Porto: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Portugal took the azulejo from the Moors, who used geometric patterns because images were forbidden, and then did the opposite with it: figurative scenes, in blue and white, covering entire buildings. The technique survived because the tiles are cheap, waterproof and keep a house cool — a practical answer to Atlantic weather that turned into a national habit. Porto has more of it on the outside of ordinary buildings than anywhere. Two hours, and the hills are real.
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A short history of Porto
In Roman times the settlement at the mouth of the Douro was called Portus Cale, and the whole of Portugal took its name from it. Prince Henry the Navigator, who launched the age of Portuguese voyages, was born in the city in 1394. After the Methuen Treaty with England in 1703, port wine began to flow to Britain, and English merchants built the wine lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia across the river. In 1886 the two-level Dom Luís I Bridge was opened, designed by a pupil of Gustave Eiffel. In 1996 the old city centre was declared a World Heritage Site.
The ten best sights in Porto
1Torre dos Clérigos€10, 225 steps, and it was the tallest thing in Portugal for 200 years
2Livraria Lello€8, redeemable against a book, and go at opening or not at all
3Sé do Porto€3 for the cloister, and the terrace has the view over the roofs
4Igreja de São Francisco€9, and 300 kilos of gold leaf are on the inside walls
5Palácio da Bolsa€12, guided only, and the Arab room took 18 years
6Capela das AlmasFree, and the whole outside is covered in blue tiles
7Igreja do CarmoFree, two churches with a one-metre house between them
8Casa da Música€12 to tour, and the building looks like a cut diamond
9Museu Serralves€22 with the park, and the art deco villa is the better half
10Soares dos Reis€5, the oldest public museum in Portugal, and never busy
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Porto →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Porto:
Free walking tours in Porto
Blue on every wall
Portugal took the azulejo from the Moors, who used geometric patterns because images were forbidden, and then did the opposite with it: figurative scenes, in blue and white, covering entire buildings. The technique survived because the tiles are cheap, waterproof and keep a house cool — a practical answer to Atlantic weather that turned into a national habit. Porto has more of it on the outside of ordinary buildings than anywhere. Two hours, and the hills are real.
- São Bento · Twenty thousand tiles cover the entrance hall, painted by one man over eleven years and finished in 1916. They show Portuguese history — battles, a royal wedding, a harvest — and the station is still a working station, so the whole thing is free and open from dawn.
- Sé do Porto · Built as a fortress church in the twelfth century, which is why it looks defensive rather than devotional. Henry the Navigator was born in the house below it, and in 1387 John I married Philippa of Lancaster here — an alliance between Portugal and England that is still the oldest in the world.
- Igreja de São Francisco · Plain Gothic outside and three hundred kilos of gold leaf inside, carved into vines and cherubs covering every surface — the gold came from Brazil. It was so lavish that the church stopped holding services in it, and it is a museum now with catacombs under the floor.
- Palácio da Bolsa · The merchants built their own stock exchange in 1842 on the ruins of a burnt convent, and then spent sixty-eight years decorating it. The Arab Room took eighteen years alone and is a copy of the Alhambra, done by men who had seen it only in drawings.
- Ribeira · The medieval wharf, where the port wine came downriver on flat-bottomed boats until a dam ended the trip in the 1960s. The houses are tall and thin because the city taxed by street frontage, so everyone built upwards on a narrow plot.
- Ponte Luís I · Finished in 1886 by a partner of Gustave Eiffel, and when it opened the 172-metre arch was the longest of its kind in the world. Two decks: the metro and pedestrians above, cars below, and the upper walkway is the one to take.
The wine that is not from here
Port is not made in Porto. The grapes grow a hundred kilometres upriver in the Douro, on slate terraces so steep they are cut by hand, and the wine was brought down to Vila Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank to age — because the cellars there face north and stay cool. English merchants organised the trade in the 1600s when war with France cut off claret, and added brandy to stop the wine spoiling on the voyage. That accident is the drink. Two hours, mostly on the south bank.
- Cais de Gaia · The flat-bottomed rabelo boats moored along the quay are decorative now; they stopped carrying wine in 1964 when the river was dammed. Every one of them still carries the name of a shipper, which is the only advertising the lodges have ever needed.
- Graham’s · Founded in 1820 by two Scottish brothers who took port as payment for a debt and decided to go into the trade. The vintage declaration is the thing to understand: a house declares a vintage only in an exceptional year, perhaps three times a decade, and in the others the wine is blended.
- Taylor’s · In the cellars the wine ages in casks that hold six hundred and twenty litres, and about two per cent evaporates every year — the share the trade calls the angels’. A twenty-year tawny has lost a third of itself to the air before it is bottled.
- Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar · A sixteenth-century monastery with a circular church and a circular cloister, which is rare anywhere. The British army fortified it in 1832 during the siege of Porto, and the terrace gives the view of the bridge that the city puts on its postcards.
- Jardim do Morro · A small hillside garden right off the upper deck of the bridge, and the whole city faces you across the river. It fills every evening with people who brought a bottle and a speaker, and nobody minds.
- Afurada · A fishing village that the city has not absorbed, five minutes further down the south bank. The communal washhouse is still in daily use by the women of the village, and the grilled sardines on the street are the cheapest good meal in greater Porto.
Down to the Atlantic
The Douro runs six kilometres from the old town to the sea, and a single tram line built in 1872 follows it the whole way. Tram 1 still runs the route with wooden cars from the 1930s, and it is the cheapest good hour in the city. At the end the river stops being a river: the Atlantic comes straight in, the waves break over a black lighthouse, and the seafood street behind the beach is where Porto actually eats fish. Half a day, and almost none of it on foot.
- Museu do Carro Eléctrico · Porto had the first tram on the Iberian peninsula, in 1872, and by 1950 the network was eighty kilometres long. It was almost entirely dismantled for cars; three lines survive, and the museum is in the power station that fed them.
- Jardins do Palácio de Cristal · The crystal palace itself was demolished in 1951 and replaced with a concrete dome the city still argues about. The gardens survived, and the terraces at the back look straight down the river to the sea with nothing in the way.
- Foz do Douro · The name means simply "mouth of the Douro". It was a separate seaside town with its own bathing season until Porto grew into it, and the houses along the front are still nineteenth-century villas rather than blocks.
- Farol de Felgueiras · A black granite lighthouse from 1886 at the end of a pier, and in an Atlantic storm the waves go clean over the top of it. People stand too close for photographs every winter and the council puts up signs every winter.
- Matosinhos · The fishing port, and the street behind the beach grills whatever came in that morning on charcoal on the pavement. It is five minutes on the metro from Porto and about half the price of anything on the Ribeira.
- Parque da Cidade · Eighty-three hectares, the largest urban park in Portugal, and it is the only one in the country that runs all the way down to the Atlantic. It took twenty-five years to build and was finished in 2002.
Getting to Porto and getting around
- Sá Carneiro Airport · Metro line E to the centre, 30 minutes, €2.60
- São Bento · Twenty thousand azulejo tiles in the hall, and it is free to walk in
- Campanhã · The long-distance station. Lisbon in under three hours
- Funicular dos Guindais · €4, and it saves you the climb up from the river
Cheap eats in Porto
Eight counters where Porto eats standing. The city’s own dish is the francesinha — a sandwich of three meats under melted cheese, drowned in a beer and tomato sauce, with a fried egg on top — invented in the 1950s by a man who had worked in France and wanted to make a croque-monsieur that could survive a Portuguese winter. The other one is the bifana: pork in a bun, two euros.
- Café Santiago · About €12 and it is a whole meal. Expect a queue
- Casa Guedes · €4.50, and go before one or after three
- Mercado do Bolhão · Closed Sundays, and best before eleven
- Conga · Bifanas since 1976, €3, and the sauce is the secret
- A Pérola do Bolhão · A 1917 art nouveau grocer, and the tiled front is listed
- Confeitaria do Bolhão · Since 1896, and the bread comes out of a wood oven
- Majestic Café · 1921, belle époque, and €5 for a coffee you pay for the room
- Matosinhos · Grilled sardines on the pavement, and half the Ribeira price
Museums in Porto
- Museu Serralves · €22 for everything, €12 for the park alone
- Casa da Música · €12 to tour, and concerts from €10
- Livraria Lello · €8, and be there at opening or skip it
- Soares dos Reis · €5, the oldest public museum in Portugal, from 1833
- World of Wine · €25, several museums in old cellars, and a cork museum in it
- Palácio da Bolsa · €12, guided only, and the Arab Room took 18 years
- Casa do Infante · €2.50, the medieval customs house, and Roman floors in it
- Museu do Carro Eléctrico · €8, and the tram you arrive on is part of the exhibit
Nature and day trips near Porto
- Douro Valley · The train from São Bento follows the river for two hours
- Parque da Cidade · Free, 83 hectares, and it ends at the Atlantic
- Jardins do Palácio de Cristal · Free, and the terraces look down the river
- Foz do Douro · Tram 1 the whole way, €3.50, and wooden 1930s cars
- Praia de Matosinhos · A wide surf beach, free, and the water is cold all year
- Jardim Botânico · Free, a 19th-century estate garden, and a camellia collection
- Passeio Alegre · Free, palm trees and an 1880s bandstand where the river ends
- Aveiro · An hour by train, canals, and salt pans you can walk in
Things to do in Porto with kids
- Tram 1 · Wooden 1930s cars along the river to the sea, €3.50
- Funicular dos Guindais · €4, a 60-metre climb in two minutes, and glass sides
- Ponte Luís I · Free, and the metro shares the deck — stay on the path
- Parque da Cidade · Free, lakes, ducks, and the sea at the far end
- Praia de Matosinhos · Metro to the sand, and surf schools on it
- Torre dos Clérigos · €10, 225 steps, and the stairs get very narrow at the top
Live music in Porto
- Casa da Música · From €10, and there are free concerts in the foyer
- Coliseu do Porto · Tickets from €20, and the foyer is worth arriving early for
- Teatro Nacional São João · From €10, and the building is from 1920
- Hard Club · In the 1885 iron market hall, and the acoustics are odd and good
- Maus Hábitos · Fourth floor of a car park building, and a roof terrace
- Estádio do Dragão · FC Porto from €25, and the metro goes to the door
Nightlife in Porto
Porto drinks in the street. One narrow block around Rua Galeria de Paris holds a dozen bars that put nothing outside but a counter, and from eleven the road itself is the venue — which is legal here, and policed only for noise after two.
- Rua Galeria de Paris · The street is the bar, from eleven, and a beer is €2
- Jardim do Morro · Where the evening starts, with a bottle, free
- Cedofeita · Quieter bars, and the gallery street is in it
- Cais de Gaia · Port and a view back at the city, and it closes earlier
- Maus Hábitos · A roof terrace above a car park, and it goes until four
- Mercado Bom Sucesso · Food and drink under one roof until midnight
Frequently asked questions about Porto
What is there to see in Porto?
The top sights in Porto are Torre dos Clérigos, Livraria Lello and Sé do Porto. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Porto?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Porto without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Porto?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Porto, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Blue on every wall.
How do you get to Porto and get around?
The main ways are Sá Carneiro Airport, São Bento and Campanhã. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Porto, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Porto that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Porto for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.