guadalajara, Mexico (GDL) to Portland (PDX)
As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports,
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on American Airlines, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Guadalajara, Mexico (GDL) to Portland (PDX) regularly scheduled to depart at 7:55pm and arrive at 10:55pm. Usually an Airbus A319 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Guadalajara, Mexico to Portland, OR is 5 hours.
During your Portland vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Pittock Mansion
At nearly the highest point in the West Hills, 1,000 feet above sea level, stands the most impressive mansion in Portland. Once slated to be torn down to make way for new housing, this grand château, built by the founder of Portland's Oregonian newspaper, is fully restored and open to the public. Built in 1914 in a French Renaissance style, the mansion featured many innovations, including a built-in vacuum system and amazing multiple shower heads in the baths. Today it's furnished with 18th- and 19th-century antiques, much as it might have been at the time the Pittocks occupied the building. With an expansive view over the city to the Cascade Range, the lawns surrounding the mansion are a great spot for a picnic. You can also access Forest Park's Wildwood Trail from here.
Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden
Nowhere do rhododendrons do better than in the cool, rainy Northwest, and nowhere in Portland is there a more impressive planting of rhodies than at Crystal Springs. Eight months out of the year this is a tranquil garden, with a waterfall, a lake, and ducks to feed. But when the rhododendrons and azaleas bloom from March to June, it becomes a spectacular mass of blazing color. The Rhododendron Show and Plant Sale is held here on Mother's Day weekend.
24-Hour Church of Elvis/Where's the Art?
This is Portland's longtime temple of kitsch, the city's most bizarre attraction. Coin-operated art, a video psychic, cheap (though not legal) weddings, and other absurd assemblages, interactive displays, and kitschy contraptions (such as the Vend-O-Matic Mystery Machine with whirling dolls' heads) cram this second-floor oddity. As celebrity-spokes-model/minister S. G. Pierce says, "the tour is the art form." If you pass the customer test, you can even buy a Church of Elvis T-shirt. Great fun if you're a fan of Elvis, tabloids, or the unusual; and if you've seen Elvis anytime in the past decade, a visit is absolutely mandatory.
McMenamins Kennedy School
The Kennedy School is from the same folks who turned Portland's old poor farm into the most entertaining and unusual B&B in the state (see the listing for McMenamins Edgefield, below, in section 5 of this chapter). This inn, located well north of stylish Irvington in an up-and-coming neighborhood that dates from the early years of the 20th century, was an elementary school from 1915 to 1975. In the guest rooms you'll still find the original blackboards and great big school clocks (you know, like the one you used to watch so expectantly). However, the classroom/guest rooms here now have their own bathrooms, so you won't have to raise your hand or walk down the hall. On the premises you'll also find a restaurant, a beer garden, a movie theater pub, a cigar bar, and a big hot soaking pool.
RiverPlace Hotel
With the Willamette River at its back doorstep and the sloping lawns of Waterfront Park to one side, the RiverPlace is Portland's only downtown waterfront hotel. This fact alone would be enough to recommend this hotel, but its quiet boutique-hotel atmosphere would make the RiverPlace an excellent choice even if it weren't right on the water. During the summer, the hotel is particularly popular when there are music festivals in the adjacent park. (If you're planning a weekend visit, be sure to find out if there's a festival scheduled; depending on your interest in the event, you'll either find this to be a great location, or you might not want to deal with the crowds.)The river-view standard king rooms here are the hotel's best deal, but the junior suites are only slightly more expensive and provide a bit more space. In general, furnishings here are neither as elegant nor as luxurious as at The Heathman or The Benson, but what you're paying for is, of course, the waterfront locale. More than half the rooms here are suites, and some come with wood-burning fireplaces and whirlpool baths. There are also condominiums available for long stays.The hotel's restaurant overlooks the river, and just off the lobby there's a comfortable bar with live piano music and a casual menu. The bar also has a patio dining area overlooking the river.=
Portland's White House
With massive columns framing the entrance, semicircular driveway, and in the front garden, a bubbling fountain, this imposing Greek-revival mansion bears a more than passing resemblance to its namesake in Washington, D.C. Behind the mahogany front doors, a huge entrance hall with original hand-painted wall murals is flanked by a parlor, with French windows and a piano, and the formal dining room, where the large breakfast is served beneath sparkling crystal chandeliers. A double staircase leads past a large stained-glass window to the second-floor accommodations. Canopy and brass queen beds, antique furnishings, and bathrooms with claw-foot tubs further the feeling of classic luxury here. Request the balcony room and you can gaze out past the Greek columns and imagine you're in the Oval Office. There are also three rooms in the restored carriage house.
