New Tourist Hotspot: Setting Of 'Life Unexpected' Portland, Orgeon

The CW's newest show Life Unexpected premieres tonight on WPIX at 9pm. The show is already getting a lot of buzz and so is the city it takes place in -- Portland, Oregon. This Pacific northwest destination drew nearly 9 million visitors last year, up 25 percent from 2006. Beth Collins from Budget Travel Magazine was here to talk more about traveling to the Cty of Portland.

Price check: A recent Kayak search found round-trip flights in May as low as $199 from Long Beach (JetBlue), $220 from New York City (Delta), and $300 from Miami (Delta). Arty accommodations include the music-and-local-history-themed Crystal Hotel, slated to open this summer (mcmenamins.com, under $100); the year-and-a-half-old Hotel Modera (hotelmodera.com, from $99); and the hip Ace, where perks include free bikes (acehotel.com, from $110). Consider skipping the rental car: The MAX light rail connects the airport to downtown for only $2.30, and you can travel by rail throughout the downtown for free.

Main events: The renowned Portland Classical Chinese Garden marks its 10th anniversary with 10 days of free admission (portlandchinesegarden.org, Jan. 2-11). More than 120,000 music fans attend the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival every year (waterfrontbluesfest.com, July 2-5); the suggested donation of $10 and two cans of food per day will benefit the Oregon Food Bank. Nearly every weekend brings an offbeat event like the Portland Pirate Festival, which last year set a world record for most "pirates" gathered in one spot (portlandpiratefestival.com, Sept. 18-19, from $12).

Memorable moment: Line up at one of roughly 400 food carts citywide and sample everything from quinoa-hempseed pancakes at the Ruby Dragon (therubydragonpdx.blogspot.com, $3.50) to BBQ brisket pie at Whiffies Fried Pies (whiffies.com, $4). Wash your food down with a pint at the Widmer Brothers brewery, which ignited Portland's craft-beer obsession when it opened in 1984 (widmer.com, free tours and tastings Fridays and Saturdays). Rent a bike and live like a local, tooling around on the city's many trails and paths (Portland Bicycle Tours, portlandbicycletours.com, from $20 a day).

The city's locavore-friendly food scene is starting to rival Seattle's and San Francisco's; notable newcomers include butcher-shop-cum-hip-steakhouse Laurelhurst Market (laurelhurstmarket.com) and the tavern Ned Ludd, praised for using Luddite (or low-tech) means of preparing classic comfort foods (nedluddpdx.com).

For more on Portland and other destinations, check out Budget Travel Magazine or visit www.budgettravel.com.

Be sure to catch the series debut of Life Unexpected tonight at 9pm on WPIX.