Sunday, March 18, 2007

Heathman Hotel

My favorite hotel in Portland, the Heathman is all class. Upon entering the lobby you are greeted by one of thier personal concierges. The idea behind this being you need one contact throughout most of your stay. The same person that checks you in, also takes your bags to your room, and helps with anything you might need during thier shift.
The best thing about the hotel are the beds. They have a choice of mattresses, tempurpedic (for those who like a firmer bed and don't like to feel the person next to them moving), featherbeds (for those who, like me, enjoy the feeling of squishiness and fluff when they sleep) and pillowtops (for that something in between feeling). If you know what kind of bed you prefer, indicate at the time you make your reservation. The staff are very accomodating about taking you to different rooms to try out the various beds.
Room sizes at the hotel vary considerably. The deluxe king and queen rooms are small. Not much room to walk around the bed or armoir. Splurge the extra $20 and upgrade to the executive King or 2 Queens. That room will give you plenty of room to walk in the room, a desk, and a seating area. The executive King rooms ending in 04 are the best in my opinion, they have windows on two walls giving you plenty of light and a good view of Broadway. The rooms ending in 24 give you a good view of the hills and the theater. The symphony suite has a completely seperate sitting area, divided from the bedroom with pocket french doors. But also has a pull out sofa, nice if you are 3 people.
All rooms have free highspeed internet, but not wireless, that is accessible in the public areas of the hotel.
Another nice touch is the dvd collection the hotel offers, ask the concierge for a list of the movies. You then just call down from your room, they put your movie of choice in and tell you what channel it will be on.
The fitness room is small, but gets the job done, I've never had anyone else in there with me so getting a machine is not a problem.
Location? Prime for shopping, only a couple blocks from Nordtrom, Pioneer Square, and the giant mall. You can catch the MAX Lightrail in Pioneer Square, to go pretty much anywhere in the greater Portland area (it also goes to the airport, that is about an hour ride). A couple blocks in the other direction and you are at one of the streetcar stops that will take you to the Pearl and NW23rd for all the shopping and eating those neighborhoods offer. Streetcar to the Pearl (a fairly quick ride) still falls within the fareless square, which means free rides both ways. Even heading out of the fareless square is $1.70 (for a 2 hour ticket), tickets are purchased on the train. In the opposite direction the same streetcar will take you up to the South Waterfront.
There are a couple albums with local restaurant menus in the lobby, these being the finer of the local restaurants. Speaking of which, the Heathman boasts a fine restaurant of its own. For a healthy breakfast I recommend the homemade granola and yogurt, the portion size is extremely filling. I've eaten enough dinners there to say I've never had a bad dish. Room service prices are higher than the restaurant, and the restaurant is never awkward alone, so no real reason to order room service, unless you want to spend a few extra dollars.
They also keep your preferences from visit to visit in thier computer, so if you want to have chocolate and apples waiting for you on each visit, they will have it for you.

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