My partner and I spent 6 weeks in Porto, Portugal in late 2018. During that time we were working remote, usually in the morning and late evenings, leaving us most of the day, evenings and weekend to explore Porto. We arrived in the colder, rainier month of November, and didn’t end up venturing outside the city at all. Along the way we found some great places to eat, have a drink and various things to do. The following is a list of what we found to be good.

Porto is a city which has experienced a recent sudden boom in tourism (the secret is out). When the low cost carriers started offering low priced tickets to visit, there was a massive uptick in tourism. As a result property prices in the centre of Porto have basically tripled in the last 15 years, forcing out a lot of residents. There is some local resistance and negativity towards tourism because of this, but I don’t think this is directed at tourists themselves. Airbnb has exacerbated the problem as well. Porto is a University city, so between the students and tourists looking to have fun, the nightlife is excellent. Porto is a very popular destination for international students on a semester of exchange.

If you haven’t been to Porto yet, I’d say there are three key points / areas to be aware of, and choose your accomodation to be close (up to 10 minutes walk) from any one of these. We’ll go through each of the areas below, and also mark further places to visit as being near these points. The points themselves are a bit busier and noisy, but besides these areas the general central area of the city is quite low stress. We enjoyed being able to walk everywhere (or hop in a cheap uber) to get around. We liked how the city had the traditional architecture feel of Italian cities, a little grubby but no worse than Paris.

Main areas

First of the main areas is ‘Ponte Luis’ (PL). It is a large two-tiered bridge running across the Douro. Running along both sides of the river are promenades with restaurants, bars and port tastings. The banks of the Douro are quite steep so the second tier of the bridge connects the higher areas, and is open to foot traffic and trams. You can catch a gondola from the promenade up to the top level which is an interesting thing to do. The views here are stunning.

Second of the main areas is the shopping district around ‘Via Catarina’ (VC) shopping. This area is usually very busy as the area has all of the common global clothes shopping brands.

Third of the areas is around the ‘Igreja do Carmo’ (IC) church. This area has a small park and street buskers. From here there are several shops, restaurants and bars. It’s a commonly visited tourist area so it can have a bit more foot traffic and noise.

Eating out

• Pork rolls @ Casa Guedes, VC. Juicy roast pork served on traditional damper style bread. It’s commonly ordered with soft cheese but I personally preferred it without.
• Whole Portuguese rotisserie chicken @ Pedro dos Frangos, VC. Unfortunately they don’t have much in the way of spicy sauces to go with the chicken so be sneaky and BYO.
• Pizza slices @ Mr pizza, IC. At two euro a slice this place was very popular with my partner and I for late night snacks or if we couldn’t decide on what to eat.
• Typical Portuguese fare @ Almada Cafe, IC. You’ll see plenty of local diners that look like they’re from the 70s (without the American kitch). It’s worth experience what the locals like to have for their meals, and most dishes are quite cheap, able to have a full meal for 6 euro.
• Lunch special near Adega Sports Bar, IC. I’m working offline while writing this so I can’t access the name, but there is a restaurant across from ‘Adega Sports Bar’ which does excellent modern lunch specials. While it’s a bit more pricey at around 18 euro, the meal includes entree, main, breads, infused water, coffee and glass of wine.
• Ribs @ Adega Sports Bar, IC. Across the street from the place I can’t remember, this sports bar was a favourite of ours for watching football games over dinner (which is such a luxury as an Australian EPL lover). They serve American pub grub, the ribs are delicious and quite cheap.
• Michelin stars @ DOP, PL. DOP is a treat for foodies seeking something a bit more special. The lunch special was quite reasonable although I don’t remember the cost or what we had. We just remember being quite satisfied!
• Food court @ Ar de Rio, PL. Food court doesn’t do this place justice, as it’s a very new building with a few dozen concessions serving all types of food. It’s here you can get bridadeiros a popular soft chocolate sweet. Also a great place for drinks and charcuteries.

Having a drink

• Selina, IC. This place is a coworking - backpackers 2.0 type place. The drinks are good, the bar space and courtyard are really nice. Worth adding to your bar hop iternery.
• Barbarbar, IC. This isn’t the actual name of the place but on the same street as the ‘HeartGallery Tattoo&Piercing’ is a barber with a bar in the back. You can get a ‘fino’ of beer for one euro. Good place to have some drinks while a mate gets a cut. I’ve also experienced street drinking on that same street, I think particular nights a bar runs a very good special on bottles of beer so the streets flood with students.
• Adega Sports Bar, IC. Mentioned above.
• Terra plana, VC. We first came here as part of a internationals meetup. The bar itself is nice, but a little expensive. A kind of side effect of that is it scares away the students on a budget, leaving more of the internationals who are working or in Porto longer term. It’s mainly about meeting some interesting people.
• Catario, IC. This one is a 10 minute walk from the church in another street area that has plenty of restaurants and bars. This bar is a home for craft beers, with about 20 on tap. It’s a little more expensive here, and similar to Terra Plana seems to attract more 30 year olds rather than students.
• Nighttime streets drinking, IC. As mentioned above nighttime street drinking is common, where a bar will spill out onto the street. This is most commonly seen just near the ‘Igreja do Carmo’ church itself, where there are several bars set up just to sell bottles.
• Fabrica Nortica, VC. This is a much larger modern styled brewhouse which hosts live bands.
• Various Port Houses, PL. On the southern side there are many port houses to try fortified wines. As mentioned, the food court is quite good too.

Things to do

Besides wandering around the three areas above and finding your own new favourites, there are a few particularly interesting and worthwhile things to do in Porto to make the most of your time. We mentioned the bridge area particularly, with the gondola, port tasting and shopping. Again, meetups are a great way to do an activity and meet people.

• Football, (far). Porto FC has won the Champions League in recent times and is still considered a top club in Europe. The Portuguese are football crazy like many European counterparts. The stadium is large and easy to get to on the train system. Tickets range from 40 to 60 euro as a non-member.
• Museum, (far). Porto boasts a good sized contemporary modern art museum with art installations as well as galleries. Its a good size such that you can easily spend 4 hours there see some interesting art.
• Cats @ O Porto dos Gatos, VC. There is a cute cat cafe down this way, but as usual the resident cats are overstimulated and a bit avoidant of people. The food and coffee is nothing to write home about. There are three sections to the cafe, the front section without cats, the courtyard with tables and cats, and a middle playroom where food and drink isn’t allowed. It’s expected that you’ll buy at least a coffee to be able to enjoy playing with the cats.
• Beach, (far). We arrived in wintery months so our experience wasn’t so good, but in summer these beaches look like they’d be great to escape the heat. The waves look quite gnarly as its directly on the ocean.
• River cruises, PL. We didn’t go on a river cruise, but this is a popular activity.
• Language classes, PL. The government runs some free language classes at a large church or old government building on the Northside of Ponte Luis. I didn’t attend these as I went to a paid class twice a week.

So that’s the complete list. Did we miss anything?