If you’re planning a trip to Portugal, I hope it includes Porto.

Porto is an old port town in northern Portugal. The city itself is beautiful to look at, it has mouth watering food options, and the people are welcoming. What’s not to like?

I’d suggest staying near the city center if feasible. You can book the apartment we stayed at, here (S.Bento Luxury Building). It was literally in the middle of city center and within walking distance of most everything. Our host gave us a discount at the hotel beneath the airbnb and there were plenty of cafes and restaurants to choose from right outside our door step. You can see photos from our balcony below (three photos).

I apologize in advance for not taking any detail photos of all the tiled buildings in Porto. They are gorgeous, colorful and even playful. And they certainly make for a pleasant city to explore.

We only had two full days in Porto and to be honest we were quite tired from our road trip we’d just completed from Lisbon. So we took day one to just relax and used our second day to explore and capture the city. The weather in Porto in May was brisk but sunny. I wore a long sleeve shirt, a jacket, pants and sandals and that was perfect. So that’s just to say, you might need some light layers if venturing up north to Porto.

I’ll save you some time here and say, get a map, or literally do what we did…open google maps on your phone and walk to every monument/church you see on the map. Grab some coffee and brunch between locations. And if you get tired of walking up and down all the stairs, get an Uber to your next desired location.

Porto is small.

You only need one day to see most of the city from a tourist standpoint. You can of course venture out to surrounding areas, or take tours of some of the old buildings and churches. It’s really hard to put a time constraint on Porto because I feel like you could stay here three days or three months and be content depending on your wants.

For sure walk around the city center and make sure you visit THE PORT.

You’ll notice I don’t have an extensive photo diary from Porto, and that’s because I desperately needed a wide angle lens for most of the shots I wanted to get. Rather than getting whole buildings, I should have taken detail shots of the tiles lining those buildings. But hi, I’m not a photographer! Just know that Porto is so much more beautiful than this in real life and you really must experience her charm for yourself.

Details:

• We stayed at S.Bento Luxury Building. Highly suggest it.
• Eat at Zenith Brunch & Cocktail Bar and Impar Flores. Also head down to R. Herois De Franca street near the water and cruise port terminal for tons of local food options.
• Coffee at Bird of Passage Coffee.
• Drink wine – everywhere. Drink the wine.
• Walk a lot and prepare for stairs. Porto has no shortage of hills and stairs. Bring your comfy shoes and get ready to work up an appetite with all those steps.

That’s it! Short and sweet for Porto – a town that lived up to the hype. Great food, amazing coffee, incredibly welcoming people, and unreal city scape. RUN, don’t walk, to Porto.

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