Oporto

Oporto! March 2025 visit. I think my expectations for this city were a bit too high. It's certainly nice and you won't regret visiting here, but in my opinion the experience wasn't mind-blowing. You can easily see all of the most important sites within one and a half days in the city and feel content. In general, everything is colorful and covered in tilework ("azulejos"). It's a city that pictures well, especially in the sun. Everything worth seeing is all in the city's center and can be walked to – no need for public or private transportation.

Here's a quick run-down of items we visited in our two-day walking tour, from personal favorites to least:

• Gardens near the Crystal Palace - Gorgeous and completely underrated. A local friend showed us this location and it was exquisite, but I had not seen it on many online lists beforehand. Has a great mini tower that gives a viewpoint of the river, too.
• Tower of the Clérigos - A great little museum built into your journey spiraling up the tower that affords you the best viewpoint in all of Oporto.
• Bolhão Market - I could spend hours here, this market was awesome. So, so, many delicious and fun things to look at and try. This is coming from someone who has seen already seen a lot of these "outdoor stall markets" in Spain!
• Church of Carmo - Easily the best of Oporto's churches to visit …

October 2020 - after sleeping in a suburb at the beach we arrived in Porto early in the morning. We parked the camper on a guarded parking- recommended in Porto- next to Monastery of Serra do Pilar. It was very cloudy when we walked over the iconic steel bridge. 
compared to the rest of Portugal so far, Porto was comparably crowded for COVID-19 standards. In the First Café we had our mandatory Pastells breakfast and continued to the train station to visit the many azulejos. 
As the day was early we continued our walk through Passos Manuel along many nice Art Deco buildings and sneaked into some of the shops or Cafés. The majestic cafe and the many cinemas were stunning. Every second corner, someone roasted chestnuts. Obviously a specialty of the region. We walked up to the famous book shop Lello but were astonished about the long line of Harry Potter fans, despite Covid. Many other places reminded us of our England trip though, especially Liverpool. We continued to the older and more characteristic Ribeira with its cozy alleys and morbid charme. We met a few cats strolling around and had lunch in a non- tourist bistro. With a typical pork nuckle dish. The weather turned 180 sunshine no clouds and tshirt weather. Finally we reached the painted houses along the Douro crossed the river, I still planned visiting portwine cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia. All in all a wonderful, too short day in Oporto. I would have …

Porto is a colorful city that has become an instant favorite. Although its core area is fairly compact, it is not for weak walkers: the city is built into hillsides, you cannot go more than a couple of minutes without ascending or descending a non-trivial slope or staircase. For those who can take it, the city is very walkable: we did not use any public transport aside from the Gaia cable car for our entire stay there.

Most of the key points of interest in town can be visited in a loose loop (the starting/ending point can be adjusted to your liking). Let's say we start at the incredibly tiled rail station of São Bento. Next stop is the Cathedral, with a possible detour to take a closer look at the façade of Santo Ildefonso and also at the São João National Theater. The church of Santa Clara is also around the corner here. Next, cross the bridge of Luís I on the upper level; the views are amazing. The monastery of Serra do Pilar is at the end of the bridge on Gaia side. The best way to descend to Gaia waterfront from here is by taking the cable car (comparatively expensive but mostly worth the cost). Walk along the quay back to the bridge; some of the most popular wine caves are here, if you'd like to visit.

Next, cross the bridge back on the lower level and enjoy the Ribeira colorful and bustling riverside district. …

The historic centre of Oporto is located along the hillside of the northern bank of the Douro River, just a few kilometres from the Atlantic coast. In guidebooks, the historic centre is often subdivided into an upper town with the cathedral at the highest point and a lower town, the Ribeira quarter. But that’s only half the truth. Actually, Oporto is an up-and-down-up-and-down city, a proper visit of the core zone can be an exhausting exercise.
In May 2018, I spent two and a half days and three nights in Oporto. I had accommodation in Vila Nova de Gaia, just two hundred metres from the Ponte Dom Luis I. So I had several times the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful view of the old town from the top level of the bridge or from the opposite bank of the Douro. It is one of the most picturesque urban landscapes I’ve visited so far, almost a bit corny (take my photo as a proof): the river, wooden ships with old wine barrels, lines of colourful houses one above the other along the hillside.
But that’s just the first, superficial impression, on closer inspection you get a different view. Some reviewers described Oporto as raw and dilapidated, I agree, and I also agree that this contributes to the special atmosphere. When I visited Oporto in May 2018, there were numerous construction cranes and scaffolding, many façades looked newly renovated, especially in the main streets such as the Rua das Flores. Obviously things …

In June 2008, I made my second visit to Oporto. J.K. Rowling taught English in Oporto for two years in the early 1990s, when she wrote the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first novel in the series. Oporto has since parlayed her stay into a cornerstone of its tourism industry. Livraria Lello & Irmão, the city’s stunning bookstore, claims to have inspired Hogwarts Grand Staircase. Due to its tenuous connection to the series, the bookstore has become one of the city’s most visited attractions, in such demand that visitors are required to purchase a €5 credit, which can be applied against a purchase. From what I saw, the bookstore derives most of its revenue from the breakage of unused credits. The bookstore is located in the buffer zone of the Historic Centre of Oporto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar WHS.

During the past Easter Weekend, I used Oporto as a base to visit the Santiago de Compostela and Côa Valley WHS. With the introduction of low-cost flights, aiming at secondary airports, Oporto suddenly has become a ‘hot’ destination for a weekend trip. My Transavia flight from Amsterdam was fully booked. I had been to Oporto before in 1991, as part of a one-month long Interrail-trip across the Iberian peninsula. I enjoyed it at the time because of its unique, somewhat raw atmosphere.

Unfortunately, this time around the weather forecast for the day was terrible. I was tempted to stay in my hotel room all day. But the check-out time at 11 a.m. was non-negotiable, so I returned my rental car to the airport, put my larger backpack in a locker, and took the subway to the center of Oporto. I exited at a stop called ‘Bolhão’, and the first thing I saw aboveground was this fantastic Santa Catarina church, totally covered with azulejos. I suddenly felt glad to be travelling and exploring again, despite the rain.

I had chosen this metro stop because it lies next to the Bolhão covered market. Unfortunately, I found the market closed for the day: Easter Monday is a public holiday in Portugal. So I walked a bit further down into the city center, to the other ‘attractions’ I had put on my to-do list beforehand. All the time it kept on raining and raining. When I reached the Cathedral, another of the …

I visited this WHS in August 2014. I spent 3 days here and I would have loved to stay longer. The historic centre is packed with sites to visit through narrow streets and alleys leading to several squares and eventually down to the waterfront by the Douro river. The rest of the city is falling down to pieces and decadent at best although I agree that this helps to have an authentic overall experience. The best viewpoints are to be found at Vila Nove de Gaia by the waterfront, in front of the monastery or on the funicular. The Igreja de São Francisco should not be missed as it has a unique interior and a beautiful courtyard full of azulejos. Other churches worth visiting for their azulejos exterior are the Church of St Nicholas which is just opposite the one of St Francis and the Church of the Holy Trinity. Oporto is a vibrant city and also the best place to go for a long day trip or 2 day trip to take in another WHS, the Alto Douro.

Torre dos Clérigos isn't the tallest building in Portugal, it's the tallest in Oporto. For instance, Lisbon has some buildings over 100 meters high.

About Oporto, it's well worth a visit for at least a weekend. Apart from the magnificent historic center where my personal highlight is the Igreja de São Francisco (Church of São Francisco), whose interior is richly decorated with lots of golden objects and altars, you shouldn't miss out the cityscape from the south bank of the Douro river, the Foz district (where the river meets the sea) and the modern building of Casa da Música (Music Hall). Don't forget to eat a "francesinha", a typical sandwich made out of many different meats, cheese, a spicy sauce with Port wine, beer and many other "secret" ingredients. Delicious!

Although there are a lot of steep hills to negotiate while visiting the sites here, there are a number of usful tram and bus routes that connect the different levels of the city. I too found the azuelejos impressive, especially those in the foyer of Sao Bento station and on the facade Congregados church. The Carmo church, city hall, Misericordia church and the Palacio da Bolsa were interesting architecturally, although after a while I found the predominant grey stone a bit depressing.

This place is dirty and grimmy and all the better for it. it just oozes character. the bridges across the Douro are fantastic, as are the Port Wine lodges on the opposite bank. The centre is a bit of a maze in places and well planned in others. Well worth a visit, it offers a nice break from cities that are orientated just towards tourists and i geniunly feels like a city that is full alive (ik sorry abit of a cliche there to end with!!)

It was a dull and grey day that I was in Porto, and it fit the atmosphere of the city so well. This is not the most aesthetically appealing of cities but it is one that I really enjoyed as it had such a fantastic atmosphere. It is a bit dilapidated but again this just adds to the character. The highlights are the bridges across the Douro going to the wine heaven that is Vila Nova de Gaia. The centre is dotted with sights worth seeing especially the Torre dos Clerigos which affords great views of the whole centre and is also the highest tower in Portugal. There are also great examples of azulejos scattered through out the city especially in the main train station and the Igreja do Carmo. The Riberia district is the heart of the UNESCO site and it clings to the steep banks of the Douro and it is jus a delight to wander around and get lost in. I loved my time in Portugal and this was one of the highlights defiantly well worth a few days of any ones time.