If you want to make friends in Portland, then this article is for you. Let’s explore places where and how to meet people in Portland, Oregon, a bustling city with snow-capped Mount Hood as its backdrop. Between its eco-friendliness, microbreweries and coffeehouses and thriving theater and music scenes, you’ll have a variety of opportunities to meet new friends.
How You Can Meet People in Portland and Make New Friends
1. Most Popular Meetup Groups
Here are a few of Portland’s most popular meetups
- 20 and 30 somethings in Portland – AWESOME Stuff
- The Portland Hiking Meetup Group
- *Single Professionals Happy Hour*
Find more of your favorite meetup opportunities here: https://www.meetup.com/cities/us/or/portland/
2. Take the Short Bus on an Urban Wine Tour
Portland Urban Wine Tours are meant to be a social experience – as a result, they are a fantastic way for you to find new and unexpected friendships. The tour lasts approximately 5 hours as you visit three urban wineries. They provide tunes, wine glasses to keep, wine keys, a water cooler, and most importantly, a fun time! This is why we’re suggesting it. If you love wine, this is definitely for you.
3. Enjoy Creative Coffee Creations
Here is another way to meet people in Portland: coffee! The long lines move quickly in this family oriented neighborhood living room. Jim & Patty’s Coffee is stocked with some of the city’s best pastries, coffeecakes and creative coffee-based creations. You can therefore, sample their spicy habanero mochas or Alameda Mudslide espresso shakes while chatting with folksy and unpretentious patrons.
4. Get Lost in Books
Powell’s City of Books is the largest bookstore in the world, occupying an entire city block and housing approximately one million books. Meet other voracious readers in one of the store’s nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500 different sections, offering something for every interest. You can easily make friends with people with the same taste in books. Just make sure that you can transition to other topics of conversation, and not just books.
The more you keep the conversation going, and talk about various topics, the more you can find commonalities with the people you meet. Things in common are the basis of new friendships.
5. Lounge with Kitties
Calling cat lovers… Purringtons Cat Lounge is a combination small café and free roam adoption center for cats. The café provides a different way for shelter cats to interact with humans and allow prospective adopters to see a cat in a home like environment. What’s better than hanging out with adoptable cats while sipping beer and wine produced locally?
6. Catch the Spirit
Another way to meet people in Portland is to meet sports fanatics at Spirit of ’77, a Portland-specific game-viewing venue that commemorates the city’s singular glory moment in sports history. The cavernous bar is always packed on Blazer game days and features four TVs, a huge 12-foot projection screen, four custom basketball games, foosball, darts, indoor bicycle parking and LOTS of screaming fans!
7. Arcade Nerds, Unite
In addition to a full complement of vintage video games and pinball tables, Ground Kontrol adult arcade features a beer and wine bar, live music and DJs on weekends, and a steady stream of joystick-related events, including Mario Kart tournaments. Challenge a new friend to a game of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or Tetris.
8. Urban Escape
An abundance of wildlife can be found in Forest Park – the largest urban park in the country. Forest Park’s extensive system of trails, fire lanes and gravel roads provide excellent opportunities to meet other outdoor enthusiasts while hiking, walking, or running along the 30-mile Wildwood Trail.
9. Elegantly Artsy
Every Friday evening, the Portland Art Museum lets its hair down and offers a slate of fun, interactive events, including an Art Pub, photo booth, museum tours and rotating pop-up programs and performances.
10. Cast Some Voodoo on Your Sweet Tooth
Voodoo Doughnut is one of the city’s most unusual and delicious culinary destinations. You need to check out the doughnuts. As toppings, they have creative ingredients such as bacon, Captain Crunch, and Oreos. They’re almost as fun to look at as they are to eat. Chat with other sweet tooth locals while you wait in line. A place that has one of the most innovative doughnuts in the world, is definitely a friendly one.
11. Check Out A Science Museum
If you’re a science buff or are just interested in fascinating tidbits about everything in the universe, then you’ll fall in love with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Here you’ll find physics and chemistry labs, a planetarium, and different scientific exhibits that’ll seem fictional to those who aren’t acquainted with the process. Needless to say, it’s a very interesting place where you can learn so much and meet other intellectual minds.
12. Visit The Washington Park
This 410 acre of land is home to many sites that a lot of people in Portland frequent. From zoos to restaurants, you’ll find a lot of place to hang out in here. Be sure to visit this place and check out its wide array of hang out options and meet the other people in the area.
13. Find a Fitness Social Group Near You
As a fitness lover, you know that staying fit does need you to put in the work: run, work out consistently, and be mindful of your diet. You don’t have to do it alone, though. You can join a Portland social group of like-minded people who are also on the fitness journey. You can join November Project’s Portland Social Group to elevate the fun and skyrocket your fitness adventure. The group usually has sessions at 6 am once or twice a week.
When you find a good social group, ensure to keep your conversations interesting. You can get to know each other in a more personal and more profound sense. You can talk about what you do when you are not working out. This creates social integration at a deeper level.
In conclusion, there are many ways to meet people in Portland. Get a clear plan for your social life so you don’t get too overwhelmed. We teach you how to overcome shyness or hesitation, snap out of loneliness, make great conversations, activate critical social skills, and learn secrets to making friends. You can start here.