Top 15 Must-Visit Places in Porto for Unforgettable Experience
Porto, a jewel inside Portugal. It’s one of the cities that most surprised us at all levels and it deserve to be discovered and have a great recognition. Porto was our entrance to the country and we could enjoy it for 2 days, inside a 10 days route in Portugal, and it really left us wanting more as we really loved it. That’s why we want to bring this list of top places in Porto.
It’s also a world known place due to the gastronomy and wine. In general, Portugal is a must for the foodies and you could try very different food and try varied dishes of products from the land and sea that will delight you. Specifically, Porto is one of the most important wine exporters of the worlds. They have a very famous wine called Porto wine whose first elaboration is from the XVII century. You can find lots of cellars in the neighboring city to do a wine tasting and understand how this wine is produced.
- 3 Days in Porto: The Best Detailed Guide
- 4 days in Lisbon: The Most Complete Experience.
- Discovering Portugal: A 9-Day Itinerary from Porto to Lisbon.
- Must-Sees of Lisbon: The 7-Hills City
- Where to stay in Lisbon: Best Areas and Accommodation
We have other posts in our blog related to our experience in Portugal. Check them for further information about the country:
After this introduction we leave you with the list of top places in Porto!
1. Porto city hall
The Porto city hall is located at the beginning of Avenida dos Aliados. It started in the 1920 but after some interruptions, it was finished in 1955, year when it was also inaugurated.
City hall tower is 70m hight and it’s said that it was built in this area and with this height after a period of instability with the religious power of the city, making that you can’t see the Trindade Church from the main avenue (Avenida dos Aliados).
This place is interesting due to the exterior, size and location, and if you visit Porto, it’s clear you will see that place as it’s a very important meeting point and one of the top places in Porto.
2. Iglesia and Torre dos Clerigos
Iglesia dos Clerigos was built in XVIII century and has a baroque style. This church is where we can find the famous Torre dos Clérigos, one of the best city viewpoints and the highest tower in Portugal. If you reach the top of the tower, you could see the whole Porto city with a 360 view.
It totally deserves to go to the top, but we strongly recommend to do it at first hour in the morning, as the stairs are placed in a very narrow corridor and if you go in the rush hour and the top is crowded, you will have to wait a lot in the narrow place.
The schedule is from 9 to 19h and the price of the church is free but the tower is 5€ per adult. Check the Iglesia dos Clerigos website to obtain more information.
3. Sao Bento station
One of the top places in Porto is Sao Bento, one of the most beautiful train stations of the world. It was inaugurated in 1916 and it served as an impulse to a Portugal that was expanding in the railway world. It is a place from which you can move and travel to other key points in Portugal as it’s very well communicated to all the main places in the country..
All this is great, but why it is famous? The answer is in the entrance hall. This station has murals created with more than 20.000 blue tiles created by Jorge Colaço. It is an incredible piece of art that explains different Portugal history scenarios and show the society all along different periods (field scenes, battles, historical moments…). If you want further information about the meaning, we recommend you to follow this mural artwork of Sao Bento’s post.
As it’s a train station, the entrance is obviously free.
4. Lello Bookstore
This place is located beside Torre dos Clerigos and it is considered one of the most beautiful boosktores in the world. It was founded in 1869 and the truth is that the interior of the bookstore is incredible, with a big and amazing staircase in the middle and a classic and full of details decoration, that make’s it one of the top places in Porto.
In addition, it’s said that this bookstore was an inspiration to the famous author of the Harry Potter books, J.K.Rowling during his period in Porto to design Howgarts staircase. She denied this was an inspiration, but it’s true that the bookstore is similar to some scenarios of the famous magic school, so we prefer to think that she was inspired ;).
Inside, you can buy books in different languages as Portugues, French, English or Spanish. In our case, we bought a Spanish version of “The Little Prince” that was cute.
The entrance is 5€ and you have two ways of buying it. In the entrance, you will se a queue of people with online ticket and the other without. We recommend to buy it online as you will select the schedule that suits you the most and you go inside without much queue. You can buy the tickets in the Lello’s bookstore official website and the schedule is from 9 to 19.
5. Porto's cathedral
We didn’t have many references of this place when we went, and it was one of the most surprising of the city and one of the top places in Porto. The Porto’s cathedral it’s the main religious monument of the city and one of the most important in the country.
It was built between the XII and the XIII centuries and it has different architectural styles as it had lots of changes and renovations. You can observe romanic elements as the rose windows or elements in the facade, gothic as the cloister or chapel or baroque as the main entrance or the domes. Our favorite part is the cloister. It was nice and it remembered us some films (yes, again Harry Potter as it should also inspire her for Hogwarts). It’s a great place to take some pictures in a another period cloister.
The entrance to the cathedral is free, but if you want to visit the cloister and Casa do Cabildo (an object exposition) you must pay 3€ per adult. The schedule is from 9 to 18.30 between April and October and from 9 to 17:30 from November to March.
6. Iglesia do Carmo e Carmelitas
In our opinion, another building that must be in the list of top places in Porto are Iglesias do Carmo e Carmelitas. They are considered two of the most important and beautiful of the city. They are two adjoining churches, so you will do a 2×1 in the visit.
This construction is from the XVII century by the architect José de Figueiredo Feixas. The most attractive item of this place is the external facade, that has a spectacular mosaic of blue tiles made in 1912 that represents some religious scenarios with the typical blue and white mosaic you will see around the city (like in Sao Bento).
The interior of the churches is not big, but if you go there, it’s good to go inside and admire all the details.
We really enjoyed this place as it’s a very striking church and we had a really good time taking some photos to the facade (we really like mosaics). You have to visit it!
7. Ribeira do Duero
And as it can’t be different in a city with a river crossing, another of the top places in Porto is walking in the Ribeira do Duero (Duero’s riverbank). For us, it’s one of the most beautiful walks you can do in the city and from where you could see the animated life of this city. It’s one of the most picturesque and photographable places of the city, as you can see the curious framework of buildings with their colorful and peculiar houses.
In our opinion, a good way of visiting it is to go to Largo do Terreiro, near Don Luis I bridge, where you will see there’s a lot of restaurants and animation and start walking in the opposite direction of the bridge in a nice walk.
8. Bolhao Market
This interesting market is active since 1912 and it is the main market of the city and a place where you can feel the essence of th city and Portugal, as it’s one of the more animated and authentic places in the city.
It has some areas, like the food area or the clothes one.
In our opinion, it is worth it to go as in the markets you can see the character, the life of a different society and it can help you understand the way they live. In this case Bolhao is one of the top places in Porto as it’s an emblematic area of the city that deserves your visit no matter if you want to buy or not.
The market is opened from 8 to 18h.
9. Saint Ildefonso church
This religious constructionwas built in the XVIII century and it has a baroque style. It is a small church, whose main attractive, and it is completely justified, is the suprising facade.
As we specified before, lots of constructions in the city are striking and curious due to the blue tiles facades. In this case, the church facade has this elements and, in addition, the creator was the same person that did the mosaic of Sao Bento’s church, Jorge Colaço. The mosaic explains the history of San Ildefonso and allegories of the eucharist.
This place is one of the more interesting in the city, as there’s a huge contrast between the church deterioration and the beautiful blue tiles mosaic of the facade. It’s a must visit, and for sure you will love it.
10. Don Luis I Bridge
This is one of the top places in Porto and one of the main icons of the city. This bridge connects the city with Vila Nova de Gaia and it’s a World’s Heritage by the UNESCO.
It was built at the end of the XIX century as the comercial relationship between both cities started to progress and they needed a way of transporting easily the materials from one place to the other. After a contest, the current bridge was the winner project, beginning one of the city emblems.
Currently, this bridge has some tram railways crossing and a pedestrian part, so it’s very easy to get there, cross it and take a panoramic photo of the picturesque city from one of the best places you can.
As a personal recommendation, it is a great idea to cross the bridge when the sun is falling (if you have good weather). You will see an amazing sunset with views to the colorful Oporto’s facades and you could take some incredible photos that will be one of the best memories you will have of the city.
11. Vila Nova de Gaia
After crossing Don Luis I bridge, we can find the neighbor city, Vila Nova de Gaia. This city is very famous due to the wine cellars as it has many of them and it is one of the biggest production centers of the city.
It is worth spending some time in this place, as it has some interesting things to do. After crossing the river, we did a wine tasting and then we had a walk through the area. We could see some interesting places that became some of our top places in Porto:
- Gaia’s cableway: Given that the time where we returned from Vila nova was at the sunset, we decided to take the railway to admire from the sky the magnificent sky and city. We recommend to take it, it is a good experience and it gives you a different view of the city that you won’t get from anywhere on the city. You can check the price and schedule in the official website of the railway (you can also buy it there, so don’t worry).
- Jardim do Morro: When crossing the bridge, you will see a big garden in which (if the weather is good) there are lots of persons taking a break. It a great place to see Porto, take a photo and relax having a drink.
- Monasterio Serra do Pilar: On the left side of the bridge, you will observe a big monastery. This is a World’s Heritage by the UNESCO that can be visited. It’s not one of the most impressive things. but you can access as it’s just 1€ the entrance and 3€ the tower access to go to the viewpoint.
- Half Rabbit: It is a urban art piece that is a rabbit in a wall corner done with recycled materials. It is a curious thing and a true art piece. You can find it there.
12. Wine tasting in Vila Nova de Gaia
We already mentioned above that the wine in Porto is world known and it is mainly produced in the Vila Nova de Gaia area. That’s the reason why, most of the cellars are offering tours to explain you the wine production and aging and they offer a final wine tasting of some of their wines.
Each cellar has a different visit, so you must inform before going and know what you prefer to do. Some of them are offering longer tastings, other more cultural and informative tours, others a mix…
We did a tour in the Taylor’s cellar. Our rating is a 6/10 as the cellar was amazing, specially the barrels area, but it was short and a little but boring for us, as you do the visit with an audioguide and there is too much explanation. Obviously, this is a very personal thing, as the wine lovers will completely enjoy all the process for sure. In this case, the tasting was with two Porto wine, one white wine and one red wine in the restaurant that the cellar’s has. This is the Taylor’s Cellar website in case you want to visit it.
13. Porto McDonalds
For sure, this will surprise you, but Porto has the most beautiful McDonalds of the world. It is in the Plaza de la Libertad, in the Avenida dos Aliados, 5 min from the city hall. This McDonalds was inaugurated in the 1992, but previously was a famous and important Café called Imperial Café that needed a remodeling and the famous fast food company did it. S
This is a beautiful place in the inside, with big chandeliers and stained glass windows that will surprise you for sure. The only problem is that there’s too much queue to go inside, but at the entrance is free (no need to buy food) you can do the queue to see this real jewel that is placed inside.
14. Jardines do Palacio de cristal
As you know if you follow our accounts and posts, we really enjoy green places in the middle of the cities and we always try to visit the most important ones. In this case, we wanted to see the most famous ciy park, the Jardines do Palacio de Cristal.
It is a park that it’s not in the most touristic area of the city and it has a great pavilion to do events, the Rosa Mota or Superbock Arena. For us, it was not a must visit place, but it is a nice place to go if you have time, where you can see something different and have a nice walk. In addition, the park is located in the top of a hill, so it’s an excellent viewpoint to the Duero bank and the Porto bridges.
A recommendation is to walk from the Don Luis I bridge by the bank of the river until you get to the gardens (you will hav to walk like 45 mins, but it’s nice).
15. Possible excursions, Braga and Guimaraes
And given that we stayed 10 days in Portugal, the last point of the list of top places in Porto, is related with some excursions you can do in a day to near cities around.
The first one is Braga, one of the most important cities in Portugal and the religious center of it. We could see one of the most spectacular places in Portugal, Bom Jesus do Monte, a sanctuary and one of the most important pilgrimage places in the country. We strongly recommend to visit this place, specially due to the big baroque staircase that covers a 116 meters slope. The views of the staircase from below are incredible. In addition, you can also visit Braga’s old town that is not that incredible but for sure you find it interesting (we couldn’t go due to the weather).
The second city is Guimaraes, which is considered the first city of Portugal and a true jewel. We could spend a day there and we visited all the attractive places of it. We recommend to go to the Guimaraes castle, the Duques the Braganza palace and walk through the streets and squares with medieval architecture that will delight you for sure.
You can go free with train, or the most recommended way if you don’t have enough time, book a 1 day in Braga and Guimaraes tour that covers the must-visit places of both cities in a day.
As you could see, Porto is a place where you won’t be bored at all. It has lots of things to do, a great history behind and a spectacular gastronomy.
It is also a city with a great nightlife and atmosphere so it can fit everyone.
We hope this post was useful and that you visit the city. As always, if you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will help you gladly 🙂
97A97C 97A97C
