A decade ago it wasn’t so easy to fall in love with Porto. The streets downtown were deserted at night and it was actually dangerous to walk in the narrow streets of Ribeira. Today it’s quite the opposite. The historical center is being renovated and all over you will find old buildings coming to life, like ours.

Porto is full of treasures: locals who love to host, high-quality gastronomy, urban parks, street art that gives you the feel that you’re in an open-air museum and the sea, of course, our eternal font of energy.

The best way to explore is to walk—and then walk some more. And you couldn’t have picked the best spot to start exploring the city, from Old Stone Flats you are literally 30 steps away from all the major attractions. Get your most comfortable shoes on, put on some sun screen and bring on your appetite, cause will most definitely gain some weight.

I’ve prepared a full program for you to explore Porto and don’t miss a thing.

Porto is one of those cities that has a lazy wake up. Most attractions only open around 10AM, but you don’t need to panic if you are an early morning person.

09:00 AM
Rua das Flores

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Start your day strolling up Rua das Flores, one of the busiest streets back in the time when Mouzinho da Silveira street was still a river. It has maintained its original profile and currently boasts interesting civil architecture from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and one of Porto’s most emblematic baroque façades – the Igreja da Misericórdia (Church of Misericórdia) (1749-1750), designed by Nicolau Nasoni.

If you wish to have breakfast before you start your journey, find Mercador Café, a former fabric cloth store on Rua das Flores that gave way to a café with a modern and cosy atmosphere, combining classic elements that refer to the origins of the space with decorative details that take us to other places and reflect its new cosmopolitan soul. One of the very few cafés in the area that has an egg menu.

10:00 AM
Estação de São Bento

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Once you leave the station you’ll stumble upon Avenida Dom Afonso Henriques, which leads to the Catedral da Sé do Porto, built in the highest part of the city in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Then walk south via Calçada Dom Pedro Pitões until you reach Rua das Aldas. On the way, you’ll cross Rua de São Sebastião. Stop at the beginning of Rua das Aldas and you’ll find a huge church: Igreja de São Lourenço (informally known as Igreja dos Grilos, which means “crickets”). From there take a leisurely walk through Sé; the architecture feels like a fairy tale.

10:30 AM
Catedral da Sé do Porto

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Once you leave the station you’ll stumble upon Avenida Dom Afonso Henriques, which leads to the Catedral da Sé do Porto, built in the highest part of the city in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Then walk south via Calçada Dom Pedro Pitões until you reach Rua das Aldas. On the way, you’ll cross Rua de São Sebastião. Stop at the beginning of Rua das Aldas and you’ll find a huge church: Igreja de São Lourenço (informally known as Igreja dos Grilos, which means “crickets”). From there take a leisurely walk through Sé; the architecture feels like a fairy tale.

11:00 AM
Igreja de Santa Clara

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From the Igreja de São Lourenço, walk to the medieval borough of Sé. To go the less obvious way, head toward Rua de D. Hugo, and you’ll find Escadas das Verdades (the stairs of Truth), one of the 4 doors that belonged to the Primitive Wall (demolished in the XVI century).
Continue towards the Rua da Sra. das Verdades and look up to see the work along the upper platform of D. Luis Bridge.
Stroll through, enjoying the picturesque houses. Start going up the Escadas do Codeçal (Codeçal stairs), a hidden borough.
Then head to Largo 1º de Dezembro, at the end of the Codeçal stairs. On the right side of the plaza you’ll find a Police station and on the left an entrance below a stone arch. Pass through the entrance arch and right in front of you is the Igreja de Santa Clara (Santa Clara Church). Once inside the entrance arch, turn left, then right, cross the tunnel and you’ll spot the wall (Muralha Fernandina). You’re allowed to climb the stone stairs. Prepare to gasp as you take in Rio Douro, the jewel of Porto. From the stairs, you can see the place where the sea kisses the river, Porto’s seven bridges, and dozens of squawking seagulls.

11:30 AM
Igreja de Santo Ildefonso

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Walk five minutes towards the 22nd line of the tram, and you’ll stumble upon the stunning Igreja de Santo Ildefonso. A blue tile church covered with 11,000 tiles from the artist Jorge Colaço. Right next to Santo Ildefonso Church is the Cinema Batalha, an Art-Deco building that has been abandoned for many years now, and that led origin to one of the typical says of the city: ”Bai no Batalha”, meaning that what you are saying is not true and probably will come up in the movies.

12:00 AM
Majestic Café

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From the Igreja Santo Ildefonso it’s less than a minute’s walk to Rua de Santa Catarina, a pedestrian street. Although sometimes overcrowded with tourists, the promenade is one of the most beloved parts of the city. Its imposing façades are great examples of the art nouveau style.
From fashionable shops to traditional cafes, from street artists to art galleries, this 100-year-old lane is always bustling. If you come in autumn, you will smell the chestnuts sold by street vendors; around Christmas the street is lit to celebrate the holiday. It was once home to famous Portuguese writers, including Camilo Castelo Branco, António Nobre, and Eça de Queirós.
At the intersection with 31 de Janeiro Street, there are two mysterious busts: one is Luís Vaz de Camões, our great Portuguese poet of the 16th century; the other is Dinamene, Camões’s nymph.
In less than a mile you can find some of the most emblematic places: Majestic Café, the Grande Hotel do Porto and the Capela das Almas (Chapel of the Souls).
The Majestic Café, although sometimes overcrowded with tourists, it’s a great example of the art nouveau style. Founded on 1921, the traditional café was usually attended by the intellectuals, bohemians and the ladies of high society.

12:30 PM
Mercado do Bolhão

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One of the best ways to discover the true self of a city is to wander around its market. The two-story Mercado do Bolhão (Bolhão Market) is invariably mentioned in every travel guide.
I love to shop here because it still has its authenticity and the prices are reasonable. The market is a haven of fresh fish, meat and bread, colourful and fragrant flowers, and fresh and dried spices that fill your nose with the smell of cinnamon, curry, thyme, oregano, coriander, and rosemary. We can’t live without these secret potions, as Porto does not live without this vibrant market.
Don’t’ miss out on visiting the oldest grocery shops of Porto as well.

At Bolhão Market, the famous Salsicharia Leandro, the small butcher that provides the sausages used in the best francesinhas in town. This Porto institution is managed by Vítor de Araújo, who has been working there since he was 11. He is 62 now and a true superhero, having rejected several million-dollar proposals to sell the recipe of his fabulous sausages.

1:00 PM
Cervejaria Brasão

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And the timing couldn’t be more perfect for you to try the portentous sandwich – Francesinha. A complex layered sandwich composed of several kinds of meat and cheese, all melted and covered with a secret, special sauce of tomato, beer, meat, and hot pepper. The composition varies depending on the place, and you can find hundreds of restaurants that have adapted the recipe. Some of the most famous purveyors are Café Santiago (expect a waiting outside the café) and Bufete Fase (tiny and familiar) and Confeitaria Cunha, a gastronomic and architectural icon with a ’70s style. Among the many new options is Cervejaria Brasão, a small restaurant that is conveniently placed if you plan to continue your journey in the Torre dos Clérigos direction.

2:30 PM
Clérigos

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After such an epic lunch, it’s time to walk in the heart of Porto to see the iconic Torre dos Clérigos. Head towards the Rua de Almada, a street full of vintage shops and some concept stores. Then turn right to Praça D. Filipa de Lencastre and left to Rua do Avis and right, up the Rua de Santa Teresa. If you happen to be doing this route on a Saturday, you will be lucky to find the Vintage Market at Rua Cândido dos Reis.
Once you arrive to Praça Guilherme Gomes Fernandes, take some time out to relax in the Padaria Ribeiro (Ribeiro Bakery), founded in 1878, this bakery is famous for its huge variety of biscuits, bought by kilo. Or go for a coffee and éclair at Leitaria Quinta do Paço, right next to the bakery, the Leitaria is basically the place where we used to go to buy dairy products (butter, milk, whipped cream, etc). The Leitaria Quinta do Paço is famous for the eclairs, a French sweet that in this case is filled with whipped cream. Lighter in flavour, but don’t fool yourselves it’s still heavy in (good) calories.

4:00 PM
Igreja das Carmelitas

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From the Praça Guilherme Gomes Fernandes it’s less than a minute’s walk to Praça Carlos Alberto, take the Rua Actor João Guedes, and on the way, you will see Joana Vasconcelos tile wall.
At Praça Guilherme Gomes Fernandes, on the corner of the plaza, behind a red kiosk, is one of my favourite spots in the city, the Banco dos Materiais (Bank of Materials).
Installed in the Palacete Viscondes de Balsemão (Palace of the Viscounts of Balsemão), it’s a free service from the City Hall for the people of Porto, providing free tiles to recover the original tiles façades of the historical centre.
Then walk towards the famous world’s narrowest house, in between the Igreja do Carmo (Carmo Church) and Igreja das Carmelitas (Carmelitas Church), at the Rua do Carmo. This house was built to make all contact between the nuns and the monks impossible. If you look closely, you’ll find Igreja da Ordem Terceira do Carmo (Carmo Church) (on the right) and Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços (Carmelitas Church) (on the left), and in between both churches (also known as the twin churches) is the world’s narrowest house.

4:30 PM
Livraria Lello

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On the opposite site of the Praça de Gomes Teixeira (also known as Lion Plaza, due to the sculpture in the middle), is the famous bookshop Livraria Lello. And right next to it, also not to be missed is the A Vida Portuguesa, a concept store on the first floor of an antique fabric shop, is a project born to create an inventory of the Portuguese brands that survived the passage of time.

5:30 PM
Torre dos Clérigos

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Head to Olive Tree Garden, just across the street from Livraria Lello, but don’t let yourself feel tempted to lie down on the grass just yet.
Cross it and on the opposite side you’ll find the Torre dos Clérigos, built in the baroque style of the first half of the 18th century. Walk up its 225 steps and go out on the narrow balconies to survey Porto’s picturesque orange roof tiles. Make sure to see the neo-Gothic exterior of the historical bookshop Livraria Lello.
Further to the left, next to the magnificent Centro Português de Fotografia (Portuguese Center of Photography), you will see the Mosteiro São Bento da Vitória, occupying a part of the old Jewish quarter.
A little further down the Mosteiro São Bento da Vitória, you will find your shortcut to the Jardim das Virtudes (Virtudes Garden), one of the most hidden and romantic places of the city.

6:00 PM
Ribeira

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A little further down the Mosteiro São Bento da Vitória, you will find your shortcut to the Escadas da Vitória. Walk down the stairs and at the end you’ll find Rua Ferreira Borges. The huge red market on your left is the Mercado Ferreira Borges, from the XVIII century, it’s now a concert hall called Hard Club.
Right next to the Mercado Ferreira Borges, it’s the neoclassical Palácio da Bolsa, now the headquarters of the Associação Comercial do Porto. The Igreja de São Francisco de Assis (São Francisco de Assís church), a national monument and one of the city’s most important gothic churches, is also nearby.
Casa do Infante, it’s also close by, a museum where you can learn about Porto’s historical importance to Europe’s economy as a coin manufacturer.

7:00 PM
Espaço Porto Cruz

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Porto is famous for its wine, and you’re only a 15-minute walk from Porto Cruz. To get there you have to cross Ponte Dom Luis I, heading toward Vila Nova de Gaia. Once you’ve crossed the bridge, walk along the river bank. Go up to the roof of Porto Cruz and grab a snack and a Port cocktail, and enjoy the view. This is what relaxing in Porto is all about.

8:00 PM
Jardim do Morro

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This city has become international and eclectic when it comes to cuisine, and you can find excellent options ranging from sushi to steak. But, before you go for dinner, take the cable car at Cais da Ribeira to Jardim do Morro. The view from up there is breathtaking, and believe me, this is the best spot to enjoy the sunset.
Head back to Porto crossing the D. Luis Bridge on the upper level, and go for dinner at Casa da Mariquinhas, one of Porto’s main houses of fado, a Portuguese musical genre often characterised by beautiful but mournful lyrics. There you can also taste Porto’s typical snacks, such as pataniscas (fritters made of egg, onion, parsley, and codfish).

Enjoy!

Gabriela Molinos