The hook
The hard-working city that gave Portugal its name and its most famous wine, tumbling down granite banks to the Douro in a jumble of tiled façades, iron bridges, and stacked riverfront houses.
01Why it's worth it
Porto is Lisbon's rougher, steeper northern rival, and many people end up preferring it. The old Ribeira quarter falls in tiers to the river, a maze of narrow lanes and washing-strung houses under a double-decker iron bridge, with churches and stations lined in blue-and-white azulejo tiles. Across the water in Vila Nova de Gaia sit the port lodges, where the fortified wine shipped down from the Douro valley is aged in vast cellars you can tour and taste in. The city has a granite solidity and an unpolished working character that the tiles and river views soften. It has become popular enough to feel the strain in the centre, but the tiled churches, the ornate bookshop, the tripe-and-beans local cooking, and the walk across the bridge at sunset still deliver.
02How to experience it
Walk the Ribeira and cross the upper deck of the Dom Luís bridge on foot for the classic view, then descend to the Gaia lodges for a port tasting as the light goes gold. See a tiled church or two and the Lello bookshop early before the queues. Eat the local francesinha or tripe if you're brave.
From the locals
Porto's case is made through its plate and its position: "pastéis de nata are the greatest little treats ever, and the francesinha is a feast to behold," one wrote of the city's monstrous layered sandwich. The other recurring point is what's next door — Porto "has amazing food, and is a day trip away from the beautiful Douro Valley."