The problem with Porto is that everyone who visits talks about port wine. The port wine cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia are genuinely impressive, the Douro valley is one of the great wine landscapes in Europe, and the wine itself — Tawny, Ruby, Vintage, White — is worth drinking. But the port conversation crowds out the actual city, which is one of the most beautiful and least appreciated urban destinations in southern Europe.
Porto deserves to be known for itself.
The Ribeira
The Ribeira district, along the Douro river, is where Porto began and where it is still most alive. The riverfront promenade is lined with restaurants, bars, and the enormous Dom Luís I bridge — Gustave Eiffel’s second great bridge, built to the same principles as the one in Lisbon but with an added level that makes it even more dramatic to cross on foot.
The buildings here are old and slightly crumbling in the way that Porto does better than almost any city. The azulejo tiles — the blue and white ceramic panels that cover so many Porto buildings — are more restrained here than in Lisbon, more integrated into the building’s structure, and more beautiful for their restraint.
The food in the Ribeira is better than the views suggest. The seafood is from the Atlantic coast forty kilometers away, and it’s excellent. The grilled sardines at Tapabenta are simple and perfect. The Francesinha — the Porto sandwich that no one can adequately explain to someone who hasn’t eaten one — is a project that requires either a long walk afterward or several hours of recovery.
Where to Drink When You Don’t Drink Port
Porto’s wine scene is not only about port. The city has embraced Portuguese table wines with the same seriousness that Lisbon has, and there are wine bars in the city center that would hold their own in any European capital.
Café Santiago is not a wine bar, but it has a wine list worth knowing. The Francesinha here is the reference version, and the house wine — a Douro red from a small producer — is the right thing to drink with it.
Prova is a small wine bar near the Clérigos Tower with an excellent list of Portuguese wines by the glass. The staff will help you navigate, which is the right approach.
Wine Bar do Porto is more formal, with a serious list of Douro and Bairrada wines and a terrace that overlooks the river. Worth going even if you’re not drinking port.
The Practical Weekend
Fly in Friday evening, eat in the Ribeira, walk across the Dom Luís bridge to Gaia, and come back by metro. Saturday morning: the Livraria Lello bookshop, which is one of the most beautiful in Europe and worth the queue. Saturday afternoon: a taxi or train to the Douro valley — Pinhao or Regua — for a few hours in the vineyards. Sunday: breakfast at a cafe in the Bolhao market area, shopping for azulejo-patterned ceramics, and an early evening flight.
This is enough time to understand why people who know Porto well tend to want to go back.
