City Guide: Portland
Lounging, swimming, sweating, praying — HG readers share their favorite spots.
Welcome to Health Gossip’s city guides. Each edition will feature favorite spots from our community in a given locale, collected in a shared Google Maps folder. This resource is living, meaning that it’ll be updated regularly. If you have any spots you’d like to add, get in touch.
City Guide: Portland
Our first stop is Portland, Oregon — a city so easy to caricature that I’ve always wondered if there’s more to the story. In my Wesleyan days, I associated it with Reed, house shows, and the Goodwill Bins. Today, writing from Chicago, I’m more so drawn to the surrounding nature: the Pacific Northwest at large, the prospect of maybe living not in but near a city, one that’s within reach of the ocean, and the mountains, and California…the list goes on.
Before we dive in, here’s a little background on our guides — Bella, who I actually went to college with but only recently reconnected with through the newsletter (she cites Nora’s interview as the reason behind here wanting to go to acupuncture school 🥹); and Alessandra, a talented nail artist and recommendation by way of Maggie.
Enjoy ⛰️☁️🍃
Meet our guides
Bella Wiener (@forestgrapes)
Time in Portland: 6 years
How does Portland’s health + wellness landscape compare to other places you’ve lived?
I grew up in Bend, Oregon. Health was the air, runners on every road, bikes leaning against trees, Subarus with kayaks strapped down. In my memory it was casual, a little ragged, a little homemade. People were dedicated, yes, but always in hand-me-down fleece.
Now, when I go back, it feels different. Health is the performance, the whole identity.
Connecticut was the opposite. Four years on a college campus, health was a chore you scheduled between obligations. We walked everywhere and ate well enough, but there wasn’t much time to notice the world.
Portland feels closer to the Bend I knew as a kid. Slower, softer. Plans revolve around the outdoors, but no one’s making a religion out of it. Wellness exists, but as a backdrop, not the main event.
What first drew you to living here?
After college I nearly joined the Wesleyan-to-Brooklyn pipeline. But in one of those moments that feels like someone cracked a window in your brain, I realized I wanted Oregon back. Portland gave me both a city with food and art, and the ability to vanish into the forest in under an hour.
How do you most like to spend your days?
Fall / winter (rainy /dark):
Mornings start with the red light panel. Weeks can go by without sun. I get (decaf) coffee or matcha from the shop where my boyfriend works. My hands and feet run cold from Raynaud’s, so before walking I rub in a cinnamon oil blend and do the “hot feet” dance my naturopath, Cari, taught me. Then I set out: Laurelhurst Park to watch the ducks, the rose garden circles, or Mt. Tabor park, where the trees mute the rain.
Warm pilates and hot yoga keep me afloat in the rainiest months. For an hour it feels like Costa Rica, and it only costs $20. Modo is my favorite — especially Cara’s pilates classes. Other days I disappear into a sauna. Some nights I go to Barn Radio and dance until the fog machine chokes the room and I have to step outside.
Winter is heavy, but you learn how to carry it.
Spring / summer (warm / light):
I love Portland spring. The world just breaks open, spilling a kind of amnesiatic light that makes you forget the last weeks of rain. The first magnolia bloom is enough to make me believe again. I wake early, water the garden, read, pet my cat, drink warm water. I sit on the porch with my neighbors. I play with the four-year-old two doors down. I was laid off in June, so for the first time in years I have a true summer. Water is the center of everything. I swim until my skin prunes, walk the same routes but lighter now — no oil on my feet, no extra layers.
Evenings stretch: cooking with my boyfriend, long after-dinner walks, ice cream-bound walks.
Alessandra Rosette (@rosettetoes)
Time in Portland: 5 years
How does Portland’s health + wellness landscape compare to other places you’ve lived?
First thing’s first: the elements. The minute you step out of your car or plane for the first time out here is such a shock in that way. You immediately realize you’ve been missing out on something — the air's smell, how crisp it is, how suspiciously good it feels to take a deep breath. Water is second, best water I’ve ever tasted. I’ll never forget drinking well water in Olympia the first time — there’s lore surrounding it, which I always thought was cute: you drink from it, you stay forever. Portland’s is definitely up there. I can only describe it as sweet. It can be easy to forget how special it is until I go back home to Paterson, New Jersey, where they just recently experienced a large water main break which led to a water boil advisory, and generally lacks an abundance of green — not to mention resources. The amount of green out here is abysmal, it also does something to you. Colors help — as bleak as it is for most of the year in the Northwest, you can still feed your eyes with all of the moss and tiny flowers and succulents growing out of every tiny sidewalk crack.
Naturally, the Northwest’s general culture (outerwear is definitely favored over designer bags) and all the people who feel drawn here make Portland a mecca for all kinds of wellness-related things: saunas, soaking tubs, hypnotherapists, float tanks, Lacanian therapists, sound baths, naturopaths, etc. It’s actually incredible — I struggled with digestive issues for so long, and out here was the first and only place where I had as many options for functional medicine care covered by insurance (!) as I ever did in my life. It was the first and only place I felt like I didn’t have to constantly push and advocate for myself and finally be given the space, information, and tools to heal, be that physically or mentally. You can ask virtually anyone on the street for an acupuncturist recommendation, and probably something like 85% of people will have one for you. Easy access to mountains, lakes, rivers, etc is also another huge one. I've only ever swam in the clearest rivers here, never the shore like back home. Only ever camped at the most picturesque locations, too — it's almost like you don't have an option.
What first drew you to living here?
This is the perfect place to experience a Saturn return. A general lack drove me to living here. I was in New Jersey still, where I had lived my whole life since I moved to the US. I had a car, transferable job, a lot of environmental stress, and a good friend who needed a roommate. There’s only so much romanticizing and exploring you can do after 20 years in such a small state. And sure, New York was New York, and right there, but I never shared the same young drive to move there. It felt like I'd seen enough, even at 23. I now realize I was secretly seeking a different type of discomfort – people would often warn against the constant clouds and rain, and I knew I would struggle with it too, but also knew I would only allow myself to find that out (and actually listen) through my own uncomfortable experience. I’d say at first, I wanted to get as far away as possible from everything I knew. I always felt best outside of my element anyway. Growing up where I did was particularly difficult. If I wanted to go on a pretty walk, I’d have to drive around 20 minutes to the nearest upper-middle class town or drive up to my favorite state forest. Splurging on bergamot candy or fancy chocolate at an upscale grocery store (shoutout Providore) wasn’t an option.
Living here also significantly regulated my nervous system. The stereotype of everything being a little on the slower side is very real. After 5 years, my driving has become less aggressive, I don’t honk, I’m late (very unlike me) to everything. I sometimes find myself beginning to miss loud music from every car and people yelling out of their windows to their friends on the sidewalk, but it takes about 2 days of being back home to experience the constant chaos and remember why I left. Life in the Northwest can easily put you “in a bubble,” but I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing for some. I think I needed it, even though it was such a challenge. It now feels like an exercise in how “good” I have it. It has taught me to appreciate the things I take for granted more than anywhere I can imagine ever could.
How do you most like to spend your days?
I work a 9-5 at a mushroom supplement company. Most if not all the free time I have in everyday life is dedicated to very long walks, phone calls, nails, sewing, or surprise mail for my friends. Hobbies are important when you have clouds most of the year. Every second the sun is out is spent outside. Exploring all of Washington and Oregon is all I would do if my schedule wasn't so restrictive. It's so much fun to drive through all of the quaint coastal towns and pretend you're Bella Swan.
Portland Recommendations
KEY
★ = by Bella
♥ = by Alessandra
♦ = by others
* = honorable mention (not in Portland proper)