Slow Travel Review: Portland, Maine, USA – The Land Of Deliciousness

I have been slowly stepping out of my comfort zone after quitting my job. First it was moving across the country from Washington to Georgia. Then it was seeing if I liked living in a tiny house. Then it was moving to the major city of Atlanta to see it in a way that even being born and raised in Georgia didn’t allow me to.

And now it’s living in a city that I’ve never even visited, in a state that I’ve barely driven through. Enter Portland, Maine. My partner suggested that we add this city to our nomad travel list and I’m so happy he did.

Portland is an absolutely fascinating city that I never considered previously. Unbeknownst to me, it has all of the things I love about my favorite cities. So let’s get into specifics:

Walkability

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t own a car by choice so one of our considerations when moving to locations is how walkable they are. Portland is a shockingly walkable city. It’s mostly flat and has sidewalks absolutely everywhere.

I was surprised to discover that I can walk from one end of Portland to the other (it’s a peninsula) in about an hour. However, despite that relatively small area, I still wasn’t able to walk every street and visit every place I wanted to in the month we were there. I’ll never scoff at a ‘small’ city again 🙂 .

Inclusivity

I must admit that I had some preconceived notions about Maine before we moved here, but based on what I saw in Portland, I’m going to need to eat crow. Our first morning walking around the city, I was shocked to see that in almost every yard and window there were BLM signs and updated LGBTQ+ flags…this did not match the stereotype in my mind 🙂 .

I was also bracing myself for how I would be treated in Maine, knowing that it is a very predominantly white state (94.4% white to be exact). Well, despite my initial thought that a lack of diversity would lead to me being treated poorly, I will admit that I was wrong.

I felt at home in Portland, Maine. Everyone was kind, I didn’t get any weird looks and I was treated the same as other customers when I entered shops for example (which is not the case everywhere let me tell you…). I was very pleasantly surprised with how comfortable I felt in Portland.

Nature

One of the reasons we wanted to stay in Portland proper was because of the natural beauty around it. Portland is a peninsula surrounded by water, which I knew before we landed. What I did not know was how green the city was. There were gorgeous trees, flowers, parks and cemeteries everywhere I turned.

Yeah I'm gonna be that asshole: Happy Monday! pic.twitter.com/P47R84sXWg

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) May 10, 2021

Between that fact and the abundance of water and natural spaces where anyone can hang out for free, I was extremely impressed with how much nature this city possesses. I never felt like I was in a ‘city’ – it felt more like a natural paradise.

Food

I mentioned in my May Monthly Recap that I was negligent with doing my research before arriving in Portland because I had no idea that it was a foodie paradise. It’s been ranked by food magazines as some of the best food in the country and it definitely lived up to those expectations.

It seemed like basically everything we ate was the best of that category that I’ve ever eaten. I couldn’t believe how delicious everything was. I’ve never had such consistently yummy food in my life. While I was writing this post I went on a very long tangent about how yummy the food is and as a result I’ve decided to just write an entire post about my Portland food recommendations – so look out for that post coming out soon 😉 .

Beer

Another fact I had somehow missed before landing in Portland is that it’s a beer haven. I kept noticing that every restaurant seemed to only have beers from Portland proper on the menu – and they were all from different local breweries.

Well it turns out that Portland has the most breweries per capita of anywhere in the US, and their selection of brews is extremely varied and delicious. I feel like I need to go back just to make sure I try all the different breweries…actually that’s a good idea 😉 .

Architecture

One of the first things I noticed about Portland was how varied its architecture is. Like many cities in the northeastern US, Portland has a lot of colonial history. Walking from one street to another I would be reminded of classic architecture from cities such as DC, Philly and NYC. At times, Portland’s architecture even reminded me of Seattle. It’s a lovely little melting pot.

If you’re an architecture nerd, Portland is a lovely place to be. Most of the buildings on the west end of the city are from the 1800s and there are numerous lists and self-guided tours you can take to see it all. Overall, I was surprised and delighted by the variety and beauty of the buildings in this city.

Cost

I like to base estimates on solid facts and that’s why I began my retirement calculations by assuming I would continue living my awesome HCOL life in Seattle, which cost $18,000 a year. I then added 11% on top of that amount just in case, to come to a round $20,000 for my annual retirement budget.

This padded assumption also adds another cushion to my plan because most places in the USA and especially the world, are cheaper to live in than Seattle, Washington. Here’s how Portland, Maine stacks up:

Lodging 

Cost: $1,605.945 each

As I mentioned above, we got a bigger and more expensive place than usual and were happy that we did so we could open our nomad home to others and enjoy company after so many months of isolation.

Overall, there are a lot of Airbnb options in Portland proper, though I would recommend booking far in advance if you’re looking for a month long summer stay like we were because it is a peak time that will go quickly and be more expensive than the winter months.

Food

Grocery Cost: $132.28

We barely bought groceries in Portland. When we arrived, we got an Instacart order and then we went to Trader Joe’s, but those were the only times we actually did grocery runs. My partner popped into a Save-A-Lot once and we bought some staples from a local shop, but that’s it. Most of our food was from eating out and the subsequent leftovers. Not frugal, but delicious 😉 .

Eating Out Cost: $435.37

This is unsurprisingly high given all the information above. Portland is a foodie haven and I don’t regret a dollar of it. Despite exploring all the food we could, there are still places on my list to try. Start the countdown to our return!

Alcohol Cost: $135.67

Also not surprising given how unique and abundant types of alcoholic beverages were in Portland. This is also the first time we felt comfortable going to a few restaurants, which increased the cost a bit. I’m happy to pay it though 🙂 .

Transit

Cost: $10 each

This is just half the cost of a taxi from the very nearby Portland airport. As I mentioned, Portland is an extremely walkable city. You can walk to any part of it in under an hour. There was also an abundance of buses that we noticed, but didn’t use because we didn’t need to and prefer walking if it’s an option. However, if we wanted to venture a little outside of Portland proper we would use the buses more.

Weird Caveats

Every place has their own weird quirks. Let’s get into Portland’s:

Car Transit

This basically says it all:

Things I learned our first night in Portland, ME:
1. There aren't any airport Ubers at 11pm
2. Taxis here don't take credit cards
3. Our driver seemed to genuinely "forget to turn on the meter", but luckily my partner caught it (#scam?)
…What even is Maine👀🦞🤷🏾‍♀️?

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) April 28, 2021

Despite my research and planning confirming that Uber operates in Portland, there were no Ubers to be found when we landed at the airport. It was the first time I saw the alert “No Cars Available” on the app.

Luckily there was a nearby taxi stand where the line wasn’t very long and the airport is just across the river from the city proper, so it wasn’t expensive. I asked a few locals about this phenomenon and they said that there doesn’t seem to be enough demand for Uber, even when they increase the prices to incentivize drivers.

So we adjusted our tactics and adapted back to a taxi-focused world! One of the friends that visited even called a cab company and scheduled a pick up in advance – it’s basically the ‘good ole days’ 😉 .

Recreational Marijuana

Recreational marijuana is fully legal in Maine (and all the states in dark green below).

However, like all places – it has its quirks. Maine does not allow medical and recreational marijuana to be sold at the same location. As a result, I kept rolling up to weed shops in Portland only to discover that they were medical only (and understandably for that reason they wouldn’t let me inside). Well, after taking to Twitter, you wonderful folks helped me out:

Maybe this will help? It’s from last year but at least two stores in S Portland that were licensed for rec as of 10/9/20 https://t.co/AIUc9Hr3FW

— Millennial Outrage (@totesoutraged) April 29, 2021

We found the only recreational weed shop in Portland proper: SeaWeed Co! Other shops seemed to be close to the airport and less accessible. There were also weird rules about recreational weed not being able to be delivered – there are threads on Reddit about how the company delivering to you is taking the liability, but that’s not something we wanted to risk. So! Instead we found this lovely shop and got all our needs met:

We acquired some legal devil’s lettuce! However, if you’re budget conscious, this might be a state you don’t want to restock your stash in. We were intrigued to find that weed in Maine is about double the price of what it is in Washington.

I’m not sure if that’s a reflection of east coast vs west coast prices in general or if it’s just Maine, but it’s something to keep in mind. I was happy to pay the extra in taxes to help roads and schools and things, but that is something I wanted to point out while we’re still pretending this is a finance blog 😉 .

Conclusion

And that’s what I learned after living in Portland, Maine for a month! We loved it so much that we’re thinking about adding it to our annual rotation and continuing the food-filled extravaganza that we enjoyed in May. Until next time, this was my Slow Travel Review 😉 .

What’s an awesome city that surprised you?