Portland or Seattle

Portland to get the real Pac. NW feel. Seattle ,sometimes you get lost in the big city-ness of it all.

Depends on what you like doing. Either way - be sure to rent a car and drive either east or west - I'd vote east - Eastern Oregon is really breathtaking.

Portland

I lived in both in the late 80s/early 90s. While I enjoy visiting Seattle, I preferred living in Portland. Not sure these days with all the out of state hipster-types that have moved there, but in the early 90s it was great

I don't know much about Seattle, but I can help with Portland.

It's not the best time to visit since things are shut down like the Columbia River Gorge which is 45 minutes from downtown Portland and is stunning. There are some amazing waterfalls and a lot of good, but streneous hiking trails. I don't know if it will open up later this summer or not, the trails can be narrow in places and it gets a lot of visitors.

Parts of downtown Portland is boarded up due to the protests.

The Oregon Coast is gorgeous and is about 1.5 hours from Portland. The beaches are huge and are owned by he public. Be sure and check out Cannon Beach, it has cute little stores and the beach is really nice. Also, at low tide go to Hug Point, it's maybe 5 miles south of Cannon Beach.

Eastern Oregon is more like Idaho than Oregon, it is Trump country. The Wallowa Mountains are beautiful but you really need to backpack in to see it. It's a 6 - 7 hour drive from Portland.

If you want to do a waterfall hike, definitely go to Silver Falls State Park, you can walk behind waterfalls on a 7 mile loop hike. It is currently open.

Mount Hood is about a 2 hour drive from Portland up to the snow line. Timberline lodge is a work of art, it was built by the WPA during the depression. If you are up there, go to Trillium Lake. It has a beautiful view of Mt. Hood with a nice reflection of it. The water is warm enough to swim by July.

Portland, with the smell of shit in the air!

You can do both pretty easily. And visit Mt. St. Helens on the way.