48 Hours in Porto

I can't believe it's been a month since we got back from our Europe trip! After my family trip to Puglia, Joe and I spent a few days in Portugal. Neither of us had been before, and we loved it! We spent 48 hours in Porto, and a few days in Lisbon. We absolutely loved Porto; it deserves a proper recap!

We loved our hotel in Porto; we stayed at the Editory Boulevard Aliados Hotel. The location was amazing and our room was so chic. It was a perfect location from which we could walk everywhere, and it felt very safe. It was also a great price for how nice it was!

Tuesday

We flew into Porto from Puglia (connecting in Geneva) on Tuesday 8/5; it was definitely a longer travel day due to the layover, but we made it to Portugal in the early evening and were able to check in and get changed in time for dinner. 

We found this cute restaurant, Museu d'Avo, on Tik Tok, and had our hotel call to make us a reservation for about an hour out. We walked around and explored a bit before heading to the restaurant. 

The vibes at this restaurant were amazing; lots of classic Portuguese small plates, wine for so cheap, and olives, bread, etc when you sat down. It was so dark, cozy, and candlelit. I think it definitely helped that our hotel called, because it did end up getting pretty busy as the night went on. The atmosphere was wonderful, and it was a great start to our trip!

We went for a long walk after dinner to explore more and get ice cream, before heading back to the hotel.

Wednesday

Wednesday was our only full day in Porto, so we made the most of it! We had to start our day with Pastel de Nata, of course, which are the traditional Portuguese egg tarts that the country is known for! We got pastel de nata from Manteigaria; we ended up getting pastel de nata every morning, but this spot was our favorite by far! 

After our treats, we walked to see the Chapel of Souls, or Capela das Almas. This was high up on my list! It has the most beautiful exterior. I was surprised it's actually quite small, and on a busy city street, but it was beautiful to see. We took a few photos and then headed to lunch. 

Oooomg, lunch. You guys, this place was so great, went back the next day! We went to a spot called Conga for bifana sandwiches. This did seem to be the most popular spot for bifanas during our research, and it did not disappoint. There are two options: you can eat at the counter quickly, or you can sit down. We sat down for lunch on Wednesday and had to try the classics: Super Bock beers, and their classic bifana sandwiches. These sandwiches are amazing; they're so simple, just thin slices of juicy pork on a roll, but they have this juicy oil that they're cooked in that is dripping all over the sandwich, which gives it just such great flavor and deliciousness. Perfect sandwich, with a perfect beer - this was my first Super Bock experience; they're great.

We spent the afternoon walking around a ton and exploring! We walked all the way down to the Dom Luis bridge and walked over to the other side of Porto. The bridge connects Porto across the Duoro river, and offers amazing views of the city. We even saw some teenagers jump off the lower part of bridge, which was wild to see - looked so scary but kind of fun, haha. We were constantly amazed by the views and the beauty of Porto. 

Once we got to the other side of the Duoro, we made our way to Taylor's for a port tour and tasting! This side of the river I think has 20-something port makers for tours and tastings; based on our research, we chose to go to Taylor's since it offered a pretty thorough tour experience, and a tasting in their outdoor garden.

We learned quite a bit about the history of port before sampling a few of Taylor's ports. It was definitely fun to try all of the ports, but I don't know if they're something I want to drink regularly -- just a little too sweet for regular life! Delicious and fun to experience though, especially in Porto. And, the garden was gorgeous. We were pretty high up, so we had more wonderful views of the city. It was overall just a very scenic afternoon!

We did a little more shopping and exploring in the early evening. We discovered a cool store, The Feeting Room, where Joe found a few cute things! They actually had one in Lisbon, too, that we popped into later in the week. Highly recommend!

Before dinner, we had a cocktail at Marlindo. It was really nice to sit outside here, and the cocktail menu was so fun. 

We had dinner Wednesday night at a restaurant called Raiz. The restaurant was almost set up like a townhouse, with large windows and many floors; it was so cozy, and we had amazing octopus. I will say, I think they took reservations only at two time slots, and almost everyone in there was American during the earlier seating when we went. I'm not sure if it would have been different had we gone to dinner later, but if dinner with all Americans isn't your vibe when in Europe, just something to keep in mind... 

Something we really wanted to do was watch the sunset over the bridge in Porto. I think we made it over to the bridge a little late, but it was a gorgeous experience nonetheless. Ideally, we would've crossed the bridge and watched the sunset from Jardim do Morro park, but it was still lovely to watch from the actual bridge. Something to keep in mind: pedestrians can go on both the lower and higher parts of the bridge; the lower part where we were earlier in the day has a completely different access point. If you wanted to watch the sunset from the park, you'd cross the bridge from the higher part.

Thursday

Thursday was our last day in Porto before taking the train to Lisbon. We grabbed coffee and more pastel de nata in the morning, before packing up at the hotel. Liked I mentioned, we went back to Conga for another bifana, and then we had a reservation at Livraria Lello at 12pm! This is the library Hogwarts is based off of, and definitely worth seeing. But, you have to be prepared. It is required that you have a reservation; we did the Gold reservation that comes with a free book with your ticket, and also a much shorter line. It's only 6-7 more euros than the Silver ticket, and so worth it. The Silver line was long. We were able to book our tickets the day before, but the available time slots were limited - just something to keep in mind.

And that was really it! We had one more Super Bock at a pub before heading to the train station to go to Lisbon. It was a quick, but lovely 48 hours in Porto. The city is so beautiful, and very laid back. All of the people were so kind, the food was amazing, and it was quite inexpensive. Highly recommmend!

xoxo