English
Holidays are usually short and there´s no time to lose. That´s why we´ve made this quick guide to essential places to visit if you just have 48 hours to stay in the wonderful Portuguese city of Porto.
Porto is the second most important city in Portugal after the capital Lisbon. It holds a rich historical and architectonical legacy.
You can start our tour by visiting some of the most important monuments in the city, the Torres dos Clérigos. It´s a symbol of the city and by paying just 2 euros you can go up to the top of the tower (by foot). It´s really worth it because the views of Porto from the top are amazing.
From here you can go to the Cais da Ribeira, on the banks of the Douro. This dock is a beautiful riverside walk with bars, restaurants and a lot of people. It´s the most active area in the city. Here you can go to Praça da Ribeira, the most beautiful square in the area. You can visit it by foot or hire one of the many cruises that go down the river that will allow us to admire beautiful bridges such as the Dom Luís I Bridge, which connects Porto with the town of Vila Nova de Gaia. If you´re interested in wines, you cannot miss out on a visit to the important wine-making cellars of this village. The cruise would be on board of a rabelo, which is an old wooden boat that was used to transport wine.
All of this area is the most popular and busy in Porto so if you´ve still got strength in you and depending on what you´ve done you can get the Funicular dos Guindais cable car from the river bank itself and go up to the highest part of the city, the district of Batalha, to discover the most important religious building in the city, Porto Cathedral. However, you will do a lot more than that when you go up to Batalha since the cathedral sits in a beautiful square that also holds the Episcopal Palace or the Cathedral Museum.
You´ve probably thought about eating at some point so we are going to recommend some places to eat during these two days, such as Abadía do Porto restaurant, O Comercial or Taberninha do Manel in Vila Nova de Gaia.
We also recommend that you use your second day in Porto to do things rather than to see things, since we have probably missed out on many places to see as you cannot do it all, although make sure you visit Livraria Lello & Irmao, a beautiful bookshop, one of the most beautiful ones in the world. There are also many concerts taking place in the Casa da Música that you can go to or visit an exhibition of contemporary art at the Serralves Foundation. You can even go out at night and attend a gig at Hot Five.
As you can see, a whole world opens in front of you in Porto and there´s many more things to do that we just don´t have the space to write about here, but 48 hours only go so far. Enjoy the city!
Find apartments in Porto city to stay these couple of days, they won´t cost a lot. There´s a wide range on offer and they´re definitely affordable.
