Hilton Athletic Club

This is the Hilton’s pool, spa and exercise equipment combined and dressed up to be marketed as a «Health Club.» We were just guests trying to get a hot soak before bed.
The lovely stainless steel hot tub nearly killed me, thank god for sturdy hand rails! Water on polished metal is probably very sanitary and pretty but also surprisingly slippery– bad choice for stairs! The few grips on it are peeling off, and forget trying to get your swimsuit to grip sufficiently on the steel seat once you get in. Ugh.
You need to surrender your hotel key here to get a locker. So while you are working out here you have the possibility of having your room burglarized. The long waiver you need to sign to get wet probably releases them from liability. But I digress…
If your room is in the «tower» (newer brick building), you will need to walk a block outside in the Portland weather to get here. So plan on most of that nice warm heat from the tub being a memory by the time you get back to your room. And you gotta dress up enough to navigate two hotel lobbies and the outdoors in order to get here. But flip flops and robe might fit in just fine on the Portland streets, we saw a LOT worse…
The workout equipment looked fairly recent and well maintained, the pool is a little on the cool side but workable. Staff woman from Hawaii was friendly after getting through the entire gauntlet just to use the tub.
In all, an average hotel pool and fitness center rolled into one. But be sure to use the safe in your room before heading over…