Three days in Porto: steep, granite, and better than Lisbon at dinner

A tower and a bookshop on arrival, the cathedral down to the river and over the bridge to Gaia on the second day, and a gilded church on the last morning.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Porto
Places
7 across 3 days
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap

Porto is small, steep and built almost entirely out of grey granite, stacked up one bank of a gorge with the Douro at the bottom. Almost everything a visitor wants is inside a square kilometre, which sounds easy until you notice that the square kilometre is mostly vertical.

The centre is a World Heritage site and it looks the part: tiled churches, iron balconies, laundry over the street, and a baroque tower visible from nearly everywhere as a way of working out where you are. Across the water in Vila Nova de Gaia sit the port lodges, which is a separate town on paper and one riverfront in practice.

Three days covers it without rushing. Two full days would cover the sights; the third is what makes the difference between ticking Porto off and enjoying it.

Highlights

  • Two hundred and twenty six steps up the Clérigos tower for the whole city at once
  • The cathedral terrace, then the walk down through the old town to the river
  • Crossing the top deck of the Luís I bridge on foot, with the gorge underneath
  • Port tasting on a terrace in Gaia, looking back at the city you spent the morning in

Where to stay

Porto, two nights

One base for all three days. Gaia and its port lodges are a fifteen minute walk across the bridge rather than a trip, so there is no reason to move.

Everything here sits within a kilometre of the centre. The only thing that will tire you is the gradient.

Day by day

Day 1 in Porto

The Clérigos tower and the bookshop

Start high and central. The streets around the Clérigos tower are the hinge of the city: the university on one side, the old shopping streets on the other, and a view from the top that makes the geography obvious in a way no map does.

Two sights and a long dinner is the right amount for a first evening here, and the upper town is where to eat before the walk back.

  1. 15:00

    Livraria Lello

    Historic

    A small neo-Gothic bookshop from 1906 with a crimson staircase curling through the middle of it, and one of the most photographed interiors in Portugal. Entry is ticketed and the price comes off a book if you buy one. Go at opening or late: in the middle of the day it is genuinely shoulder to shoulder.

  2. 16:15

    Torre dos Clérigos

    Religious

    Two minutes away, and 226 steps up a baroque bell tower to a platform barely wide enough for the people on it. Worth every step for the view along the gorge. Go late in the day if you can, when the granite turns gold.

  3. 19:30

    Dinner in the upper town

    Eat

    The small taverns in the lanes between Clérigos and Bolhão are where to eat, and they fill up by nine.

With more time: With an early arrival, the Mercado do Bolhão is ten minutes east and back in business after a long refurbishment. It shuts in the afternoon, so it is a morning or nothing.

Day 2 in Porto

The cathedral, Ribeira and over the bridge to Gaia

The one day that has to be in order, because it is a descent. The cathedral sits on the high terrace at the top of the old town, Ribeira is on the water at the bottom, and the port lodges are across the river on the far bank. Do it downhill and the whole day is easy; do it in reverse and you will climb the gorge twice.

Leave the afternoon for Gaia. Cross on the upper deck, which runs out level with the cathedral terrace and hands you the best view in the city for free, then come down the far side to the lodges.

  1. 09:30

    Sé do Porto

    Religious

    A 13th century Romanesque cathedral that looks more like a fort than a church, which is roughly what it was. Baroque decorators worked it over in the 1600s and 1700s and the cloister is lined with blue tiles. The terrace outside is free and has the whole river bend in it.

  2. 11:15

    Ribeira

    Landmark

    Wander down through the lanes rather than taking the direct road. Ribeira is the arcade of tall narrow houses along the quay at the bottom, the oldest inhabited part of the city and the heart of the World Heritage area. Loud, touristed and still the place you will remember.

  3. 13:00

    Lunch off the quay

    Eat

    The restaurants directly on the Ribeira waterfront charge for the view. One street back and up the steps, the same food costs noticeably less.

  4. 15:00

    Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman

    Visit

    Across the bridge and uphill in Gaia, one of the oldest of the British-founded port houses, with a terrace looking straight back at Porto. The tour explains the wood ageing properly and the tasting is generous. Book it before you leave the hotel.

With more time: The Jardim do Morro, right at the Gaia end of the upper bridge deck, is where half the city goes at sunset with a drink and no plan. If one lodge is not enough, Cálem sits down on the Gaia waterfront and takes walk-ins.

Day 3 in Porto

The Bolsa and a church covered in gold

Two buildings on the same corner, ten minutes below the centre, and between them they explain how Porto made its money.

Trains and the airport metro both run from the middle of town, so this fits before an early afternoon departure without any hurrying.

  1. 09:30

    Palácio da Bolsa

    Historic

    The 19th century merchants' exchange, built on the ruins of the cloisters next door and designed to convince foreign traders that Porto was serious. The tour ends in the Arab Room, a ballroom of gilded Moorish plasterwork that took eighteen years to finish.

  2. 11:00

    Igreja de São Francisco

    Religious

    Next door, and the reason to come. A plain Gothic shell whose interior was later smothered in carved and gilded woodwork, vines and cherubs climbing every surface. The catacombs underneath are part of the visit.

  3. 12:15

    Last coffee by the river

    Eat

    Five minutes downhill puts you back on the quay with time for one more before the bags.

With more time: With a later flight, the Casa da Música is two metro stops north, a white concrete block by Rem Koolhaas that is the one modern building here worth going out of your way for. The Fundação de Serralves, further out, pairs a contemporary gallery with a large park.

Before you go

Where to stay

Between the Clérigos tower and São Bento station is the practical choice: level with most of the sights, walkable to everything in these three days, and above the noisiest part of the nightlife rather than in it.

Ribeira down on the water is the postcard and the trade-off is real. It is beautiful, it is loud until late, and every return to your room is a climb. Gaia, across the bridge, is quieter and cheaper and gives you the better view, of Porto, which is the view you actually want.

Getting in and around

Trains from Lisbon arrive at Campanhã, out to the east. Do not stop there: cross the platform to any local train and ride a few minutes to São Bento, which puts you in the middle of town and is worth walking into anyway for the tiled panels covering its entrance hall.

The airport is on the metro, about half an hour to the centre on the purple line. Once you are in the city, walk. The metro is useful for the airport, the stadium and hopping across to Gaia, and very little else.

The hills are the real transport question. The Guindais funicular links Ribeira to the upper town and saves a punishing climb. The Luís I bridge has two levels, and which one you cross on decides everything: the upper is level with the old town on both banks, the lower with the water.

What to book ahead

The bookshop sells timed entry tickets and the slots go early in season. The port lodges vary: some take walk-ins, several require a reservation, and a tour with a tasting takes an hour or more, so booking one and turning up for it beats wandering the hill hoping.

The Palácio da Bolsa is seen by guided tour only, in a fixed rotation of languages. Buy at the door and expect to wait for the next English slot.

Eating and drinking

The francesinha is Porto's own: a stacked meat sandwich under melted cheese, flooded with a beer and tomato sauce, usually with chips. It is enormous and it is not a light lunch. Have it once, at a place that serves locals at midday rather than tourists at eight.

Port itself splits into two families worth knowing before a tasting. Ruby styles are aged in bottle and taste of dark fruit; tawnies age in wood, go amber, and taste of nuts and caramel. Most people arrive expecting to prefer one and leave preferring the other.

The Douro table wines on every list are the region's other product and often the better value with dinner.

Porto is the rare city where the best thing to do is stand still. Pick a terrace on either bank, order something local, and watch the gorge, the bridge and the boats do the work.

If you are adding a day, spend it upriver in the Douro valley rather than on more of the city: terraced vineyards, a slow train along the water, and the vines all this port comes from.

Or make it a longer trip

These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

Is three days enough for Porto?
Yes, and it is close to the right number. The historic centre is compact enough that two full days cover the sights and the port lodges properly. A fourth day is only worth adding if you want the Douro valley, which needs a whole day of its own.
Should I stay in Porto or Gaia?
Porto if it is your first visit, because you will walk everywhere from there. Gaia is quieter, usually cheaper, and has the better outlook, since from Gaia you are looking at Porto rather than at Gaia. Either way the bridge takes fifteen minutes on foot.
Do I need to book port lodge tours?
For the bigger houses, yes, particularly at weekends and in summer. Some take walk-ins and some do not, and a tour with a tasting runs to an hour or more, so one booked visit beats three hopeful ones. One lodge in an afternoon is plenty.
Is Porto very hilly?
Very. The riverside and the upper town are separated by the better part of seventy metres of climb, and you will do it more than once. The funicular and the two decks of the bridge exist to get around exactly that, so use them rather than proving a point.
When should I go?
May, June and September are the best of it. Porto is wetter than Lisbon and the winter rain is persistent rather than dramatic, while August fills the Ribeira and the lodges. The São João festival in late June is the city at its best and its most crowded at once.
How do I make this my own trip?
Copy it into JourneyComposer and the three days arrive as an editable plan with everything already on the map, ready to have a Douro day added or the port lodge swapped.