Porto travel guide: best things to do in Portugal’s second city

From the historic old town to Gaia’s port houses to beaches along the city’s east, Porto is a northern counterweight to Portugal’s capital

For a few years starting in 2021, I split my life between London and Porto. I never quite stopped feeling I had got away with something. Here was a city with sea, sun, serious cultural credentials, excellent food and an Atlantic breeze that could clear a dreary London week from your head. It was the perfect panacea for hectic urban living.

Portugal’s second city is hardly a discovery. Its historic centre has been Unesco-listed since 1996 and its commercial fortunes were built on a wine trade whose warehouses still line the opposite bank of the Douro.

Yet reducing Porto to picturesque streets and port tastings misses its place in Portuguese culture: a northern counterweight to the capital, Lisbon, with an architectural tradition whose influence extends well beyond Portugal.

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