Porto

Porto is a granite city hanging over the Douro: the Ribeira down by the water, the upper town around Clérigos above it, and across the river, in Vila Nova de Gaia, the lodges where its wine ages. It is smaller and steeper than Lisbon, and its historic center has been a World Heritage Site since 1996.

Our experience

We stayed three nights. We arrived on May 14 on the Alfa Pendular from Lisbon and left on the 17th on a 7:05 flight to Seville, as we tell in day 8.

Day 5 was the upper town and the Ribeira: São Bento, francesinha, Clérigos, the Bolsa, São Francisco, dinner by the river and sunset at the Passeio das Virtudes. On day 6, the longest, we walked about 8 km between Lello, Bolhão, the Sé, the bridge, a tasting at Graham’s and an hour of fado. Day 7 we spent in the valley, as we tell in our Douro Valley guide, and we got back in time for another sunset at the Passeio and a dinner of charcoal-grilled fish in the Ribeira.

How to plan the days

Our rule was up high early and down low at the end of the day. From Clérigos to the river there is a drop of about 80 meters, so we chained our visits downhill whenever we could.

The first day starts at São Bento, four minutes from Campanhã on the urban train. Next come Carmo and the Torre dos Clérigos, 100 meters from each other, and on the way down, the Miradouro da Vitória. The Palácio da Bolsa and São Francisco share a wall and go back to back, the Bolsa first because its last tour is early. The Ribeira, in the afternoon light.

On the second day, Livraria Lello at 9:00, because by mid-morning it is a shoulder-to-shoulder line. Then Bolhão and the Capela das Almas. By mid-morning the clock is in charge: we went to Santa Clara first, since it closes at 12:30, and at the Sé we did the cloisters before the church. The afternoon was for Gaia and the bridge.

The third day was the Douro. If you only have two days, drop the valley before the Bolsa or the Ribeira. And if you come back with energy, the Crystal Palace Gardens are about 600 meters from Miragaia; in our plan they were optional before sunset.

What to eat and where

The francesinha is the city’s dish: bread, cured meats, steak, melted cheese and a beer-and-tomato sauce. We had it at Café Santiago, number one on Time Out Porto’s 2025 list, for about €12 to €15. They take no reservations and close on Sundays: get there before one o’clock and order it without the egg the first time.

For breakfast, standing at the counter of Padaria Ribeiro, open since 1878: coffee, a pastel de nata and a pastel de Chaves, the minced-meat pastry from the north, for €3 or €4. For a snack, the bifana at Conga for about €3.50, with um fino.

For dinner, traditional cooking away from the quay terraces: caldo verde and bacalhau à Narcisa at Adega de São Nicolau, about €25 to €35 per person with wine; salt cod, octopus and seafood rice at Taberna Santo António; charcoal-grilled fish or sardines, whose season starts in May, at Postigo do Carvão. Our apartment host booked all three tables.

We tasted port where it ages, at Graham’s: a tour in Spanish and three glasses with pairings for €40 per person, which in our plan doubled as lunch.

Getting around Porto

We did everything on foot except two Uber rides: about €4 to €5 to the Douro tour meeting point and about €18 to €22 to the airport, because the metro starts at 6:00. To get from the Ribeira up to the Sé without stairs there is the Guindais funicular, for €4. The Luís I Bridge has two decks: the lower one at water level; the upper one, 45 meters up, with the metro and a pedestrian walkway.

A bit of history

The Romans called the harbor on this stretch of the Douro Portus Cale, and from it came the names of both Porto and Portugal. The Sé was begun around 1110 as church and fortress, and in 1387 João I and Philippa of Lancaster married there, the wedding that sealed the alliance with England. In 1415 the city gave its meat to the fleet that took Ceuta and kept the tripe for itself: that is why Porto people are called tripeiros.

The 1755 earthquake that flattened Lisbon barely touched Porto, which is why it keeps its old street plan. In 1832, during the siege of the Liberal Wars, the convent of São Francisco burned, and the Bolsa rose in its place. The Luís I Bridge, by Théophile Seyrig, a former partner of Eiffel, opened in 1886.

What we skipped and why

The Porto Card, because with our tickets already bought it did not add up. The Gaia cable car, because the view from the bridge is free. The conveyor-belt lodges on the quay and the WOW complex: one good tasting was enough for us. Eating at Café Majestic, where a coffee costs about €8. And the six bridges cruise, because we saw the real river in the Douro.