Things to do in Porto
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Nakité
This pleasant vegetarian restaurant has satisfying daily specials featuring tofu, seitan and tempeh paired nicely with goat cheese, shiitake mushrooms and other fresh ingredients. Nakité also has fresh juices and good desserts. Dine inside (amid piped-in New Age tunes) or on the back patio next to a gurgling fountain.
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Confeitaria Do Bolhão
This cheerful belle-époque cafe, popular with everyone but especially ladies of a certain age, serves good food at great prices, including a daily lunch special of soup, main course and freshly squeezed juice for €5. The front counter serves an irresistible array of local sweets to go.
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River Cruises
Several outfits offer river cruises in ersatz barcos rabelos, the colourful boats once used to transport port wine from the vineyards. Cruises last 45 to 55 minutes and depart at least hourly on summer days. Board at Porto's Cais da Ribeira or Cais da Estiva, or Vila Nova de Gaia's Cais de Gaia or Cais Amarelo.
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O Escondidinho
Amid azulejos, dark wood furnishings and starched white place settings, O Escondidinho serves excellent traditional cuisine. Chefs here combine fresh ingredients and a wood-burning oven to create classic bacalhau dishes and flavourful baked octopus, while grilled seafood dishes are equally impressive.
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Day Trip to Douro
11 hours (Departs Porto, Portugal)
by Viator
See one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, where Man has overcome the slopes of the land, planting vines in what can be considered open air sanctuar…
Not LP reviewed
from USD$119.12 -
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O Caçula
Tucked down a narrow lane, O Caçula serves healthy-tasting lighter fare in a trim, contemporary, bi-level space. In addition to a few vegetarian dishes (vegie lasagne, ratatouille), there are grilled items (chicken breast with Roquefort cheese), steak, and fresh juices and smoothies.
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O Comercial
Hidden at the back of the stock-exchange building, this one-of-a-kind restaurant boasts towering arches, old-world service and a stylish, fireside lounge. At dinner, the food has been known to disappoint, but the three-course lunch menu is great value.
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Ponte de Dom Luís I
Completed in 1886 by a student of Gustave Eiffel, the double-decker bridge's top deck is now reserved for pedestrians as well as one of the city's metro lines; the lower deck bears regular traffic. Both afford wonderful views.
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Leitaria Quinta Do Paço
Dine alfresco at tables on the tiny plaza, or inside the sleekly designed cafe. Neither will break the bank, with excellent lunch specials (chicken cordon bleu, grilled beef and the like) and a tempting dessert counter.
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Ramos Pinto
Right on the riverfront you can visit the rather grand Ramos Pinto, including a look at its historic offices and ageing cellars.
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Vila Nova de Gaia
While technically its own municipality, Vila Nova de Gaia ('Gaia') sits just across the Douro from Porto and is woven into the city's fabric both by a series of stunning bridges as well as its shared history of port-wine making. Since the mid-18th century, port-wine bottlers and exporters have been obliged to maintain their 'lodges' - basically dressed-up warehouses - here.
Today some 60 of them clamber up the steep riverbank, and at night the entire scene turns into Portugal's version of Las Vegas, with huge neon signs clamouring for the attention of winos and oenophiles alike. This enclave of historic terracotta-topped warehouses is now Porto's best-known attraction, de…
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Palácio da Bolsa
Next door to the church you’ll see another temple – this one dedicated unabashedly to Mammon. The Palácio da Bolsa is a splendid neoclassical monument (built from 1842 to 1910) honouring Porto’s past and present money merchants. Just past the entrance hall is the glass-domed Pátio das Nações (Hall of Nations), where the exchange once operated. But this pales in comparison with rooms deeper inside, and to visit these you must join one of the €5 guided tours, which set off every 30 minutes and last for 30 minutes. You can usually join any group; tours are given in any two of Portuguese, English and French. The highlight is a stupendous ballroom called the Salão …
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Museu de Arte Contemporânea
In a leafy, upscale suburb off the grand Avenida Boavista, is Porto's other great work of contemporary architecture. Designed by eminent, Porto-based architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea is an arrestingly minimalist construction of vast, whitewashed spaces bathed in natural light.
Most of the museum is devoted to cutting edge exhibitions, though there's also a fine permanent collection featuring works from the late 1960s to the present by the likes of Georg Baselitz, Ed Ruscha and Gerhard Richter. Nearby is Casa de Serralves, a pink 1930s Art Deco mansion that served as the original museum and is now an exhibition space. Surrounding it all is th…
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Afurada
Technically part of Gaia, Afurada is a picturesque fishing village near the mouth of the Douro where many older residents still cling to traditional ways - men fishing and women washing their laundry at communal fonts. Houses are decked with azulejos and cafés are redolent with hearty caldeirada (seafood stew). For the most scenic route, take a tram from the Ribeira to the Fluvial I stop just west of the Ponte da Arrábida. From here, catch a small ferry across the river to the village.
Hours are not fixed, but if the ferry is not operating, fishing vessels regularly make the crossing and will generally accommodate, so just ask around. Alternately, buses 93 and 96 from C…
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Museu Nacional Soares Dos Reis
A short walk west of Cordoaria lands you at Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis. The town’s most comprehensive art collection, it ranges from Neolithic carvings to Portugal’s take on modernism and is housed in the formidable Palácio das Carrancas. Requisitioned by Napoleonic invaders, the neoclassical palace was abandoned so rapidly that the future Duke of Wellington found an unfinished banquet in the dining hall. Transformed into a museum of fine and decorative arts in 1940, its best works date from the 19th century, including sculpture by António Soares dos Reis (see especially his famous O Desterrado, The Exile) and António Teixeira Lopes, and the naturalistic paintin…
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Casa Do Infante
Just back from the river is the handsomely renovated Casa do Infante. It’s claimed Henry the Navigator was born here in 1394, and the building later served as Porto’s first customs house. Today it houses three floors of exhibits on the complex activities of the customs house throughout the centuries; there’s also a model of Porto from its medieval days. In 2002 the complex was excavated, revealing Roman foundations as well as some remarkable mosaics – all of which are now on display.
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Cc Bombarda
Amid the galleries along Rua Miguel Bombarda, the small, unique CC Bombarda is well worth a peek. Inside this shopping gallery, you’ll find stores selling locally designed urban wear, bonsai trees, stylish home knick-knacks, Portuguese indie rock and other hipster-pleasing delights. There’s a shop (Frida) where you can order a doll made to your own likeness and a cafe (Pimenta Rosa) serving light fare on an inner courtyard.
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Sé
From Praça da Ribeira rises a tangle of medieval alleys and stairways that eventually reach the hulking, hilltop fortress of the sé. Founded in the 12th century, this cathedral was largely rebuilt a century later and then extensively altered in the 18th century. However, you can still make out the church’s Romanesque contours. Inside, a rose window and a 14th-century Gothic cloister remain from its early days.
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São Bento Train Station
Just off the Aliados lies São Bento Train Station. Designed by José Marques da Silva and completed in 1903, it seems to have been imported straight from 19th century Paris, thanks to its mansard roof and imposing stone facade. But the dramatic azulejos in the front hall are an entirely Portuguese creation. Completed by Jorge Colaço in 1930, they depict both historic battles scenes as well as a history of transport.
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Igreja da Misericórdia
North of the square on the distinctly Parisian Rua das Flores, you’ll find the rococo facade of the Igreja da Misericórdia, designed by the Italian baroque architect Nicolau Nasoni. Now a museum, the church shelters the superb Renaissance painting known as Fons Vitae (Fountain of Life), showing Dom Manuel I and his family around a fountain of blood from the crucified Christ.
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Boa Nova Casa-Chá
Designed by famed Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira and completed in 1963, this cliffside tea house and restaurant is set alluringly above a crashing sea. Massive boulders frame the white, low-rise building, while inside the Zenlike design continues as light floods the wood and stone interior. The restaurant is 20 minutes north of Porto along the coast. It’s best reached by car or taxi.
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Avenida dos Aliados
With bulging, Beaux Arts facades and capped by the Câmara Municipal (City Hall), the short but grand Avenida dos Aliados may not be exactly Parisian, but it certainly recalls grand Parisian imitators like Buenos Aires and Budapest. Its central plaza has been recently repaved and spiffed up, and if it weren't for all the buses (this is the city's transport hub) and it would be a fine place to linger.
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Capela Das Almas
Along pedestrianised Rua Santa Catarina, the Capela das Almas is a close second to Igreja do Carmo. Magnificent panels here depict scenes from the lives of various saints, including the death of St Francis and the martyrdom of St Catherine. Interestingly, Eduardo Leite painted the tiles in a classic 18th-century style, though they actually date back only to the early 20th century.
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Museu Romântico
Nestled on the garden’s south slopes is the Quinta da Macieirinha, the small but stately home where the exiled king of Sardinia spent his final days holed up in 1843. The upstairs has been turned into the modest Museu Romântico, featuring the king’s belongings and dainty period furnishings. Downstairs is the wonderful Solar do Vinho do Porto.
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Parque de Serralves
The marvellous, 18-hectare Parque de Serralves is host to the Museum of Contemporary Art. From lily ponds and formal fountains to a blood-red sculpture of intriguingly oversized pruning sheers, these gardens are well worth a visit in their own right. The estate and museum are 4km west of the city centre; take bus 78 from Praça da Liberdade or bus 21 from the Casa da Música metro stop.
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