Unique 3-Day Porto Itinerary (for Wine and Adventure Lovers)

Welcome to Porto, where cobblestone streets meet vibrant riverfronts, and the scent of sweet custard egg tarts fills the air!

We’re fresh back from our northern Portugal adventure, where we spent a delightful week exploring the Old Town of Porto (also known as Oporto) and Vila Nova de Gaia (or simply Gaia), its neighbor across the Douro River.

But we know time is precious, and most people visit Porto for a shorter trip. So we’ve crafted a 3-day Porto itinerary to help you make the most of your visit.

How many days in Porto do you need?

While we enjoyed a longer stay than most, you can experience the best of Porto in three days.

It’s the second-largest city in Portugal after Lisbon, and if comparing Porto with Lisbon (which we’ve visited on previous trips), it feels more energetic and youthful. Which is a little contradictory… Because Porto’s Old Town is packed with centuries-old churches and architectural treasures.

But Porto isn’t about touring museums and monuments.

It’s about soaking up the atmosphere – huffing up hilly cobblestone streets, admiring lavish Baroque and Beaux-Arts architecture, popping into beautiful train stations and bookstores, sipping port by the river at sunset and enjoying great food.

So yes, three days in Porto is perfect. Spend two days exploring this charming city and a third on a day trip to the Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the birthplace of port wine.

Now, if time is short, it is possible to squeeze in Porto’s main attractions in a day. Here’s a full-day Porto tour that comes highly recommended.

What sort of 3-day Porto itinerary is this?

This itinerary isn’t just about the historic sights in Porto’s historic center.

We love a bit of soft adventure when we travel – so we’ve spiced things up with activities like a bicycle ride along the wild Atlantic Ocean beaches outside the city.

And since Porto is synonymous with port (and delicious Portuguese wines!), we’ve made sure there’s plenty of time for wine tasting too.

One more thing. Our itinerary is ideal if you’re staying on the waterfront Gaia side, like we did at the new Rebello Hotel & Spa (more on that later). But it’s easy to adapt if you’re staying on the Porto side of the river.

Day 1: Boat cruise and Porto’s Old Town

Ease into your first day with a “6 Bridges” rabelo boat cruise

These Portuguese wooden boats were originally used to transport barrels of port from the Douro Valley inland to the wine cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia. Now they’re mainly used for sightseeing.

The boats typically depart every hour or so, and on a 50-minute cruise, you’ll see the city’s six bridges that span both sides of the river.

We hopped on one from the Gaia side, where the boats are less busy than those departing from the Porto side. (It was just us and one other couple on our boat!)

The cruise gave us a fresh perspective of Porto and Gaia from the water, and it was delightful to pass by other rabelo boats, with everyone waving as we went by.

The boat provided narration in both Portuguese and English via loudspeaker, highlighting the churches and sights we passed. No matter that we couldn’t hear the narration very clearly (or understand it!) – the boat trip was still a pleasant easy way to ease into visiting Porto.

And if you switch up your itinerary and put this at the end of a day, your feet will thank you for getting a chance to rest.

You can book your classic 50-minute cruise here. (But pre-booking isn’t necessary if you travel outside the busy peak summer season and hop on a boat from the Gaia side.)

For a longer and more leisurely small-group experience, you might prefer this 2-hour sailboat ride, with daytime and sunset options. It’s highly rated – and if we’d known about it before our trip, we might have done this instead.

Walk across the Ponte D. Luis 1 bridge to Porto Old Town

Now you’re going to cross the river from Gaia on Porto’s most iconic bridge to explore the Old Town.

The Dom Luis 1 Bridge is the double-deck metal arch beauty stretching across the Douro River that connects the Old Town with Vila Nova de Gaia.

It was designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel. (Ring any bells? Eiffel was the Eiffel Tower architect.) When completed in 1886, the Luis 1 Bridge was the longest of its kind in the world.

Explore Porto Old Town

Visit the Porto Cathedral

Start your exploration of Porto’s Old Town with a visit to the Porto Cathedral (Se do Porto).

Dating back to the 12th century, this imposing building showcases a blend of Romanesque, Baroque and Gothic styles. Spend a moment admiring its intricate facade and 13th-century rose window.

As it’s perched on top of a hill, you also get great views of the city’s rooftops and the Douro River from here.

Inside, the cloisters are adorned with beautiful blue and white azulejos (traditional ceramic tiles) depicting religious scenes. And don’t miss the silver altarpiece in the chapel – it’s a marvel of craftsmanship.

See the Bishop’s Palace

A hop and a skip away from the Cathedral lies the Episcopal Palace (Bishop’s Palace). Go inside to walk up the Baroque staircase – you’ll ooh and ahh over the ornate jewel-like ceiling.

You have to pay to see both the Cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace, but you can buy a combo ticket allowing entry to both, which saves you a Euro or so.

(Better still – save with a Porto Card, which includes free local train, bus and metro transportation, plus free entry to and/or discounts off major sights and tours, including the Cathedral and Bishop’s Palace.)

Try pasteis de nata

It’s time for a coffee break!

Indulge in the classic Portuguese sweet treat – a pastel de nata. These creamy egg custard tarts are deliciously addictive. We ate them every day for breakfast!

If you haven’t tried them yet, Mercador Café is the perfect nearby spot to enjoy them. This cozy café serves some of the best pasteis de nata in Porto. Pair them with a strong espresso and savor the moment.

(Pastel de nata means one pastry. Pasteis de nata is the plural term. But there’s no way you’ll be devouring just one!)

Pop into the Sao Bento Train Station

Next, head over to the Sao Bento Train Station.

This isn’t just a place to catch a train!

The station’s palace-like entrance hall is adorned with over 20,000 azulejos illustrating Portugal’s rich history. Marvel at the lovely designs and stories they tell. It’s a perfect spot for some amazing photos.

Climb up to the top of Clerigos Tower

Ready for a climb? The Clerigos Tower (Torre dos Clerigos) is calling!

Standing tall in the city skyline, this Baroque tower offers breathtaking 360-degree views of Porto.

Be prepared for a bit of a workout, though, as you have to climb up 225 steps to the top. To avoid long waits, we suggest you book your skip-the-line tickets in advance.

Peek into the Majestic Café

You might have heard of the Majestic Café?

This Belle Epoque café opened in 1921 and was the haunt of writers and artists (and reputedly J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame). With chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings, ornate mirrors and rich woodwork, it’s easily one of the most beautiful cafés in the world.

Pop your head in for a quick peek. But don’t order anything now, because you’re going on a food-and-wine tour next!

Join a food walking tour

You must be starved by now!

Porto has plenty of food tours to choose from, but we opted to go with Taste Porto, the pioneers of food tours in Porto. Their 3½-hour Taste Porto Downtown Food Tour is the oldest food tour in Porto.

We picked the 4:00 pm tour, meeting our small group at the Mercado do Bolhao, a high-end indoor market which is an attraction in itself.

The whole experience was loads of fun – from tasting cheese, charcuterie and Vinho Verde (green wine) at the market to sipping red sparkling wine from the Bairrada region at Flor Dos Congregados (Porto’s oldest restaurant) to enjoying fresh cod fritters and tomatoey rice with a delightful white Porrais wine from the Douro Valley.

Our guide was super informative. Throughout the evening, he explained lots about Porto, port wine and Portugal’s food traditions.

We also ended up enjoying our last restaurant stop, Popina, so much that we stayed after the group left for more wine and tapas – we had to try the grilled shrimp in garlic!

Day 2: Bicycling, port wine tasting, Harry Potter bookshop and gourmet dinner

Enjoy an e-bike ride along Atlantic beaches

Kick off your second day with a bicycle ride along the stunning Atlantic Coast beaches south of Porto.

We rented e-bikes from Ciclo Bike Shop, conveniently located right by the riverside path that starts in Gaia.

Soon we were cruising along a flat coastal bike path, past sandy praias (beaches) flanked by giant boulders. It was May, and the beachside cafés and bars were quiet. We imagine they’re buzzing with life in the sunny summer months.

A couple of hours in, we came across the Capela do Senhor da Pedra. This small 17th-century chapel (built on the site of a pagan altar) is perched on a rock offshore, splashed by waves sending salty sprays everywhere.

We should have stopped for a closer look, but we were determined to see how far we could pedal.

So we pushed on for a few more miles to the beach town of Espinho, this time riding on wooden boardwalks over the sand dunes (not meant for bicycling, we later learned), before turning around.

You can actually continue bicycling beyond Espinho to the wide sandy beaches of Esmoriz, though you’d want to allow a full day for this.

But for a morning or half-day bicycle ride (four hours with a café break and scenic stops), the 18-mile roundtrip ride to Capela do Senhor da Pedra is the not-to-be-missed highlight.

The red paved bicycle path to the chapel makes for an easy journey, though it was quite windy on our return. We had to crank up the e-bike power as high as we could to battle the ocean gusts on our way back!

Taste port wines

After returning your e-bike, we bet you’ll be ready for some port wine tasting! It’s one of the best things to do in Porto – given that the city is the home of that sweet fortified nectar from the Douro Valley.

While typically red (ruby or tawny), port also comes in dry, semi-dry and white varieties.

All the port wine cellars, where the wine is aged and stored, are located in Vila Nova de Gaia. Since you’ve just dropped off your bike in Gaia, you’re right where you need to be.

There are many wine cellars you can check out, including big names like Taylor’s, Sandeman and Graham’s. Most offer guided tours and tastings that last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. You have to book in advance.

We booked a one-hour tour and tasting at Ferreira Cellar, housed in an old convent.

One of the oldest port production businesses, Ferreira was founded in 1751 by a family of winemakers and has always been in Portuguese hands. They run several tours daily in different languages, with a couple of English tours thrown in.

Walking through the cellar’s dark cool corridors, we learned about the legendary Dona Antonia Adelaide Ferreira, a trailblazing female wine producer in the 1800s who ran Ferreira at a time when the industry was all about men.

Our tour wrapped up with a tasting of three ports in their tasting room – a white port, tawny and ruby, each with its unique luscious flavor profile.

If you want to delve deeper into port wine, you might like this top-rated half-day guided tour with a wine expert. You’ll hit up three wine lodges, learn about the Douro Valley ports and enjoy an exclusive wine tasting workshop.

Visit Livraria Lello

Now cross the Dom Luis 1 Bridge from Gaia and head straight to Livraria Lello on the Porto side. This bookstore is hailed as the most beautiful in the world!

With its detailed Gothic exterior, complete with stone carvings, you might mistake it for a church. But no, step inside, and you’ll see it’s full of books.

It’s actually an Art Nouveau marvel, with columns and an elegantly curving staircase. Be sure to look up at the huge stained glass skylight in the ceiling.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you may know Livraria Lello as the “Harry Potter bookstore.” When J.K. Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter bestsellers, lived in Porto as an English teacher, she frequently visited this enchanting bookstore on weekends. It’s said to have inspired some of the iconic Hogwarts scenes in the Harry Potter books.

Thanks to its beauty and Harry Potter fame, Livraria Lello is a Porto hotspot.

Be prepared for a long line as, entry ticket in hand, you wait to get in. You’ll need a timed entry ticket, but this amount is credited toward any book purchase. (We booked our visit for 6:00 pm, right before dinner.)

For non-Harry Potter fans, it might not be worth the wait (or the 8 Euros entry cost). But if you love books or the magical world of Harry Potter, Livraria Lello is a must-see in Porto.

Savor a gastronomic experience at Emotivo

From Livraria Lello, it’s a 10-minute walk to Emotivo, a tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gem of a restaurant with only six tables.

Recommended by Taste Porto Food Tours (and now us!), it serves up a gastronomic experience you won’t forget.

For 40 Euros per person, you get to indulge in a creative Portuguese tasting menu. (It changes every two months.) The door swings open at precisely 7:00 pm for the first seating, and 9:30 pm for the second.

Here’s the fun part: You pick your culinary region of Portugal by choosing from a selection of little toys, like a toy tram for Lisbon. Each table gets a unique set of appetizers and courses based on their chosen region (and any allergies they mention to the server).

We started with crusty brown bread served with citrus butter, olive paté and olive oil.

Next, we had teensy-tiny baby eels with pork sausage. The eels almost looked like 1-inch pieces of spaghetti – and tasted a little like spaghetti too.

This was followed by a hot cast iron pan of baked cheese, walnuts and honey, with toast on the side – simply delicious!

Then came “fish from the garden,” which turned out to be deep-fried green beans with tartar sauce. We also savored octopus in a tomato sauce, shrimp in a bread sauce, and chicken in a mustard, wine and tomato stew. (We noticed our neighbors enjoyed duck à l’orange and ribs.)

For dessert, we indulged in chocolate mousse and a sweet dish of egg yolk and sugar.

Day 3: Douro Valley Day Trip

On your third day in Porto, you’ll want to do a day trip to the Douro Valley.

This stunning region is the birthplace of port wine, the only place true port wine comes from.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the valley is famous for its steep terraced hills, blanketed by rows and rows of green vines. It’s a paradise for wine lovers.

We chose to go on this small-group, full-day Douro Valley wine adventure with Cooltour Oporto. We were picked up in an air-conditioned mini-van, joining three other couples.

The 2-hour drive led us past fields of yellow mayflowers and lush sloped vineyards. Along the way, our driver-guide Miguel, an encyclopedia of Douro Valley knowledge, kept us entertained with fascinating tidbits – like how the Douro’s terraced vineyards are so vertical, most grapes can only be handpicked.

First winery

Quinta de Santa Eufemia, a small family-owned winery run by seven siblings, was our first stop.

We saw where their wines are aged in oak casks and tasted a variety of their wines, from white and red to rosé port and late bottle vintage ruby port.

Rabelo boat cruise and lunch

Next stop? A peaceful one-hour rabelo boat cruise on the Douro River from the teeny town of Pinhao.

We shared the boat with two other small groups from Cooltour Oporto and had lots of room to move around, take photos and just bask in the stillness of the river scenery.

The Douro Valley is criss-crossed with narrow winding roads – several lead to viewpoints offering panoramic views of the valley.

After our boat ride, we stopped at the Casal de Loivos viewpoint to gawk at the river that had carved its way far down below, before heading to our lunch spot.

Second winery

Our second winery visit was to Quinta do Portal, which was larger and more modern than the one we visited in the morning.

(The specific wineries you go to may be different than what we visited. But Cooltour Oporto always picks a mix of two interesting and contrasting ones for each tour.)

We tasted more excellent fortified wines, including a golden Muscatel (Moscatel in Spanish), tawny and ruby port.

And then it was time for the drive back to Porto!

Bottom line?

This Douro Valley tour was top-notch. Miguel’s commentary was insightful and the Douro Valley itself was the star – spectacular wine country like no other.

The only minor hiccup was the lunch. (While the food was decent – codfish and flan being the highlights – the setting was a letdown, a resto for tourist groups, with big tables and no local ambiance.) But that barely made a dent in the overall wonderful experience.

Have more time? Visit Foz

If you have extra time in Porto, head over to the district of Foz do Douro, or just Foz for short.

This upscale area, nestled at the mouth of the Douro River, is known for its beaches, outdoor cafés and laid-back atmosphere. It’s the go-to spot for locals looking to unwind on weekends.

Getting there is half the fun! Hop on the historic tram that dates back to the 1930s. Tram Line #1 (Linha 1) runs from Porto’s historic center near the Stock Exchange Palace, along the river, to Passeio Alegre in Foz.

The rumbling ride takes about 20 minutes and the tram runs every half hour or so. Pay the driver onboard, and enjoy the ride!

Alternatively, you can take the Hop-On Hop-Off sightseeing bus (Red Line), which stops at Foz.

Where to stay in Porto

The Rebello Hotel & Spa

We picked The Rebello Hotel & Spa – and couldn’t have been happier with our choice.

The accommodations consist of 103 suites housed in a collection of old riverside warehouses.

Thoughtful touches? We loved the complimentary bottles of wine, beer and soft drinks in the fridge. And the daily turndown goodies of mini-muffins, pastries and tarts were a treat.

Getting to Porto

Porto has good connections by plane, train and road to the rest of Portugal and neighboring places in Europe.

Flying to Porto

Francisco Sa Carneiro Airport (OPO) is Porto’s main airport and the second largest airport in Portugal.

You can get there by direct flight from many European destinations.

From the U.S. or Canada, most long-haul flights have a connection via a larger city such as Lisbon, London, Paris or Madrid. On our international flight from North America to Porto, we connected in Frankfurt.

The airport itself is located about 12 miles north of Porto, so getting into the city center is quick and easy. 

We pre-arranged a private airport transfer to get to our hotel. It was about the same cost as a taxi. But we were met at the airport arrivals hall by our driver (holding a card with our name on it) – so we didn’t have to stress about picking “official” taxis outside the airport doors.

Taking the train from Lisbon to Porto

If you’re visiting Porto from Lisbon, there are frequent trains that connect the two cities.

We recommend the high-speed train (the Alfa Pendular) – it takes about 3 hours. We rode it to go to Lisbon at the end of our Porto visit. It’s faster than the InterCity (IC) train, which makes more stops along the way.

Most trains arrive into Porto’s Campanha station, the city’s main train station.

To get to the historic city center, you can transfer there to a local train going to the Sao Bento station. Most train tickets to Porto include this transfer ticket.

Or hop in an Uber from Campanha to get to your hotel. Ubers are cheap in Porto!

Getting around Porto

Exploring Porto on foot is definitely the best way to soak in its charm.

We walked almost everywhere, taking our time to wander through its picturesque streets.

But when our feet needed a break – remember, Porto is very hilly! – we found Uber to be super convenient and easy on the wallet. Most of our Uber trips were the equivalent of $5 to $10 USD per trip.

Best time to visit Porto

Summer in Porto doesn’t get scorching hot like the Algarve and other places in Portugal. Still, with temps in the 80s, sightseeing can be uncomfortable if you don’t like the heat.

(Note: Unlike Porto, the Douro Valley gets really hot in summer, so you likely wouldn’t want to do a day trip there if you visit Porto in July or August.)

For a more pleasant experience, travel in the spring (March to May) or fall (September to October) when the weather remains warm, crowds thin out somewhat and hotel rates drop.

That’s a wrap for our “3 days in Porto” itinerary

Porto truly is a beautiful city, brimming with charm and history.

Our 3-day itinerary for Porto highlights its main sites, must-do activities (like port wine tasting) and some unique adventures (like cycling along the coastal beaches).

Now all you have to do is add Porto to your Portugal trip!

Also see the Comments section at the end of this post. We like hearing from readers :-). You can also see comments from other readers.

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Photo credits: © Janice and George Mucalov, SandInMySuitcase (except 1, 6, 8, 17, 25, 31, 32 and where indicated)

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We received a discounted media rate at The Rebello Hotel and were guests on the Porto food tour and Douro Valley wine tour. But as professional travel writers, we always write what we want and point out any concerns.

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