How to travel to Porto

This September I travelled to Porto, Portugal together with my best friend. We booked this trip very spontaneously, only 3 weeks before, and what a good decision it was to visit this beautiful city. Porto has a lot to offer for every type of traveler, and I will tell you all about it in this blogpost.

Where we stayed

We booked ourselves a room in the Pestana hotel in the city center, but due to COVID-19 this hotel was closed and we got a room in the Pestana vintage hotel at the Ribeira. And I kid you not, this was the most beautiful room I had ever stayed in. The room was enormous with a large bed, beautiful bathroom and THE BEST view. I guess Corona is good for some things :p

The hotel is situated right at the river front, in the Ribeira district. The staff is super friendly and the breakfast was delicious too. If your planning to go to Porto, I would highly recommend going to this hotel. Be on the lookout for some good discounts and you'll have one of the most beautiful rooms for a great price.

What to do

Porto is packed with churches and cathedrals, all decorated with blue and white tiles. Most of them look the same so I would suggest picking out 2 churches and visiting the cathedral as well.

We visited the Igreja de Sao Francisco, which is a beautiful white building that provides some lovely views over the water as it is located near the Ribeira. We came here early in the evening and were too late to go inside, which was a petty as it is told to be gorgeous on the inside too.

Another chapel we visited was the Santo Ildefonso that we did see from the inside. It is just a small chapel that also has a museum attached to it. We paid €2 for the museum as we thought it could be interesting. It displayed some garments from old pastors (I guess) and some other catholic statues. It wasn't thatfascinating, even though I am a religious person, but I assume that for some people it is nice to see and it is only €2.

The last chapel we visited was the Capilla de las Almas, which is beautiful from the outside but hasn't much to offer on the inside. It is nice to take some pictures of but it isn't much different from all the other chapels.

Lastly, we visited the Sé do Porto which I thought was absolutely stunning, both from the outside and inside. You have to buy tickets here as well, which aren't that expensive if I remember correctly, and it is absolutely worth it. The cathedral has 2 lovely courtyards and a tower that you can climb all the way to the top. The views at the top are really cool as you get an overview of the entire city, plus the river. When walking through the cathedral you will find tiled walls again, and a very beautiful chapel too.

Besides churches you also have some lovely architecture in Porto, I would recommend strolling around the Ribeira district, along the river and in the narrow, steep streets. You will see many colourful houses with either tiled walls or just painted. When walking from one sight to another you will for sure see many more beautiful houses, wall paintings and amazing views over the city and water.

Of course when visiting Porto you have to walk by or even visit the famous Majestic café where J.K. Rowling wrote some chapters of her Harry Potter books. Or you can visit the Livrario Lello where you can see staircases that could remind you of the Harry Potter movies/ books. Be warned that both of these sights are very popular and that there will for sure be a line. We made the mistake to keep the library for our last day and forgot to buy tickets online. The line was told to be a two-hour long wait, and we weren't quite planning on wasting 2 hours there. So, unfortunately we didn't see the famous library.

Some other important buildings that you cannot miss when visiting Porto are the Palacio da Bolsa, Camara Municipal and the Sao Bento Station. The Palacio da Bolsa is the stock exchange Palace of Porto. You can only visit it with a guided tour, which is a bit more pricey than other tourist attractions, but it was still affordable and definitely worth it. The building is very beautiful and has a great history behind it. Our guide was also very kind and funny, she told us some interesting facts that we would have never known without the tour.

The Camara Municipal is the town hall of Porto. It is a very big, white building that is located in the city center. I read somewhere that it is also beautiful from the inside, though when we arrived, there was no way to get in. I don't know if they have opening hours or if it is just something to look at from the outside, but it for sure was a gorgeous building so we didn't mind only admiring the exterior.

The Sao Bento station is a popular tourist attraction as well, that you SHOULD NOT miss. It is a beautiful building with great architecture with an entrance hall filled with blue and white tiles. Even the platforms looked pretty to me, it appeared like a place where movies could be filmed. And to my surprise it wasn't as busy as expected.

In Porto you also have some lovely gardens to walk through or take a break from all the walking. We went to the Jardim do Palacio de Cristal which is a huge garden with many plants and flowers and even peacocks. When we visited the garden a book fair was being held so a big portion of the garden was used for that. We visited the book fair to see the rest of the garden but it wasn't quite the same because all the stalls blocked our view. I guess I will have to go back to see it again in its full glory.

Another garden that we went to is the Jardim do Morro which is also a very famous spot in Porto. It is THE BEST place to watch the sunset. You get a view over the city and the water and the atmosphere is just perfect. The grass is filled with friend groups, couples or even people that are there by themselves just to see the sunset. The evening we went was for sure one of the prettiest since we had been there, so I was very glad we picked that day to see the sunset. The best way to go to the garden is crossing the lower part of the Ponte Luis I and then walking along the water to the Teleférico de Gaia to take the cable cars to the top. From these you have some amazing views as well and for me it was definitely worth paying the €6.

Lastly, we have a fun lookout spot, called Miradouro da Vitoria. It is an abandoned courtyard that gives you a great view over the city. It isn't quite a "sunset spot" as you cannot really see the sun going down but it still is a cute place to see the city from above and to take some pics as well.

When you are tired of all the walking you can also make a daytrip to one of the many beaches close to Porto. One that you should go to is Praia de Matosinhos, where they apparently have the best pizza in Porto in a Pizzeria called Antonio Mezzero.

Another possible daytrip is going to the Douro Valley where you have exquisite views. We unfortunately didn't have the time to go, but it is the first thing I’ll do when I go back.

Where to eat

To be completely fair I didn't have the best meals in Porto during my stay. This is probably because I‘m a vegetarian and people love to eat some good meat and fish in Porto. I mostly ate pastas or risottos so not much variation.

Some restaurants that I would recommend are; The Vogue Café, Muralha do Rio, DOPO and UVA. The Vogue café is a really stunning restaurant, both the inside and outside seating areas are gorgeous. The staff is also very friendly and the food is good too. You would expect the Vogue café to be expensive, but I only paid €13 for a pasta with mushrooms and truffle. My friend went for a Caesar salad that costed only €11. We also had some cocktails that were both delicious and looked good too.

Next Muralha do Rio which is just a basic restaurant along the river side but with good food. My friend ordered herself the Bacalhau (€14,50) and told me it was one of the best fish she had ever eaten, though it was a bit salty. They offered me some vegetarian pasta with vegetables (€7) as they didn't have anything vegetarian on their menu, what I really appreciated and the pasta was well prepared as well.

Then there is DOP, a more fancy restaurant situated in the city center. The outside seating area is very cozy and it is also fun to watch the people walking by. We first went for starters as we both weren't very hungry and then split a main dish. My starter was an egg dish with asparagus, mushrooms and potatoes (€16) and my friend went for the Ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach, with a 3-cheese sauce (€14). Both starters were very good and I especially loved mine as it wasn't pasta for once and the flavours were also really good. Their menu had several vegetarian options, which is very rare in Porto (from what I have experienced). For our main dish we split the vegetable lasagna (€21), which actually was a bit of a disappointment. We thought it was going to be regular lasagna filled with vegetables, but it were different vegetables layered on each other. It seemed like the vegetables weren't seasoned at all, which made the whole dish very bland.

Lastly we have UVA by Calem. A very pretty restaurant on the other side of the Ponte Luis I, situated right next to the water. It is a type of container restaurant with only big windows as walls. We were seated at the water side where we had the best view over the bridge and the city on the other side of the water. The restaurant has its own sushi chef and a separate kitchen for all the other dishes. I went for the mushroom risotto (€19) and my friend chose the Bolonhesa Linguini (€19). The food was absolutely delicious and the view made it even better. I highly recommend this restaurant to everyone visiting Porto.

That was it for this blogpost. I absolutely loved Porto, such a beautiful city with so much versatility. I will definitely go back to see even more of it.

A bientôt!

Bisous