I have been reading a lot of travel articles lately (most say the same things over and over again), the ones I found most interesting involved the writer being transparent about how much they spent. Below I lay out how much I spent on what and since I have been to Portland twice, I compare how much each cost.

Portland November 2014

• Time: 4 days
• Stay: Hilton Portland, cost split between myself and my mother, $130 each
• Travel: I am a Southwest Rapid Rewards Member and paid for this trip with points, $0
• Food, Fun, Shopping: $300

Portland July 2015

• Time: 4 days
• Stay: Airbnb, cost split between myself and my mother, $146
• Travel: Southwest, one-way, $172
• Travel: Alaska, one-way, $94
• Food, Fun, Shopping: $400

Totals

• November: $430
• July: $812

Tips/What I learned

• Portland can be very cheap or expensive depending on how you do it, as is obvious from the above figures. When I was there is July one days worth of activities was around $100 not including food, you can read about that here.
• Common Fact: During the off season cheaper flights are easier to finds. I often find flights on Southwest for around $59 but for my July trip I was forced to suffer through high prices.
• Cheaper apartment rentals/hotels can be found. Both of our stays were great. The Hilton was more central but the Airbnb had a better atmosphere.
• Portland is a great place to eat cheap. I would say splurge for at least one meal but it is easy to eat under $10 per meal.
• Take advantage of the No Sales Tax. If you have been saving up to buy something expensive then buy it here. Texas also has no sales tax but us poor Californians have a high high high price to pay.