Porto in 3 days: the steep granite city stacked above the Douro, the 40-year Tawny Port ageing in oak on the opposite bank, J.K. Rowling's bookshop staircase, the 20,000-tile train station and Portugal's most extreme sandwich poured over with a secret beer-tomato sauce.
The most impressive painted tile interior in the world: the arrival of João I at Porto in 1387 and scenes of Douro Valley peasant life depicted in 20,000 azulejo panels covering every wall of the 1916 terminus.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe most beautiful bookshop in the world: the neo-Gothic facade, the stained glass ceiling skylight and the red-painted carved staircase J.K. Rowling visited while teaching in Porto from 1991–1993.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe flat-bottomed wooden boats that once brought Port wine barrels from the Douro Valley vineyards now moored decoratively: the Cais da Ribeira terrace lunch with the Dom Luís I bridge above and the Gaia wine lodges across the river.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe oldest lodge with the most dramatic Douro terrace: the ruby, the 20-year Tawny (walnut, dried fruit, oxidative amber) and the Vintage (2 years in barrel, decades in bottle) — the complete Port wine education.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe definitive Porto panorama: the granite city descending to the Douro, the Atlantic coast to the west and the Douro Valley to the east from the 75m oval Baroque bell tower.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe restored 1914 iron market: the sea bass and lobster from Matosinhos fishing harbor (landed at 5am, at Bolhão by 8am), the sheep's milk cheese that runs when ripe, and the bread sausage invented to fool the Inquisition.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuide50 minutes under the six bridges: Eiffel's 1877 Maria Pia iron arch (the world's longest when built), the Dom Luís I double deck (1886), and the 2003 Infante arch with the widest concrete span in the world at completion.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePortugal's most extreme sandwich: four meats layered, covered in melted cheese, drowned in a spiced reduction of tomatoes, dark beer, brandy and Port wine. With a fried egg and French fries in the sauce.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe largest single azulejo panel on a church exterior in Portugal: 1912 blue-and-white tiles depicting the founding of the Carmelite Order. The 1.2m-wide house separating it from the nuns' church next door.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe historic electric tram (Tram 1) from the city center along the Douro to the ocean mouth: the Fort of São João da Foz (1570) at the exact river-sea junction, and the granite promenade along the Atlantic coast.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe finest Atlantic seafood restaurants in the Porto region: the goose barnacles pried from wave-lashed rocks (boiled in seawater and eaten with beer), the grilled sea bass and the charcoal-grilled octopus with olive oil and paprika.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuide