Budget: Mid-range, budget
Top Tip: Ask for the porto tonic at Vasque De Carvalho's wine tasting room
Lisbon takes the cake for digital nomads and the endless supply of pastel de nata. It’s beautiful, iconic, and bustling. But if you love casual meals in deep-seated charm and a bit of mystique in your nightlife, Porto is the Portuguese heart you’ve been looking for.
Located about 200 miles north of the capital, Porto is well worth the visit. Effortlessly take the three-hour high-speed train from Lisbon or jump on a direct international flight to OPO.
Magic at Every Corner
Whether you’re a Harry Potter fan, love gritty techno dungeons, or into world-class wine tasting (or you’re a Harry Potter loving, techno dancing wino), it truly has something for everyone.
Start off a little kitchy and get your footing with a Potterhead pilgrimage. Porto is famously linked to the wizarding world through J.K. Rowling’s time living there in the early 1990s, and several walking tours celebrate the magic. These tours typically weave through the city's historic center, visiting landmarks that sparked the author's imagination. You can expect to see the Livraria Lello bookstore with its neo-Gothic staircase (often compared to Hogwarts), the Fonte dos Leões (Lion’s Fountain), which mirrors the Gryffindor crest, and the São Bento Train Station, whose grand tilework evokes the magic of Platform 9¾.
The Gaia Revelation
Crossing the Luis Bridge from Porto to Vila Nova de Gaia is a rite of passage. Known as the historic center for port wine, Gaia contains around 60 port houses (also called lodges) packed into a dense network of narrow streets and alleyways.
Even if you’re not a "port person," you might just become one by the time you leave; Gaia has a way of converting you. While the big, commercial caves like Taylor’s feel a bit like a tourist assembly line, you’ll find the soul of the region at Vasque De Carvalho. It’s a discreet, elegant building where the focus is purely on the liquid gold in your glass. Their white reserve port makes the best Porto Tonic you’ll ever have. It was one of those rare travel moments where you realize you’ve been doing it wrong your whole life.
Grittiness and Gastronomy
Porto doesn't try too hard, and that’s why it works. Spend your afternoon sipping wine on bean bags at Base Porto urban garden overlooking Clérigos Tower, grab a tapa and wine at local’s favorite Taberna Aduela before you join the 9pm dinner rush at Taberna Folias de Baco.
Don’t worry, your food will have time to settle before you dance the night away at techno dungeon Gare Club beneath the São Bento Station—it doesn’t get going until 3am. Be warned, Gare Club is the real deal, filled with dark, grimy, authentic energy.
Wake up and cure your hangover with a spicy, pressed hot dog sandwiches at Gazela (yes, the Bourdain spot, and yes, it’s worth it) or the iconic cholesterol bomb that is the francesinha. Porto feeds you with blue collar authenticity. It’s a city that’s proud of its heritage and even prouder to share it with you.
Lisbon is for the digital dreamers; Porto is for the soul.
