Trip Report: Pretty Porto
As we were contemplating our spring travel itinerary, a deal appeared for a Porto holiday. Once we researched the possible activities, we immediately knew we had to visit pretty Porto!
How?
Flying to Porto from London is quite easy as every airport services the second largest city in Portugal. For us, we chose our least favourite airport, Stansted, as that is where we found the flight deal. Rather than face the awful train commute, we opted to drive and park there especially since our flight landed early Sunday night.
Whilst staying in Porto, we explored the usual options – hotels, hostels, or AirBnBs. The hotels appeared too fancy and expensive compared to the amazing AirBnBs available. To help narrow down the neighbourhood, I consulted the Portoalities site and researched the touristy but local neighbourhood. Once I found this AirBnB, I instantly booked as the owners had sky high ratings and the views appeared incredible!!
Lastly, for our activities, since we are wine-os, we obviously had to explore the vineyards. I would highly recommend this post that covers our Saturday!
Fixed Costs:
- Flight: £101
- AirBnB: £121
- Wine Tour: £210
- Knowledge: Too much!
Travel Friday
Other than a boring drive through the English countryside, our travel Friday did not consist of much excitement! We obviously had to do the lounge life while we waited but the flight itself was a normal Ryanair flight! Our flight was quite late at 9pm BST, meaning we would land around 11:30 Porto time. We tried to nap but it just didn’t work out!
Our AirBnB was really spacious and clean, similar to the reviews we had read. Since Kelly arrived before us, she said she really enjoyed the location so far as we were close to the river and restaurants!
Wine Tour Saturday
For those interested in our Saturday adventures, head over to the Day Trip in Douro Valley post!
The Wine Continues to Flow
After our lovely tour ended, we had about 1.5 – 2 hours before our dinner reservation. For some odd reason, we decided we needed to go out and have a pre-dinner drink! In reality, we wanted to see the sun set over the river and I really wanted to try this wine bar that Portoalities had recommended!
Luckily, we were able to find a few seats and we had the perfect set up ahead of the sun setting. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and the clouds hid the sunset but the city lights along the river was really cool! With the river reflecting the shining castle and bridge, it really created the perfect setting.
Oops
Because we were having so much fun at the river side, we horribly mistimed our dinner reservation. Rather than a flat 10 minute walk that we could probably shorten with power walking, half of the walk was uphill and then the other half was spent recovering from it! Sadly, we shown up 20 minutes after our reservation at Cervejaria Brasao Aliados and they had already released our table to someone else! They kindly offered a table at 9:30pm so we just had to kill another hour and a half… Guess what we did?
Pizza for Apps
Along the uphill walk, but not too far away from dinner, we spotted a fun pizza spot with tasty treats! We sat down and ordered more food and drinks to kill the time! Luckily, we just talked with Kelly and managed to order enough snacks that we really should have just eaten there…
Francesinha
At this point, we had waited nearly 4 hours to eat at this decently reviewed restaurant. However, our troubles would immediately fade as I ordered the famous Porto dish called Francesinha. This dish is a cheesy meat filled decicilousness that is layered with pork, smoked sausage, bacon, beefsteak, and topped with fried eggs and enough cheese to clog your arteries. Had I realised that it was going to be the size of my face, I definitely would have split it! Francesinha definitely lived up to the high reputation but wow, go hungry!!
Sleepy Sunday
On Sunday, we did not have any plans other than to explore the city and enjoy the great sunshine!
Brunch
Since Kelly was with us, I had a brunch partner! Obviously, I had researched plenty of brunch places ahead of our visit and made a gameday decision to go to Zenith Brunch. As we walked uphill and through town, we were definitely ready to eat. That is one thing to consider as one is booking hotels or BnBs as the city is definitely on a hill! As we perused the menu, I immediately knew what I wanted – the classic eggs benedict with bacon. Kelly ordered the acai bowl to make up for our boozy and cheesy Franesinha yesterday!
As we devoured our food like a normal people, we realised we were in a hipster Insta famous place as the table next to us was taking a picture of their food with their DLSR. I just take pictures of my food so I remember what I ate for this blog and future reference! Only the best restaurants get a shoutout on the ‘Gram.
Dessert for Breakfast
Since we were in this neighbourhood, I made us stop at the famous Leitaria da Quinta do Paco, home of the famous GIANT eclairs! As we walked in, they were expecting us to sit down for their breakfast service. We immediately walked past them and ordered the biggest eclairs. They probably just rolled their eyes at the crazy Americans!
Insta Library
In Porto, there is a very famous bookstore that offers a really cool picture – if you are literally one of the first people in the store! Because people started coming into the store to only take pictures, the store had to start selling entry tickets. The lines were crazy when we first walked by on the way to breakfast, but now the lines were down the street!
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Insta Bookstore
In my research, I found a few helpful tips and tricks to get you to be first in line and take this awesome shot. Otherwise, if you don’t feel like paying £10 for a picture, then just marvel that an Instagram picture now has a dollar value AND a line down the street at 9am…
Wandering through Porto
From the standard Google pictures, we could tell the Douro River flows through the heart of Porto, creating a lovely riverside full of activities and shops! Outside the riverside, there are old city streets and alleyways. Because we missed the walking tour, we did our own through the city! Because we all wanted to be near the river, we crossed the bridge to the other side and strolled alongside the river. It was fantastic as midway through our walk the sun decided to show up! Hence the pictures looking very cloudy and then very sunny!
Sunny Days in Porto
Once we were tired of walking along the river, we decided to take advantage of our first sunlight in many months and parked ourselves at the Sandeman Port house. While we debated taking a port tour, the prices and the thought of drinking was too much!
Instead, we sat outside and people watched! We thoroughly enjoyed illegal street sellers rush back and forth trying to dodge the police. As we all had survived another English winter, we were very pleased by the sunlight! To tide us over, we ordered a charcuterie board and 1 glass of Port just to try out the "bigger" brands.
Going Home
From our AirBnB, we called an Uber and it was a relatively quick trip to the airport. For the true test, we were packing the most wine or olive oil in Mary Frances' checked bag. We managed to pack 6.5 bottles (6.5 liters) in her tiny carry on bag! Surprisingly, it only weighed 18kg! Mary Frances was disappointed we did not buy more wine!
Lounge life was really good for us as it allowed us to relax ahead of our flight. Plus, we could eat our giant eclairs!
The UnChartered Summary:
- Porto is perfect for a quick weekend trip! We combined the city and the countryside and thoroughly enjoyed the Portuguese culture!
- The food is jaw dropping amazing! From the cheesey steak to the wonderful pastel, we ate our weight!
- Overall, Porto is relatively cheap compared to its European counterparts in France, Italy, and other wine centric regions.