A guide by Rafael Kino

Instagram: @rafaelkino 

If you like this guide and it's helped you, buy me a coffee / give a small donation here. 

Essentials: 

Ponte D Luis and Ribeira  Near River, the bridge was constructed by the Eiffel architecture office. Most iconic part of Porto. Most restaurants here are tourist traps, but I can recommend Porto Escondido.

If you have time you should go up the Douro Valley and visit Régua. See Daytrips below for more detail.  

Museu Da Avó My must go restaurant in Porto. Serves small plates. Amazing atmosphere, good food and low prices. 

Avoid: Don’t go to Cafe Santiago or any random cafe for francesinha. Check my recommendations below - Brasão Coliseu or Café Celia (!). Bad Francesinha is terrible! 

Going up clérigos tower - very expensive and there are a lot of other places with panoramic views of the city. 

Bike rentals: Velurb

Good places to visit: 

Farolim da Barra do Douro / Foz do Douro Area Lighthouse a bit out in the sea. A bit of a different place. Watch out for high tides! Can be dangerous. Go only if the sea is calm. 

Casa da Música Modern concert hall. Very beautiful. They have tours to see inside. Just from the outside it's nothing special tbh. 

Restaurants - $$ (middle class)

Bulha - good cod, good Portuguese food in general. Not cheap, not expensive 

Francesinha (traditional porto sandwich)

Brasão Coliseu (needs a reservation) or 

Café Célia The only other francesinha I can recommend. Good size, good price and tasty sauce. Don’t go anywhere else! you’ll be wasting your money. The average francesinha from a random cafe can be sloppy. 

Extremely cheap food

Cristo Rei at Rua Francisco Tomas. Usually well cooked, all local food. 5-6€ a person, very big portions 

Confeitaria Imperio - next door, which has a Buffet. More expensive, you pay per weight plus some foods are more expensive than others. 

Traditional food 

Casa Guedes pork sandwich with cheese

Conga bifana sandwich - meat and bread, spicy

Museu Da Avó Small plates place. Good food and incredible atmosphere 

Lareira Another small plates place. Also good food, and an incredible white sangria 

Endovelico Celtic food restaurant with good beer. Close to metro trindade 

Vegan/ vegetarian places 

Casa da Horta often has live music, check Instagram. Food is often incredible but changes everyday. You must book a table but you can do it through a PM on Instagram

DaTerra Daily buffet near Sao Bento station, generally really good. 

Kind kitchen

Ovalho

Espaço compasso (beautiful garden outside but only open to events) 

Next to the river

Porto Escondido - great cheap place in an area full of tourist traps. Great bacalhau à Braga. 

Burguers:

Marianus burguers

Real hambúrgueria 

Curb Burger

Pizza

Rei da Gula - Brazilian pizza place, has amazing pizzas you can only find in Brazil like frango com catupiry and the 4 cheeses has Brazilian cream cheese 

Things to visit / see. 

Macdonald’s dos Aliados (old café imperial - one of the “most beautiful cafes in the world” it's actually nice, trust me)

Livraria Lello - JK Rowling, Harry Potter etc etc. 5e to get in but you get it discounted if you a buy a book. 

Café Majestic insanely expensive but worth a look from the outside

Estação São Bento 

Capela das Almas 

Capela de Fradelos

Igreja Monumento São Francisco - a beautiful church. Lots of gold and quite impressive

Clérigos - you can climb on top but I don’t think it’s worth it for the price. 

Fontainhas - old neighbourhood, has a super steep abandoned homes and railway line that you can traverse up and down. Interesting things if you like weird abandoned places (which I do). 

Aldeia pescadores dos Lavadores / Praia dos Lavadores - beautiful little fishing village that’s now part of the city. Has small but nice fishing museum. You can go in the river in some places. People still grill small fish here on the streets. 

Picturesque Miradouros (elevated locations where you can have great views of the city) 

Miradouro no passeio das virtudes (my favourite) to clearly distinguish this from the Jardim, look for the MUSA beer shop.  

Palácio de cristal 

Jardim das virtudes 

Jardim do morro (gaia) The top of Ponte D. Luis I is unmissable particularly on a sunset 

Sé do Porto 

Parks

Jardim das virtudes is beautiful 

Palácio de cristal 

Beaches:

Matosinhos/ foz do douro - maybe easiest to get to 

Praia Fluvial do Areinho - river beach upriver. great place to chill. Less windy than all the others. Going up river you can find multiple nice beaches. There are nice bike paths there. 

Other places:

Gato Vadio is an anarchist bookshop that I love. Often has events. 

Cafes:

Rota do Chá - amazing place with a beautiful garden in the back, great atmosphere and teas from all over the world CCOP (Círculo Católico Operários Porto) - old cafe now kind of hipster / artistic. Amazing terrace outside.

Café Negra - brunch place with good cappuccinos

Montana Vegan shop - cappuccinos and great vegan chilli 

Boca Doce - a chain but they produce great sweets, cakes. Big variety of things

Padaria Ribeiro - a great bakery that’s been there for ages. Virtually anything here is good 

Candelabro - the artsy type cafe of Porto. Nice atmosphere 

Pretinho do Japao - gourmet deli focused on coffee, has a beautiful garden in the back

Pastéis de Nata:

Fábrica de Nata (Rua de Santa Catarina) - in my opinion the best you’ll find

Manteigaria - better in Lisbon, where the pastéis are served warm 

Boca doce Doce Real - cheaper pastéis de nata than manteigaria and imo just as good, in fact some people prefer it. 

Bars/ nightlife 

Pinguim - off path nice chilled bar. 

Ferro bar - above São Bento. Nice view . 

Pipa Velha bar 

Aduela bar 

Maus hábitos - amazing rooftop type bar/ exhibition space / nightclub. One of my favourite places in the city. A bit expensive. Go during the day to see the city from above.

Passos Manuel - dance and bar inside Coliseu do Porto (but different programming to coliseu) 

Pérola Negra - old strip club now nightclub 

GARE porto - nightclub, techno, in a catacombs Galeria de Paris - there is a bar with this name which is nice has a car on the wall you can’t miss it. It’s gotten really expensive so I stopped going but the decor is amazing. 

Rua das Galerias de Paris - around this area there’s lot of bars and clubs. 

Plano B - bar nightclub. 

Cafe Au lait - sometimes has live music 

Indústria Club - never been there but sometimes has good DJs 

Look sharp bar - expat bar close to São Bento. Has lots of small events like board games and quiz nights. 

Day trips 

Take a day or two to go to Regua if you can and hike there - that will be the highlight of your trip Beautiful region where Port wine is made. The train there goes right next to to the Douro river, and the road there if you drive is one of the most beautiful in Europe. I highly recommend you do this! It’s absolutely gorgeous there The food there is usually incredible, the wine also. I can recommend Maleiro restaurant and Tasca da Quinta. If you cross the bridge to the other side you can walk through all the vines I recommend you at least visit Quinta da Pacheca which is close, beautiful and has wine tastings. But you can through any farm and winery, there are no walls or wire or anything! You can just hike through the grapes and terrazos for miles. Just Google “douro valley” to see how it looks like. **Note: To go to Regua you must buy tickets on line or on the ticket shop at the station. You can’t buy it on the machines. Ticket shop often has a queue. Either come early or buy online.** 

Guimaraes: medieval city centre and a couple of castles. Cor de Tangerina is a local veggie restaurant there. Praça da Oliveira where all the bars are, is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Art galleries / places

Sra Presidenta

O Galeria

Materia prima 

Miguel Bombarda street is where all the galeries are. 

Serralves  

Casa do Design often has great exhibits

Centro Português de Forografia - old prison now museum. Building is more interesting than the exhibits

Alt cinema 

Cinema trindade