Everything I Did in Porto, Portugal 🇵🇹

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Porto, Portugal, for a small stint, and it lived up to all of my expectations and then some.

Find (mostly) everything I did below:

Transportation

From the airport, I called a taxi to the hotel, and I felt safe doing this.

For any other activities, I either walked or there was a ride arranged from the tour company.

To take me back to the airport for the flight home, I called an Uber (at around 4am), and it seemed to do the trick. I also felt completely safe utilizing Uber as well.

Where I Stayed

For the hotel, I debated between staying near the beach or in the city center. This time, staying near city center won because I wanted that walkability to everything, and because it was too cold to really go to the beach anyway.I stayed at NH Collection - Porto Baltha, which is directly in the center of Porto, and it was near stores like Foot Locker, Sephora, Zara, etc., which was a huge plus.

I booked this hotel through my credit card travel portal so that I could take advantage of the benefits offered, such as, a room upgrade, breakfast included (the breakfast spread is immense), some spa things, etc. They also had a pool, a gym, a full-service restaurant and a full-service bar.

Overall, I really did enjoy my stay here, the staff was great and I never felt unsafe staying here. If I ever returned to Porto, I would definitely choose to stay here again.

Things to Do:

Porto is most famous for Duoro Valley, the wine region in Northern Portugal. Naturally, I just had to do a tour of this region, and I was blown away. I did a ten-hour tour, through Viator, and included was a tour of four wineries with lunch, a boat ride through the Duoro River, and a tour of many towns in the Portugese countryside. To be honest, I was debating between doing this or horseback riding, and I am so glad I chose this activity because not only was the tour guide great, the wine and wineries were great, but it just was genuinely one of the best things I've ever seen in my life.

While I was in South Africa, I had a pastel de nata and I fell in love. Knowing that pastel de nata was actually a Portuguese dessert, I just had to do a class on how to make them. On Viator, I found a cooking class for pastel de nata, and it was wonderful! The instructor also discussed the history of the origins of pastel de nata, and she even provided me a recipe to take home. 😄

Places to Go:

Porto is most famous for the Livraria Lello, a bookstore with a giant red sprawling staircase, that is said to have inspired JK Rowling in her writing of Harry Potter. You must grab your tickets online, which also acts a voucher for a book (~8 euros), as there is a certain timeframe you must attend, (they are strict, and there will be a line). Although I didn't purchase a book from there (limited English selections, and many of them were books I had already read), they had a diverse selection, with authors from George Orwell to Toni Morrison, but I was most impressed at the architecture.

Next, the Sao Bento train station is a popular tourist attraction and is most famous for the blue hand-painted tiles that are plastered all over the train station wall. This was a "must-see" that was recommended to me by Portugal natives.

The Mercado de Bolhao is an open-air market that has fruits, vegetables, cheese, olive oil, pastel de natas, etc. where individuals can purchase things for cheap. The market was beautiful, and also had plenty of restaurants on the top floor.

Places to Eat:

OK, so, I don't have that many food recommendations because I honestly barely ate (and slept) when I was here, but the things I did eat were pretty good. I went to some cafe I found on Google Maps called Nata Sweet Nata and it was pretty good, with a beautiful view, and beautiful staff.

After I viewed the Sao Bento train station, across the street was TGB - The Good Burger, and I just had to try it because I love burgers, and it was in the heart of Porto.

Overall, I highly recommend visiting Porto.

Porto treated me well, everyone I encountered was friendly, and the city was incredibly safe.

Until next time.

-C