As an annual habit my boyfriend and I gift each other a weekend getaway as a birthday present. The first year I gifted a trip to Le Sanglier des Ardennes in Durbuy in the Belgian Ardennes as in 2021 COVID restrictions still kept us inside of Belgium. In 2022 I took him to London as he hadn’t been there yet, followed by Paris in 2023 another city he hadn’t visited. For 2024 I started to lack inspiration, but as he was always very positive about his visit to Porto and I had never been there, I thought it would be a good place to travel to.

Sam having already visited Porto before and being a picky museum visitor along with the much lower visiting pace than Timothy and me, meant we didn’t do an awful lot in Porto but did have some nice highlights.

Upon arriving at the airport I was surprised how well indicated the metro option into the city centre was. A big blue band along the floor lead us all the way into the metro station from where we could take one of Porto’s Iconic modern trams into the city. The airport line is equipped with tap to pay on your credit card, making it easy for visitors to use the system.

The first half day we spent by visiting the World of Discoveries, an attraction telling you all about the history of Portugal discovering the world and conquering far flung destinations.

You first start by walking through some rooms telling you about the history before boarding a boat with audio guide taking you through displays of the various places on the world the Portuguese have been.

Sam loved it, so it’s perfect to visit with kids.

After this we strolled along the river for a visit to the tram museum and old electricity station. Sam remarked that it was a missed chance that you couldn’t look inside any of the vehicles, putting up some steps to be able to look inside would have been nicer.

Originally I would have liked to catch one of the museum trams back to the city, but as they were all overcrowded with people almost hanging outside of them, we opted not to do it and hiked the way back up the hill.

The second day we started by walking downhill and crossing the Luis I bridge’s lower level across the river to Vilanova do Gaia where all port wine houses are located.

As Sam had visited Sandeman on his previous visit I thought it would be nice to visit a different port wine house. I selected Calem as I hadn’t heard of them before.

While I thought it was an interesting and well executed visit Sam was disappointed and said that he thought Sandeman was a much better visiting experience. Also de port wine tasting at the end of the tour was underwhelming as the port wines where far from the port we sampled (the ones we had in the hotel bar that evening would be far better).

After the underwhelming port wine tasting we climbed up the hill to the World of Wine complex. This houses a number of shops, restaurants and museums in the different buildings it comprises. Here we first visited the museum about the history of Porto. I especially learned a lot about the times of the rule of Napoleon and the various civil wars.

Afterwards we finished off with the pink palace. This is museum dedicated to rosé wine and all things pink. Upon entering you received a wine glass and a bracelet with five coins to use for wine tastings in the museum. Inside you had a number of quirky rooms with a lot of selfie options.

All while holding a glass of rosé which was refilled with a different Rosé in each room. This was by far Sam’s favourite museum he ever visited.

Porto of course has much more to offer than the things we did. Our limited time along with the dreary weather (it was raining the entire time) made that we only did a few things.

May these inspire you for a visit and let us know what you would add or do different.

Porto 2024

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