If your inner cool kid is calling out for a vacation, the west coast of America has all the microbreweries, bikes and cat yoga you need
- Fly into: Seattle, Washington
- Stop off in: Portland, Oregon
- Fly out of: San Francisco, California
- Distance covered: 810 miles
Stop 1: Seattle, Washington
Smells like entrepreneurial spirit. Seattle may have spawned big corporations such as Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing, but data analysts Infogroup crowned it the “World’s Most Hipster City” – it has the highest concentration of microbreweries, record-stores and tattoo parlours anywhere on the planet. What better place to fly into to start your hipster-themed trip around the States?
Many of these micro-businesses occupy former car-repair shops in Capitol Hill. It’s micro-everything here. Within a few blocks, there’s micro-distillery Sun Liquor; micro-avant-garde record store Wall of Sound; microbreweries so miniscule they’re “nano-breweries”, such as Outer Planet; plus enough micro-roasteries to caffeinate the continent – see Victrola’s lab-like roasting room; or Vivace’s latte art.
The neighbourhood also has more dive bars than you can shake a PBR can at, including Linda’s Tavern – the unofficial headquarters for Seattle’s 1990s’ grunge scene. Decorated with arcade games and taxidermy, the bar was allegedly the last place Kurt Cobain was seen alive. Nirvana nuts will also find a spiritual home at Hotel Max whose Sub Pop Records-themed rooms are equipped with Crosley record-players and vinyl by the era-defining label.
For nostalgia-driven souvenirs, grungy plaid shirts aplenty can be found in the University District’s vintage stores. Second-hand bookshops, such as Magnus Books also do well in this boho patch. And analogue-loving trendsters who stage VHS nights will be smitten by Scarecrow, the US’s largest video store, with 130,000 films in stock.
- The wall of gum; the Museum of Pop Culture
In the neighbouring Fremont area, things get quirkier. Obeying the local motto “De Libertas Quirkas” (“freedom to be peculiar”), the best time to witness Fremont’s freakiness is its annual Summer Solstice Parade in June, where stilt-walkers, puppeteers and body-painted cyclists come out in force. The rest of the year, visitors can enjoy Sunday morning flea markets, even more microbreweries, plus offbeat statues (think 18-foot tall trolls and giant 1950s’ rockets). You’d expect nothing less. After all, what other city would have a wall covered in used chewing gum (Gum Wall, in Post Alley) and a museum resembling a sliced-up guitar (Museum of Pop Culture) among its main tourist attractions? Being alternative in Seattle is the norm. To paraphrase Cobain, just come as you are.
- Portland - a cycle-friendly city
Stop 2: Portland, Oregon
Grab a hire car from Avis and make the three-hour drive to Portland – a city so ridiculously hip it spawned a parody TV show, Portlandia. And it’s no surprise. Hit the streets and you’ll find cat yoga and the world’s first vegan mini-mall. But there’s substance behind the satire: many of the world’s most hipster trends have prospered here.
Take food carts, for example – in Portland, these take the form of caravan-style food cart “pods”. The city’s now renowned culinary cart scene offers a bewildering array of global cuisine: bulgogi burritos, Bosnian cabbage rolls, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches, heck, even Israeli poutine.
Portland also helped pioneer the craft beer revolution (recent figures suggest 60 to 70-and-counting breweries). There’s a wealth of experimentation happening here: a Breakside Brewery tasting flight could include pinot noir barrel-aged beer, mango IPAs or salted-caramel stouts. Such is Portland’s beer bounty, it’s easy to forget it borders one of America’s best wine regions: Willamette valley, whose winery tasting rooms rival their urban, hop-heavy counterparts. Kimpton Hotel Vintage Portland, with its free wine socials, offers the perfect refuge.
- Kimpton Hotel Vintage
Baristas are rock stars in Portland; hardly surprising given local Stumptown Coffee’s trailblazing role in the third-wave coffee movement (think nerding out over Kalita Waves). There’s also a running coffee tour (“exercise while learning about Portland’s micro-roasters,” they say) – or Courier Coffee delivers java by bicycle.
Ah, cycling. Portland is one of the most cycle-friendly cities in the US, with 350 miles of bike lanes, with one of the highest figures for bike commuters in the country and cycling events throughout the year from the Bride Pedal to the Tweed Ride. Its Instagram-ready location, framed by dormant volcano Mount Hood and near to Columbia River gorge, makes it ideal for outdoorsy types too. Stock up at hipster hiking brand Poler Stuff before heading out.
- Ray’s Ragtime Hollywood; Fat Fancy
The best way to approach Portland? Like a local. Scour residential vintage stores Ray’s Ragtime Hollywood or plus-sized Fat Fancy (local Beth Ditto is a fan). Browse Portland’s bookstores, whether it’s Powell’s Books (the world’s largest indie bookseller) or independent feminist bookshop and event space In Other Words. Portland might have been parodied as somewhere “young people retire” (Portlandia, again), but within days you’ll be working out how to join them …
- The Maestrapeace mural on the Women’s Building in the Mission District of San Francisco
Stop 3: San Francisco
Grab a domestic flight from Portland to San Francisco. When the city was the epicentre of the 1950s’ beat scene, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac would sprinkle it into every wine-and-jive-fuelled conversation. The North Beach area is still redolent of that era, with poetry-scribbling, beret-wearing hepcats propping up Caffe Trieste or Chinese cocktail dive Li Po. Learn more at the wonderful Beat Museum, while City Lights Bookstore keeps radicalism alive with sections entitled “commodity aesthetics” and shelves stacked with zines.
Contemporary cool crowds are more likely to be spotted in the Mission district, clutching macchiatos from Ritual Coffee Roasters en route to playing frisbee in Dolores Park. The district’s Latino culture has resulted in mural-coated bodegas (also see open-air Clarion Alley’s constantly-evolving street-art) and superb food – La Taqueria’s bungalow-sized burritos are mandatory Mission fare. Don’t leave without visiting author Dave Eggers’ non-profit pirate-supply store, 826 Valencia, or sampling “secret breakfast” ice-cream (bourbon and cornflake flavour) from Humphry Slocombe. And, yes, it is named after the 1970s’ British sitcom (Are You Being Served?).
- Pirate supply store 826 Valencia; ice-cream at Humphry Slocombe
The Bay Area’s countercultural vibe is arguably most alive in Oakland. Arty types who can’t afford San Fran’s tech-boom prices have moved to the so-called “Brooklyn by the Bay”. Many have set up boho boutiques, barbers or shrub-tasting classes in Temescal Alleys. Try Hotel Zephyr for a place to stay, with a great location on Fisherman’s Wharf. Kombucha and ukuleles at the ready …
For more inspiration and to book your trip to the US, visit ba.com/usa
