A Taste of Porto: Eating Well and Seeing the City by Foot and Bike

Porto is a fabulous city full of ancient architecture, great food and a vibrant riverfront. I had the privilege of visiting this glorious city back in August and here is a recap of my experience.

Arrival

I took a train up to Porto from Lisbon, which was a very pleasant ride. I did some reading, listened to some music and took a short nap. My arrival was at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday. It was very easy to take the metro from Porto Campanhã to São Bento and then I was able to walk to my hotel from the station.

As soon as I walked out of the metro station, I noticed the street was extremely busy. The was a lot of construction going on and lots of people on the sidewalks. This was an intersection of a few streets and my hotel was down the hill towards the river. The walk to the hotel had some interesting sights. There was a giant fountain built into a wall that looked very old.

My hotel was located very close to the riverfront. I was able to check into my room right away. The room was very nice – only issue was that the A/C wasn’t working great but it wasn’t too bad. After getting settled in, I got my walking shoes on and started to explore the city!

Ribeira Square

My hotel was only a block away from Ribeira Square, so that was the first place I checked out. Ribeira Square is located on a sloped cobblestone street that goes down to the Douro River. There are lots of restaurants with outdoor seating and people selling tchotchkes from tables along the river. The riverfront was quite busy with people as it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

I was enamored with the beauty of all the old buildings that lined the river and there is a grand iron bridge (Dom Luís I Bridge) that connects Porto with neighboring Gaia. The river is also quite busy with boats – lots of river cruise tours. And there were some kids jumping off the bridge into the river then swimming to the side – kinda wild tbh lol.

I sat at one of the restaurants by the river and tried a signature dish from Porto called Francesinha. A francesinha is a hearty layered Portuguese sandwich featuring various meats like steak, ham, and sausages, topped with melted cheese and a spicy, thick tomato and beer sauce. Traditionally, it is served with french fries and a fried egg on top.

This sandwich is quite filling and super delicious!. I enjoyed my francesinha while listening to the music of some street performers. There was a pregnant woman singing and she had a really great voice. After she was done singing, I made sure to give her some money to show my appreciation for the entertainment during my dinner.

Breakfast

I found a hole in the wall little bakery around the corner from my hotel. It was a small room filled with lots of pastries and not a lick of English spoken at all. Luckily, I knew how to say “Pastel de Nata” and that’s all I really needed to know 😊

My move in these situations is to look around and see what other people are ordering. Then I could just point at different things and use my fingers to say how many. I ended up with two pasteis de nata, an espresso and a croissant. Everything was fresh and delicious!

A quick SHLAY to start the DAY off! I really loved this place and had breakfast here twice. The name of the bakery is Ribermel. If you are in the area of Ribeira Square in the morning, you should definitely check it out!

Bike Riding

One of my favorite things that I did in Porto was bike riding. I got a rental bike for a few hours and rode out to the Atlantic Ocean. From the main square of Porto, it is a few miles to the coast and turned out to be a lovely bike ride. I rode on a trail along the south side of the Douro River, which is technically in Gaia.

When I got to the ocean, I started going south along the coast and noticed there are a bunch of beaches with people hanging out. The weather wasn’t great that day – cloudy and a little chilly – so there weren’t many people in the ocean. I stopped once I got to Madalena Beach, so I could dip my toes in the ocean. The water was very cold yet very refreshing!

After that, I started my ride back to Porto – stopping a few times for photo ops. I was fortunate enough to catch a guy doing a photoshoot with his dog. The dog was being a very good boy sitting still until the photoshoot was over.

I was getting hungry so I stopped at a restaurant by the river on the Gaia side of the Douro River. The restaurant is called Beira Douro Bar and I ordered another francesinha for myself. This francesinha was so much better than the one I had the previous day! It had a better sauce, higher quality meats and was overall more cohesive.

Got it with the egg on top with fries on the side. Twas so delicious, and you know I SHLAYED it!! After that, I returned the bike, went back to my hotel to rest for a bit before my city walking tour.

Walking Tour

The walking tour that I did while in Porto was absolutely fabulous. The tour guide was very knowledgable and friendly. I was the first one in the group to show up so we chatted a bit about ourselves and where I’ve been traveling to.

Lello Library

The group was about 8-10 people. We departed from the Portuguese Centre of Photography and headed towards Jardim das Oliveiras on our way to Livraria Lello. This is a famous bookshop in Porto because it has beautifully crafted woodwork and also JK Rowling might have visited this bookshop while writing the Harry Potter novels.

We were able to skip the line (apparently there is always a very long line) and walk around the shop. The inside is very beautiful with a staircase that wraps around and sorta looks like tree branches. Despite the store being so packed with people, it is still a pretty kewl experience.

Igreja do Carmo

We then walked over to Igreja do Carmo which is a Baroque style twinned church with a narrow house in between the two churches. It is also famous for it’s tiled side wall. Walked a few more blocks and we were at the Town Hall building which had some interesting sculptures.

São Bento Station

Next stop was Sao Bento station – I had been to the metro station already but not seen the train station upstairs. The inside is beautiful – very high ceilings and lots of tile artwork all over the walls. The metro station is directly beneath the train station and the whole outside was under construction so there are temporary wooden walkways at the entrances.

Porto Cathedral

After that, we stopped by the Porto Cathedral, which is a massive stone building that is at a high point in the city and has an amazing view. We were able to take a quick break for some pictures.

The tour guide pointed out to me there is a stone outside the cathedral with a clam shell and an arrow pointing to the north. He said that there are stones like this all over Portugal and Spain and the arrow is always pointing in the direction of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

The Camino de Santiago is a famous pilgrimage that people do all across Europe and it ends at the tomb of St. James, which is in the cathedral. I was kinda shocked yet intrigued by this new information. Seemed like a funny “coincidence” since I will be traveling to Santiago de Compostela the next day. Although… I don’t really believe in coincidences ☺️ I’ll talk more about this in a later post.

Luís I Bridge

After the cathedral, we walked over the upper part of the Luís I Bridge that crosses the Douro River. The views from the bridge are incredible and this is the number spot in town for selfies – based on my own personal research.

This level is mostly a walking bridge for pedestrians but there are street trolleys that pass every few minutes. The whole walk takes about 15 minutes and we ended in Vila Nove de Gaia. From there, we took a cable car ride down to the river and waiting a few minutes before boarding the river cruise portion of the tour.

River Cruise

The river cruise was a lovely way to cap off this great tour of Porto. The boat probably had about 20ish people on board but didn’t feel cramped at all. The boat went up the Douro River past a couple bridges then did a wide u-turn and returned back down the river.

While we were getting towards the end of the boat ride, the tour guide stopped by each person to give transport advice and restaurant recommendations. He had a long list of good restaurants.

I told him I was looking for a good local seafood spot and he came through with a great recommendation! I’ll write about it in my next poast ☺️

Departure

Even though I only spent 2 days in Porto, I feel like I saw and did so much! I ate amazing food – even had some really great sushi in the Time Out Market at Sáo Bento station. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Porto and am extremely grateful for the experience.

The next stop on my trip was Santiago de Compostela, which required a bus ride. I was able to take the metro back to Campanhã station to get the bus. The bus ride was comfortable and only a couple of hours long.

Thank you for reading 😉 Join me on my next adventure in Santiago de Compostela!