Porto is a beautiful city with narrow, winding cobblestone streets, amazing wine and port, great food and lots to see and do.  Spend time strolling through the city and admiring the traditional Portuguese tiles and architecture.  Give yourself a minimum of 3-4 days exploring Porto and the Douro Valley area, to get a decent taste of the area.  Check out my posts on Traveling Portugal and Lisbon as well!

Top 5 – Porto

1 – Douro Valley Wine Tour

We did a day tour to the Douro Valley with Cool Tours Porto and loved it. We booked brought Viator but you can book directly with them to ensure you don’t get another tour company. Our guide Nuno was fantastic! He was so nice and gave us tons of information about the region along the way.  For instance, Portugal produces 50% of the world’s cork, who knew?! Also, cork trees are harvested every 7 years.  Enough cork for all those delicious bottles of wine and Port they produce.

The first winery we went to on the tour was also an olive oil distillery, D’Origem. The owners Paolo and Pedro were great and showed us how they produce the olive oil and wines and then offered us a tasting of both in their tasting room.  Their rose was maybe the best rose I’ve ever tasted, and enjoying it from the tasting room with beautiful, sweeping views of the valley made it even better. We each ended up buying 2 bottles of the rose wine for €5 each (yes you read that correctly) to bring home. I can’t wait to enjoy them in NYC when the weather warms up!

The second stop on the tour was an hour boat ride along the Douro River, which was relaxing with nice views of the country side.  Porto is obviously known for Port wine, so the last stop had to be a Port winery, Quinta de Santa Eufemia.  They make nice Port wine, however both Renee and I preferred the regular table wines to Port wines. Regardless, trying multiple kinds of Port wine is definitely something you need to do when in Porto. Overall it was a lovely day and I highly recommend doing one of these tours. It’s an easy way to see the Valley and try some of the wines, with door to door service.  Hopefully you’ll get Nuno as your tour guide to make it even better! 

2 – Dom Luís I bridge views

The Dom Luís I bridge spans the Douro River, connecting the city of Porto proper to Vila Nova de Gaia.  It’s a double deck bridge, one deck being high and the other deck being super high.  We walked both decks and took some beautiful scenic pictures, specifically from the top deck.  It’s terrifying but totally worth it for the views.  The train system runs along the top deck, literally a few feet from the walking path, and all you can do is stand there and pray you don’t fall over the bridge or into the train as it’s passing by.  

Once you finally make it over the bridge, you end up at the station for the tram car that travels along the other side of the river. Unfortunately it wasn’t open when we arrived, but the views from the station were also spectacular. Renee and I took the opportunity to have ourselves a little mini photo shoot from the view-point there.

If you aren’t afraid of heights, walking the bridge for the views is a must do when in Porto.  And bonus…you can reward yourself with a tasting at one of the many Port Houses on the other side of the river after you’ve crossed. 

3 – Livraria Lello

You should definitely check out the Livraria Lello when visiting Porto. It’s been open since 1906 and is the most charming and interesting bookstore you’ll ever see. Directly ahead of you when you walk in is the beautiful, grand staircase for which the book store is known. Apparently when JK Rowling was living in Porto, she spent a significant amount of time in the store and actually modeled the library in HP after it. It feels very HP-esq, which I appreciated. It requires a ticket to get in, (€5) which you can purchase online to avoid the line when you arrive.  It’s a quick stop, but one you should definitely make.  

4 – Yeatman Hotel rooftop

We stopped at the Yeatman Hotel after a port wine tasting at Taylor’s next door. The hotel is fabulous and the rooftop has sweeping views of the city. We arrived around 5:30pm because we wanted to be there for sunset. It’s an uphill climb to both Taylor’s and the Yeatman, but the views are worth it. The hotel is amazing, but just a tad out of our price range.  We ordered a pitcher of sangria (maybe the best I’ve ever had) and sat and relaxed while watching the sunset in the bar area. If you can afford it, you should stay at the Yeatman and take advantage of all the amenities, but if not, at least stop by to take in the rooftop views.  They are beautiful and that sangria alone is worth the uphill climb. 

5 – The Tower in the Church of Clérigos

The Church of Clérigos is in the center of Porto. You can’t miss it as you can see the bell tower from all over the city. It cost €4 for entrance into both the church and the tower. Depending on the time of day, you may run into a line, but if you go early you should be okay. It’s a couple hundred VERY narrow steps to the top, but once you are there you get unobstructed 360 degree views of the city, which were great.

When you come back down, you can treat yourself to a cheese stuffed codfish cake (sounds gross but is surprisingly good) and a sampling of Taylor’s port from Casa Portuguese do Pastel de Bacalhau which is right next to the tower entrance/exit.  From their outdoor tables you can get some great photos of the tall tower.

Honorable Mention

Porto streets

Spend time just wandering the winding streets of Porto. Be prepared for many uphill climbs, but do it still. The streets are all cobblestone, narrow and full of character. Check out all of the Portuguese tiles covering the buildings. They are so pretty and give the city so much character.  Also keep an eye out for the hand painted signs attached to lamp posts scattered throughout.  So artsy and fun; they were Renee’s favorite part of Porto!

Porto Port Houses

Make your way to the other side of the river to visit some of the Port Houses for tastings.  There are tons to visit, so you could make a day of it if you felt like getting real tipsy.  We stopped at Kopke and Taylor’s.  At Kopke we tried 2 table wines and 3 Port wines.  We each did our own tasting for €17, but could have easily shared as they give generous pours for the tastings.  At Taylor’s we each ordered 2 Ports to taste, along with a yummy cheese tray.

We attempted to stop in Cálem, but they were completely booked; then Sandeman, but they only do English tours on certain days, and unfortunately the day we were there was not one of them. Again, Port wine wasn’t our thing, but it was still enjoyable and something you should definitely do when visiting Porto.

Avoid

Do not eat the Francesinha. It is a traditional Portuguese sandwich with 5-6 different kinds of meat, soaked in gravy with an egg on top and fries scattered around the sandwich in the gravy.  It was recommended to us as something to try in Portugal, but boy do we wish we hadn’t tried it.  It was NOT good.  Stick with the Piri Piri chicken and fish, they are much, much better and also traditional Portuguese. 

I loved Porto and plan to go back sooner rather than later.  My goal is to go back in the fall at some point, for the grape stomping at the Douro Valley wineries.  It’s such a beautiful place, with the nicest people, great wine and tons of old European character.  I don’t think a trip to Portugal would be complete without a stop in Porto.