We live quite close to Portugal but have only visited once, a weekend break to Lisbon many years ago. We’d heard good things about Porto so decided to have a short trip there – and we certainly weren’t disappointed. It’s a really nice city with plenty to see and do.
We flew from Alicante as it’s quite a long journey by car and we wanted more time in Porto itself, rather than spending hours on the motorway. It’s easy and cheap to get to Porto city centre using the metro and the trip takes about half an hour. You have to purchase an Andante card which you then load with the journeys you want to take. It costs about 60c for the card and most journeys to the centre will be between 2 and 3 euros. The airport is on the purple line. Be sure to validate your ticket before travelling.
We booked quite late and didn’t have a huge selection of accommodation to choose from, but decided on an apartment Oporto Bernardes Studios in Bonfim. The apartment was very nice, but the location was on the edge of Bonfim and a bit run down with not a lot around. Having said that, it was just 10 mins walk from the Heroismo metro station, so easy to get around if you don’t want to walk miles like we did!
On our first full day, we walked down to the river, then crossed the Dom Luis bridge from Porto over to Vila Nova de Gaia, where all the Port Houses are. The views from both sides of the river across to the other side are spectacular, but particularly from Gaia, looking over at Porto. We had looked into doing a tour and Port tasting and chose to do the one at Sandeman’s, a brand we had heard of and which is well positioned on the main road, next to the river. We went in and booked a tour for later in the day (definitely recommend booking if you’re there in high season) then went to explore and have lunch. We did the standard tour which cost €22 and lasted about an hour. It was very interesting and informative and at the end of the tour you get to try 3 good quality ports – a white, a ruby and a tawny. There are several other options to do different tours with additional tastings, with food and for groups, but this one was perfect for us.
Apart from the port tours, Gaia has a lot to offer. The photos above are all taken in Gaia or across the river looking at Gaia. There are some great stalls along the road selling souvenirs and gifts, most of much better quality than often is the case at market stalls and at excellent prices.
WOW (World of Wine) is also worth a visit. Within the WOW complex there are 6 separate museums – details on their website. You can choose to visit all of them with a value day ticket which costs €44, or, like us, just choose one which costs €20. The Wine Experience which we did, was very interesting and informative and had a tasting at the end of a white wine, a red wine and a ruby port.
Also worth a mention is the Rabbit Sculpture (see above) by Portuguese artist Bordallo ll, which is made of recycled waste from the area. Art with a statement. It is called ‘Half Rabbit’ because half of it is left unpainted to show the original colours of the trash. Metal, street signs and plastic containers are just some of the materials used. The artist has made many of these sculptures around the world which you can see here
There are some gorgeous buildings in Porto, many with the stunning traditional blue and white tiles. The church Capela das Almas in central Porto near Bolhão metro station and central market is beautiful, be sure to visit the main train station São Bento which is quite spectacular. Another and there is a lot of this type of tiling in Porto Cathedral, which, again is worth a visit and free to enter. Santo Ildefonso is another one not to miss. There are tours that will take you round most of these places or, like us, just enjoy exploring them yourselves – they’re easy to find!
While we were planning our trip we read about some of the Portuguese specialities that we could expect to find. We’re not lovers of seafood so the popular sardines and bacalao (cod) weren’t of interest to us. The francesinhas also didn’t appeal. Maybe if we’d gone in the winter we would have tried one, but they looked too rich and heavy to eat in the summer heat! The bifanas looked a bit more appealing but we didn’t try them either (maybe next time!), but we did have a cacchorino at La Gazela which featured in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown series, and it was delicious! I should add that I am not at all keen on hot dogs, but the crispy bread, tasty sausage, just right amount of cheese and nicely spicy sauce made for a very tasty snack. Be prepared to queue because it’s a very small place and incredibly popular.
We had a really delicious dinner at Federica Italian Restaurant in Bonfim. The caprese salad with pesto was fresh and super tasty and the spicy pasta with sun-dried tomato was one of the nicest pasta dishes we’d had in a while. We enjoyed the meal so much that we returned for our last night and had the salad again, but this time with a pizza which was also really tasty with a nice base and topping. The staff were really friendly too. Note that they also have a branch in Ribeira in the centre of Porto.
We took the train to Aveiro for a really nice day trip from Porto. The train takes about an hour and costs just 3.90 euros (2025). Aveiro is famous for it’s gondola type boats and art deco buildings and it has a nice vibe about it. We had swithered about going as we’d read some reviews saying it wasn’t worth it as there wasn’t much to do, but we thoroughly enjoyed our day and would recommend it. The train station itself is another building with blue and white tiles which makes for great photos.
It’s worth taking a boat ride for a relaxing trip on the canal. Our guide was amusing and informative and it was a fun way to spend about just under an hour. We went with Viva a Ria and paid 15 euros each for the trip.
We stopped for a drink in a bar called Bacalhauzinho and I had a really delicious Caipirinhi which was cleverly decorated with a sunflower made out of lime (see above).
We really enjoyed our time in Porto and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone thinking about a short break in Portugal.