Portland Walking Tours, through our parent company Hometown Advantage, can also provide step-on guide services for your next convention, conference, reunion, meeting or gathering. Our Resident Experts (aka “Tour Guides”) will be your key to experiencing Oregon and the city of Portland like you never have before. All of our step-on guides are long-time residents who completed extensive training. We’ll meet you and your chartered bus, motor coach, mini-bus or van anywhere in the Portland area and since there is no set start time for our private tours they can be tailored to best fit your group’s schedule. The Pacific Northwest is one of the most historic, scenic and fascinating regions in the country. With one of our resident experts as your guide you’ll gain access to local knowledge and insider information that you otherwise wouldn’t get. A step-on guide is a great way to guarantee that your next visit to Oregon is a memorable one!

Unlike most other tour companies in which the driver is forced to pull double-duty, on our tours its a cooperative effort with each part of the team doing what she or he does best. We let the driver concentrate on watching the road, which leaves our Resident Experts free to focus on giving you and your group the best possible tour experience.

Portland Walking Tours offers a number of different step-on guided tours that should appeal to all ages and interests. Take one, two, or all three tours! Each tour offers its own unique look at Oregon and are designed to entertain locals and tourists alike.

We've worked with hundreds of companies from small tour operators to cruise providers to 15 passenger vans. Our current list of satisfied clients include Vantage Deluxe World Travel, Golden Gate Tours, Toby Tours, International Seminar Design, National Trust and many more.

Click here to visit our parent company, Hometown Advantage, who specializes in this and other receptive services.

Tour Length: 3-4 hours (or longer if you choose)
Admission Costs: None
Optional Admission Costs: Chinese Garden or Pittock Mansion
Optional: Private museum visit

The “Portland Highlights Tour” is a guided three-hour excursion exploring the best that Portland has to offer. Our resident experts will unlock some of the best kept secrets of Bridge City. On the tour you will visit some of Portland’s most scenic historic districts, including Old Town-Chinatown, once the second largest Chinese-American community on the West Coast and now home to the Classical Chinese Garden; Nob Hill, one of the city’s most picturesque boutique shopping areas (sometimes called Portland’s “Rodeo Drive”; and the Pearl District, Portland’s hip new area for arts and entertainment. The tour also includes visits to the South Park Blocks in Portland’s Cultural District so you can see for yourself why Portland is often called that American city with an “European Feel” and from May to October we always include a stop by the International Rose Test Garden, the oldest such garden in the United States with over 7,000 varieties of roses on display, so that you can see (and smell) why Portland is often called the “City of Roses.”

Tour Length: 4.5 - 6 hours
Admission Costs: None
Optional Meal: Lunch at Multnomah Falls Inn or boxed lunch

On the “Columbia Gorge and Waterfalls” excursion you will experience first-hand the beauty and grandeur of the Columbia River Gorge. One of America’s most majestic waterways, our resident experts will be your guide to the rich history and breathtaking natural beauty of this area as we retrace a portion of Lewis and Clark’s epic journey through the Columbia River Gorge atop Oregon’s Historic Scenic Highway. We will visit the Vista House, perhaps the most beautiful travelers’ rest station ever built, before descending down into the gorge to visit the largest and most picturesque of the seventy-seven waterfalls lining the Oregon side of the gorge, Multnomah Falls. These falls are truly one of the country’s natural treasures, as is the adjacent Multnomah Falls Lodge (where we can stop for lunch if you would like). We then begin our return to Portland along the bottom of the gorge, providing not only a different, but equally spectacular, perspective on the natural splendor of the area, but also provides an opportunity to visit Bonneville Dam, one of the gorge’s man-made wonders.

Tour Length: 3 hours (or longer if you choose)
Meal: Light lunch incorporated into tour

Portland is a food lover’s paradise. And what better way to experience it than to nibble and sip your way through the city. Our “Epicurean Excursions” have no set route. We will work closely with you to plan a trip that will best match the interests (and tastes!) of your guests. A recent tour took us into the back of an artisan bakery where we met the bakers and sampled a crunchy baguette, a hearty levain bread, a buttery croissant, an award winning Gibassier pastry with anise & orange rind (yum!) and a triple chocolate desert pastry. We then embarked on the coach to meet the cellarmaster at a local craft brewery who simplified the brewing process before sampling 3 different beers. When we did this tour for another group, we visited a chocolatier where we tasted nibs (what chocolate is created from), minutes-old dark chocolate, and three desert pastries featuring fresh berries and cherries from this region. Then we went to an authentic Tea House where we compared and contrasted a green tea, an oolong tea and a black tea. Having real tea cookies didn’t hurt either! Other excursions have included tours a distillery, an artisan pizzeria, wine tastings and much more! All food and beverage choices on tour will be determined in advance and will appear itemized on the final invoice with no markup.

Tour Length: 6 hours
Admission Costs: Tasting Fees
Meal: Lunch at Grand Lodge

On the "Countryside Journey" you’ll get outside the city to experience the stunning natural beauty of the Willamette Valley. You’ll learn about the geologic events that carved and shaped this picturesque river valley, creating some of the richest and most fertile farmland in the country. It was this rich land that first lured the pioneers to cross the Rockies on the Oregon Trail more than 150 years ago and, more recently, it was the protection of which that led the state government to created the Urban Growth Boundary to keep it safe from urban sprawl. You won’t just see, hear, smell and feel the Oregon countryside, you’ll get to taste it! We’ll stop for lunch at the Historic Grand Lodge – a former Masonic Temple and orphanage. A building that was marked for destruction when two local brewers bought it and made it into a bed and breakfast and invited dozens of artisans to paint, sculpt, forge, garden and decorate the 13 acres of stunning and gorgeous buildings and grounds. We’ll also visit the only American-owned sakery in the world. one of the oldest wineries in the state. (The Willamette Valley produces some of the best pinot noir in the world) and one of the local farms, where depending on the season you’ll get to taste some of Oregon’s famous apples, berries, or produce for yourself. After our Countryside Journey you’ll understand why people choose to live in a place that is known for its rain!