3 Days In Porto: The Best Detailed Guide
Porto surprised us on every level. We think it is the perfect city for a weekend getaway and, even more, if you live in Spain. That’s why we want to share our experience of 3 days in Porto, as we think it can be very useful because it was quite complete.
Porto is one of the most important cities in Portugal together with the capital Lisbon, Braga and Coimbra. For us it is a super magnetic city, with super nice places and lots of things to do.
Porto is a city that you can easily see in two days. Obviously, if you have an extra day, it’s better if you don’t want to take so much time, but we managed to see almost everything without a problem (although we had to put in a bit of a lot of work). We combined it with a 3rd day of excursions to some very cool places for a day trip.
If you are interested in our experience in Porto, we also leave you a post where we explain in detail all the must-see places and how to visit them and, also, we leave you some of our other posts about this trip to Portugal that we are sure you will find very useful:
- Porto must-sees
- 9 days in Portugal: from Porto to Lisbon
- 4 days in Lisbon: Complete Guide
- Where to stay in Lisbon
- The Must-Sees of Lisbon: The City of 7-Hills
That said, let’s go with our 3 days in Porto guide!
Day 1 of 3 days in Porto
Our first day in Porto started at noon because we had to telework in the morning. As we always recommend when visiting a new city, we started with a free tour. On this tour, we were able to see key sites of the city and to orientate ourselves and know very important things about Porto, its people, the gastronomy and the historical context. We selected this free tour by Civitatis and we liked it VERY much.
We were able to visit places like:
- Porto City Hall
- the Clérigos Tower (outside)
- Lello Bookshop (outside)
- Sao Bento Station
- the University of Porto from the outside
- a couple of very interesting viewpoints.
This free tour also includes a visit to the Cathedral and the River Bank, but we left it early as we had a ticket to see the Lello Bookshop.
So, after leaving the tour, we headed to this famous bookshop, which has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful in the world. To book a ticket you have to do it from their website or you can buy it directly there, but you will have to queue longer. This bookshop is the one that is said, although she denies it, to have inspired J.K. Rowling in some ideas to make the Harry Potter world.
The reality is that as we started the first day of these 3 days in Porto at noon, after this we didn’t have much time to do anything else, but we would recommend after this visit, to take a relaxing walk along the Ribera, a great place to stroll and have a drink.
Day 2 of 3 days in Porto
Our second day of these 3 days in Porto was a real thrashing, as you can see, we had too much time on our first day and we wanted to see a lot of things. We got up very early, we were already on the move by 8 am.
We started the day in a place that was very close to our hotel, the Bolhao Market. When traveling, we usually like to visit markets as they are places where you can see the character of the people and how the locals live their daily lives, so we always find it interesting.
Next, we thought it was a great option to climb the Clérigos Tower, the best viewpoint in the city. It really was a good choice, as it is a very busy place and at opening time there are far fewer people, so we were able to visit it practically on our own, which was much appreciated. You can buy tickets to the Torre de los Clérigos on their official website.
After this visit, we spent time at some of the places we had already seen quickly with the free tour, but saw them in detail and took some cool pictures. We did:
- Iglesia del Carmen and Carmelitas, with its wonderful exterior mural where to take one of the best pictures of the city.
- Sao Bento to admire its paintings in more detail.
- We visited the inside of the Cathedral of Oporto, one of the most surprising places for me as we found it beautiful. It reminded us a lot of Hogwarts gardens from Harry Potter :). You can buy tickets at the entrance (the cathedral itself is free but it’s €3 if you want to see the cloister, which is the best for us).
- the church of San Ildefonso
After these visits, as we hadn’t done it the day before, we went down to the Ribera del Duero. It is a very lively place, with lots of places to eat, excellent views of the bridge Don Luís I , so it is a top recommendation to walk here if you spend 3 days in Oporto.
As we mentioned, we had plenty of time, so we decided to walk along the Ribeira to the Crystal Palace Gardens. This walk is a bit long but pleasant, although the gardens are a visit you can skip if you are short on time.
After the obligatory stop for lunch, it was time to go to the city next to Oporto, the neighbouring Vila Nova de Gaia. The Don Luis I bridge separates these two towns, which look like the same city but are not. So we crossed the bridge, took the respective photographs and arrived at this place.
Vila Nova de Gaia is famous for its wine and its many wineries where you can visit and taste. We chose Taylor’s winery for the wine tasting. We thought the visit was weak, we believe there are better options for wine tasting.
After the tasting, we strolled around the town, seeing the famous Half Rabbit urban artwork and returning to the riverbank to take the Gaia cable car that took us to the top of the Don Luis I bridge where we saw an amazing sunset.
Day 3: Bom Jesus do Monte and Guimaraes
Our last day of our 3 days in Porto was dedicated to a visit to two very nice towns that are a maximum of 45 minutes away from the city, Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga and Guimaraes.
There are many ways to do these visits, from full day guided tours, to hiring your own transport or going by public transport. As this was the start of a 9 day tour of Portugal, we rented our own vehicle.
- As full day tours, we would recommend this full day tour from Porto with GetYourGuide.
- If you want to hire your own car, we recommend Auto Europe, our official partner.
In our case, we avoided visiting Braga as we were short on time and preferred to visit the best places to see in Braga such as the monastery of Bom Jesus do Monte and make a full visit to Guimaraes.
We recommend Bom Jesus do Monte 100%, we liked it very much, especially its famous staircase, a work of art. We would have liked to spend more time there, but it was pouring rain and we decided to go to Guimaraes after the visit.
Guimaraes is famous for being the first city in the country of Portugal. It is a super cool city with a strong medieval atmosphere that we loved. There, we were able to visit:
- Guimaraes Castle
- Here Nasceu Portugal
- Largo do Toral
- Largo de Oliveira
- Church of Our Lady of Oliveira
- Sao Tiago Square
- Palace of the Dukes of Bragança
- Church of Nossa Senhora da Consolaçao
- Santuario da Penha (you have to take a cable car, it’s a very cool visit!)
We liked everything, but if we have to say one place it is the Santuario da Penha, on top of a mountain and with amazing views of the city and the surroundings.
Where to eat in Porto
As you know if you follow us, gastronomy is key for us on a trip. And, frankly, we think Portugal’s is one of the best. In Porto, we would like to recommend the following places that we are sure you will love:
- Antunes Restaurant. It’s a traditional Portuguese menu that is very cheap but super tasty. 15€ pp approx.
- Flor dos Congregados Restaurant. Very very top this place. It is a bit more expensive (25€ pp) but one of the best restaurants we tried in our 3 days in Porto and in our tour of Portugal in general.
- Brasao Aliados. If you go to Porto you must try the francesinha, its star dish. Now, find out what it is before you go, as it is a real calorie bomb. Brasao Aliados is a perfect place to go (go early as there is a long queue).
- Laurear Porto: Andrea’s favourite restaurant in this city. She had tried it on her first visit and wanted to repeat and the truth is that it is top. It’s run by an old lady and her daughter and they do typical Portuguese tapas food which is really good.
- Taberna Trovador (Guimaraes): This is also a place you can try if you go to Guimaraes and we thought it was one of the best places of the trip. It is also typical Portuguese food, specialising in meat, which we thought was very good.
Where to sleep in Porto
We will recommend you the place where we slept in our 3 days in Porto as we thought it was very cool, but soon we will bring you a guide of better areas and places to sleep.
We slept in Porto Spot Hostel and the truth is that it is a 10 in location (near the Bolhao market), quality-price and friendliness.
Map of 3 days in Porto
3 days in Porto are the perfect opportunity for a city break in a city with culture, history, gastronomy and very friendly people. We were able to visit all of Portugal and we loved it, but Porto has something special, we think it has a mystique that other cities don’t have.
If you have any questions, you know that we are available through comments or on our social networks.
