Travel review: How to spend a few interesting days in Porto

We are recent converts to drinking Port. We like its variety and depth, and how it seems to be consistent in what it delivers – great pairing with dessert, with cheeses, and for some, great for sipping by the pool! Read our travel review: Porto for more details.

In the summer of 2019, we headed on a cruise from Southampton to Lisbon. Since we had never explored Portugal before, we decided to spend a couple weeks looking around the country.

Arriving in Porto via train, in the middle of a hot day, into one of the busiest train stations – Sao Bento – was overwhelming! We wandered, like all around us, with our heads tipped upwards staring at the beautiful tiles. We had arranged our meet up for our rental (conveniently across the street!) in about 1 hour, so we sat down at a cafe and enjoyed our Pasteis de Nata’s and drinks!

Our week in Porto went by so quickly! It’s a very easily walkable city, and has so much to see and do – we definitely didn’t do everything we had on our lists, but, each day was packed. It is a popular city, with a large amount of tourists visiting it throughout the year – time your visit well so you don’t find yourself weaving through the pedestrians!

Recommendations

Accommodations:

We rented an apartment in Porto, and are glad we did! Across the street from Sao Bento Train Station and the metro, it was easy to get to all the city areas, and a short stroll to the landmarks, shopping streets, and a 20 minute hop over the bridge to the port houses. A one bedroom, two bath, two floor apartment with great views.

Eat:

Head down to the river and check out some of the great patios for the restaurants – we enjoyed some drinks and nibbles at Cafe do Cais. We enjoyed a great food tour with Taste Porto. We highly recommend taking these local foodie tours so you can get a sense of the food, its use and history in the region, and to get some great recommendations for eating out! Aloja dos Pasteis de Chaves was phenomenal – so many pastries, light and tasty and what you need to fuel all the walking! Guarany Cafe in central Porto is a classic – it feels and looks like a continental cafe with a very cosmopolitan feel. Tasco on Rua do Almada is excellent – small plates with lots of variety!

Activities:

Besides food tours, one other great thing to do in Porto is taste port! Rather than a tour, we decided to walk over one morning to the port houses, and sample some on our own. We started with Taylor’s. Highly recommend the full tour, and then your choice of tasting. We spent a good 2 hours learning all we could and enjoying the calm of the building, then headed into the tasting room for some cheese, crackers, and flight of ports.

A true eye opener: Taylor’s Chip Dry White Port – excellent, and the drink of choice in our accommodations for the rest of the trip! Port + tonic + lime, and you have a fantastic aperitif. We then headed down to the houses along the river. Calem was inviting, less so Sandeman’s. Calem had some great sampling on its deck and we enjoyed watching folks walk along the river as we figured out how we were going to make our way back to our apartment with the boxes of port!

Sandeman’s was full and wouldn’t let folks do any tasting without a tour first. Tours were booked up for the next 2 hours, so, we gave it a pass. Hopefully they will reconsider that model! HOHO buses are something we enjoy in most cities on the first day to get our bearings. No different here. Very convenient – however given all the construction going on in Porto at the time, alot of sitting!

Shopping:

Burel Factory Store. All things wool. Purses, clothing, scarves, blankets – I loved it!

In addition to this travel review: Porto, check out our other posts on our wonderful experiences in Portugal!