Porto: A Digest

Four days is enough to see Porto well. It’s a city for shopping, walking and chilling – ideal for a city break, for a short getaway focussed on relaxing and easy excess. The people were friendly and proud of their culture, so there’s a lot to experience and enjoy there. Here’s how I did it over the course of one long weekend.

Where To Stay and What To Know

Boulevard Aliados is the spiritual centre of the city; it’s where they hold celebrations when the football team win and fits nicely into the middle of exploratory walks, meaning that you can head east, west or south and get back to your hotel easily. Whilst Aliados has expensive hotels, Rolex stores and at least one Michelin star, the city itself is pretty small and if you find a place within five minutes’ walk of this street you’re in a good place to explore. To access Aliados from the airport is simple: Trindade, a major Metro stop, is five minutes away, and the purple line between the two is the only line in the city where you can tap on and off with contactless instead of buying and validating a metrocard.

The other major tourist area is Flores Street – the traditional home of jewellery stores near the main station – which has some fabulous hotels, but the area is not so quiet and doesn’t feel quite so safe, even if it’s bustling, so personally I would prefer Aliados, but Flores is near the cathedral and the medieval city and gives better access to the river, so go with what suits your holiday.

Portugal doesn’t add service to the bill, and legally cannot charge you for anything you didn’t ask for (so if a restaurant presents you with olives or a bottle of water unprompted, it’s on the house), making dining out cheap, but it’s worth keeping some small bills – fives and tens – in your pockets for tipping, and keeping that in mind.

Souvenirs to buy are fairly standard fridge magnets, postcards, tshirts etc, but there are also cork products, fantastic food and drink, ceramic works, and a shop dedicated to Porto FC. Antique shops are numerous in Porto and much of the jewellery for sale is antique, so if you’re looking for a pricier memento you could easily get some antique silver or modern pearls for your home or to adorn your person. There are, naturally, also novelty gifts – I had to be talked out of buying a ceramic Fernando Pessoa wine cork (there’s a Goethe and Schiller cruet set for somebody else on the top of our cupboards that I think it would have matched perfectly), so whatever your style you can certainly leave Porto with something for yourself or your loved ones at home.

The souvenirs I chose were:

• A Fernando Pessoa book
• A Livraria Lello edition of Los Luisadas – the most Portuguese choice from the entry ticket selection
• A book about Livraria Lello
• A Livraria Lello mug
• Two bags of mixed dried fruit (… now one mixed bag of dried fruit and an online order for dried pomelo slices and coconut chunks)

What To See And Do

There are, naturally, some core tourist activities in Porto: the market, the riverside and bridges, the museums, historical bookshops and cafes, the tiles – even the beginning of the Camino de Santiago, if you want to truly commit to a walking holiday. A good tour will hit many of these in one day, and there are just a few places you’ll want to linger in. Good shoes are a must as you walk the cobbles and hills of this historic city!

Our agenda was as follows:

• Day one – check into our hotel, walk around the town and coffee in Majestic, find a grocery store, relax in the room then dinner in the hotel
• Day two – the Jardins do Palacio de Cristal and Romantic museum, walk to Matosinhos (roughly 3hrs) and eat fish (stopping for coffee and ice-cream halfway at a local chain that we came to quite enjoy), taxi back to the hotel to relax
• Day three – a guided walking tour focussing on tiles and architecture (most notably the university park, the cathedral, the station, and the luxe interiors commissioned by dictator Salazar), lunch with our tour guide by the river, Livraria Lello, relaxing in our hotel eating local produce, drink in the hotel bar
• Day four – late breakfast and check out, explore the city centre, chill out in the market with a glass of wine or a fresh juice and snacks, buy souvenirs, pick cases up from the hotel and head home.

What To Eat

Porto is home to wonderful examples of Portuguese food as well as having regional delicacies. Fish abounds, naturally, and the ‘bacalhau’ (salt-preserved cod, soaked in water before cooking to bring back the fleshy texture) is the main kind you’ll see, as well as fresh ‘catch of the day’ situations, and sardines (often canned, and these are a popular souvenir as they’re very fancy compared to the British tin of pilchards, but also deep fried). The city is also famous for octopus, which is more expensive but readily available. The true local dish is the ‘Fransiscinha’ – a toastie on steroids, with multiple layers of local salamis and hams, a pork cutlet, and doused in melted cheese before being served in a bowl of thin, beery soup. The soup on its own was amazing, to be quite honest, and the sandwich belongs on Man Vs Food. The other regional food is a tripe and beans dish – it has a historic origin in the ‘discoveries’ period and is still enjoyed by locals (and a braver class of tourist) today.

Portuguese wine is fantastic, and you’re usually OK going for the cheapest or enjoying the local fizz instead of a prosecco or champagne. Reds are pinot noir style, low in tannins, and whites are fruity without being very crisp or overly sweet. ‘Green’ wine is a local specialty, as is port wine. Unlike in the UK, port is drunk as part of a refreshing spritz-type cocktail with tonic (and, in our hotel, burnt rosemary, which gave a gorgeous aroma) and I would highly recommend partaking – even my teetotal partner enjoyed his. The local beer is Super Bock – a pale lager, not too fizzy; it is cheap, and available almost everywhere. Sagres – the other major Portuguese beer – is also available, but Super Bock is vastly preferred by the locals, and merch with the logo on is available at almost every tourist shop.

Naturally, you should also eat the baked goods – Porto is a great city for snacking, and a cup of coffee and a pastel del nata shouldn’t cost more than 3.50 euro. The bread is great, there are lovely doughnuts and sandwiches and savoury pastries everywhere, which is perfect for the roaming tourist. In addition, the Portuguese are very proud of their Brazilian and Madeiran connections, and serve incredible tropical fruits – fresh, juiced and dried – all over the city, as well as fresh local oranges. Even in January these were hanging ripe from the trees.

On This Topic:

• The hotel we stayed in, and I would highly recommend it: great service, a wonderful restaurant and bar, and every amenity you could wish for – from local soaps in the bathroom to a heated outdoor pool, from providing tastefully-branded umbrellas to recommending wineries more for locals than tourists, the team at Editory made us comfortable during our stay.
• The service my partner used to find us a tour guide – we chose a specialist in literature, but you could find somebody who works with children, who loves sports, a local historian, whatever floats your boat.
• It’s not just me that’s suggesting Porto is a wonderful place to be! Although, according to our tour guide, one of the museums listed is actually in Lisbon…

To-Do:

• Get back to exercising and meal planning
• Journal my ‘beginning of the year’ review. It is now late January, this is ridiculous.
• Meet J&D to plan our 2023 shenanigans

Today’s Culture:

• Due to flight delays (thanks BA) I almost finished The English Patient in the airport. Once I’ve finished the book I will rewatch the movie – did anybody understand translating books to screen as well as Anthony Minghella??
• Did you know the guy who did Next To Normal is also doing the Almost Famous stage musical??? Next To Normal is finally coming to London and I’m declaring 2023 the year of Tom Kitt.
• Dried coconut cubes. I think that’s what I’m eating, and they are sooooo much nicer than the crunchy dried slices!