48 Hours in Porto

Porto is a gorgeous city and has quickly taken place as one of my favourite European cities I’ve visited in the past few years. I spent the weekend in Porto with a girl friend and we had a weekend full of sightseeing, shopping and good food and drinks.

Upon arrival, we visited the local tourist office and collected a Porto.CARD to help us tick off visiting some of the main tourist attractions.

The first place we visited was Se Catedral and whilst it was a relatively modest cathedral from the outside, the inside was adorned by blue tiles and was really beautiful. We also walked our way up to the top of Clérigos tower and church, with a great view of the city. Definitely take a bottle of water on a hot day, as there are a lot of steps!

One of the most well known tourist hotspots is probably Livraria Lello. I’m a big reader, so we pre-booked tickets for the library and it didn’t disappoint; the building was beautiful and I loved that they had their own book covers for a load of the classic books.

On our final day, and after a lot of walking, we decided to take it easy and take a river cruise down the Douro river. I’d heard that these are also great to do during the sunset, so would recommend this for anyone else who is building their itinerary. The last thing I’d recommend is sitting down to do Port tasting. There are loads of places to do it in Gaia (just over the bridge), and we went to Porto Cruz. We loved trying all of the different types of port and learning how they were all made, and had these paired with chocolate.

As well as visiting all the classic tourist sites, we had some brilliant food and drinks. We loved the casual Time Out Market, where we stopped for a bite to eat and an Aperol Spritz on their outdoor terrace. I love a local produce food market, and we stopped for a lovely lunch in Herdade 1980 in the upstairs of Mercado Bolhao where I tried a traditional cod and cheese bake; yum! We also had a really tasty (and very reasonable) fish dinner at Tasquinha de Polonia in Matosinhos followed by an ice cream by the beach.

One tip I would have for those planning to visit, is take a bag with plenty of space – we did lots of shopping on Rue de Santa Catarina and for ceramics in Ohana Market and all the local shops, and I can’t wait to use them!

We stayed at Se Catedral Hotel Porto, Tapestry Collection by Hilton and the rooms and food and drink options were perfect for what we needed and in a great location.

To get your hands on a Porto.CARD, visit https://visitportoandnorthtravel.com/oninlondon

Photo credt © Associação de Turismo do Porto e Norte, AR