What do you look for in a hotel? In a hotel room? After much deliberation, we decided on the Aloft Portland Airport at Cascade Station for our few days in the possible hipster capital of the Pacific Northwest. It ticked a lot of boxes for us, including a surprisingly low nightly rate. Having to drive 20 minutes into downtown Portland was not a problem at all. Here’s a look at our room.

The last time we were in Portland, we stayed at the Sheraton Portland Airport. We keep staying by the airport, apparently, even though we’re neither flying in nor out of PDX. Go figure. The area just happens to provide a good combination of value and relative proximity. This is especially true since we drove down to Oregon for our little vacation.

Both Marriott and Starwood already boasted a huge portfolio of hotel brands under their respective umbrellas before last year’s merger. Now that they’re all one big happy family, keeping all those hotel names straight can make your head spin. You’ve got places like the Ritz-Carlton and W Hotels at the high end, with brands like Hilton and Delta offering a more affordable value for families and business travelers.

With Aloft Hotels, you can expect a more youthful, modern vibe. In their own words, Aloft provides “urban-inspired spaces and vibrant social scenes for the next-gen traveler.” Aloft Portland Airport at Cascade Station certainly matches that description. We were very happy with our stay (and I don’t think I heard any planes flying overhead after about 10pm or so).

I teased at our adventures in Portland with a sonnet over the weekend. Stay tuned to this space, as I plan on publishing a few more posts and videos from our time in Portland and along the Oregon Coast… including that time we went ghost hunting.