Level 2 charging near Portland Zoo (Washington Park area)

[acarney]

Any Portland locals or regular visitors able to provide some input? Thinking about heading down to Portland on Sunday just for fun and thought I might hit the zoo. I’ve got an SR+ and am coming from the Tri Cities. A ~22 minute charge in The Dalles should get me to the zoo with ~30% charge left. I’m going to try to stay downtown, and Hilton is my preferred brand. I don’t really want to valet my car and the couple Hilton properties that are reasonable (~$170) and don’t require valet don’t have any chargers. Was hoping to charge at the zoo or within walking distance to the zoo since I plan to head up to Seattle on Monday...

Any input on good (and safe) locations I could use?

 

[IdaX]

Try PlugShare.com . I don’t see anything near the zoo at all, although plenty of options closer to downtown...

 

[acarney]

Try PlugShare.com . I don’t see anything near the zoo at all, although plenty of options closer to downtown...

Ya, I gave that a look... guess I was looking for any local advice or from people that visit often.

Looks like there are a handful of Blink chargers at a few downtown garages but they would run about $25 to $30 and I also would be ~30 minutes from my car so not able to move it quickly if it’s done and I notice that location full.

Most the others I saw all mentioned needing to valet and I’ve read a few horror stories at different garages in Portland where the valets were horrible and scratched cars pretty bad and then just didn’t care....

I may just try to gamble and charge enough in the Dalles to hold me over one night in Portland and just make it up to the Vancouver WA supercharger the next morning on my way up to Seattle.

 

[N8DGR8]

Park downtown and use the TriMet. TriMet gets you discounted admission.

Hotel deLux is $18, the sign says Valet Only. When I asked 4 years ago, they said not to worry.

 

[BarryL]

PlugShare is your friend.

My favorite parking garage downtown is Southgate Garage. They have a bunch of Tesla HPWC and Blink.

As I recall they charge an extra $5 to charge if you use HPWC. The Blink J1772 is whatever rip-off Blink rates are $.59/kWH as I recall. Think overnight parking is $15 or $20, +$5 for charging. I do believe in/out privileges are included & valet. I always self parked.

The Hilton is within walking distance 5-8 mins..

 

[acarney]

PlugShare is your friend.

My favorite parking garage downtown is Southgate Garage. They have a bunch of Tesla HPWC and Blink.

As I recall they charge an extra $5 to charge if you use HPWC. The Blink J1772 is whatever rip-off Blink rates are $.59/kWH as I recall. Think overnight parking is $15 or $20, +$5 for charging. I do believe in/out privileges are included & valet. I always self parked.

The Hilton is within walking distance 5-8 mins..

Ya... that was going to be my pick except I had heard from a few Tesla owners that the valet was bad. A few reports scratches and a few reported the valets being rushed, pushy, and very little English. I think a couple even said stuff was missing from inside the car.

Its frustrating that it’s valet only since otherwise it seems perfect! Good location, Tesla chargers, overnight if I want that option, good price. The other Blink locations would be like $25 and then I would have to move the car to park overnight which would be like another $20-$40...

 

[ptronus31]

Going a bit out of your way from Tri-Cities to stop at the Vancouver, WA Supercharger then on to downtown Portland would allow you to arrive with 80% or better SoC. Then you could stay/park wherever you want. I used abetterrouteplanner.com for this plan.

 

[N8DGR8]

We have stayed and charged at Both the Portland Marriott and Skamania Lodge without any problem.

 

[ilovemycoffee]

We have stayed at the Embassy Suites on SW Pine, and valeted our MS. No problems with the parking, but Hilton properties have really jacked up their prices.

 

[floatplane]

PlugShare is your friend.

My favorite parking garage downtown is Southgate Garage. They have a bunch of Tesla HPWC and Blink.

As I recall they charge an extra $5 to charge if you use HPWC. The Blink J1772 is whatever rip-off Blink rates are $.59/kWH as I recall. Think overnight parking is $15 or $20, +$5 for charging. I do believe in/out privileges are included & valet. I always self parked.

The Hilton is within walking distance 5-8 mins..

The attitude to have about “expensive” level 2 charging is that you’re on a road trip. If you’re like me, you probably don’t do this more than 3 or 4 times a year, so paying more occasionally should just be seen as a minor thing compared to what you save day after day when charging at home. You’re probably still paying less than if you had to pay for gas.

I seem to recall L2 charging at the Lloyd Center while taking advantage of tax-free shopping for several hours last time I was in Portland. And don’t forget Tigard has urban supercharger if you want to shop there and get a decent charging rate.

 

[acarney]

The attitude to have about “expensive” level 2 charging is that you’re on a road trip. If you’re like me, you probably don’t do this more than 3 or 4 times a year, so paying more occasionally should just be seen as a minor thing compared to what you save day after day when charging at home. You’re probably still paying less than if you had to pay for gas.

I seem to recall L2 charging at the Lloyd Center while taking advantage of tax-free shopping for several hours last time I was in Portland. And don’t forget Tigard has urban supercharger if you want to shop there and get a decent charging rate.

Ya, I just didn’t feel like dropping $25 to charge and than another $35 to $45 to park the car overnight. That’s too expensive for the convenience of not wanting to hit a supercharger first thing in the morning before heading up to Seattle.

Instead I ended up staying just outside Portland (at a Best Western at the Meadows) which had four Tesla destination chargers and a couple ChargePoint or something, and free parking, and a rate under $100/night. I figured traffic in and out of downtown wouldn’t be bad on a Sunday night and I was right, 15 minutes if not less. Of course some a-hole contractor parked his giant F350 with trailer across ALL the EV spots (even though 30 feet further away from the building had 10+ spaces empty that he could have used). Thank goodness Tesla has like 20 foot cables and I was able to park about 4 spaces away from his trailer (so he didn’t just back into my car if he left before me) and stretch the cable all the way over to my car.

Enjoyed Portland for the day, had a late night vegan dinner (one of the few places open at 10pm on a Sunday) called if a night around 15% and woke up the next day fully charged. Hit Auburn supercharger at 20% (made good efficiency!) and spent a couple hours at the Museum of Flight before heading to Hampton Inn Northgate with their 4 EV charging spots and less than $200/night. (It also happens to only be about 15 minutes from the Neptune Theater).

100% was brilliant on Tesla’s part to push destination charging. I base almost all my hotel stays now on which location has chargers and it’s actually changing my habits a little bit (so far always for the better).