The cellars are in Gaia. The city is in Porto.
Which Douro day actually stops at two quintas. What an hour inside a port lodge costs before lunch. Whether the Six Bridges cruise earns its fifty minutes. Reviews of every tour you can book in Porto.
A Douro day, an hour in a lodge, the river, and a fado room.
The four bookings a first trip to Porto gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The long day outDouro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & LunchTwo quintas upriver, lunch on a terrace and an hour on the water. Leave at eight and you are back for dinner.
02The hour in GaiaTaylor’s Port Cellars & TastingDown the vaults at Taylor’s, past barrels nobody has moved in decades, out onto a terrace with a tawny.
03The fifty minutes6 Bridges Douro River CruiseSix bridges from a flat-bottomed rabelo. The cheapest way to understand how this city is stacked.
04The nightLive Fado Show with Glass of Port WineA guitar, a voice, and a glass of port in a room that seats forty. Book the early show and eat afterwards.
An hour in a lodge, a tasting in the city, or the whole valley. Pick your glass.
Port is why most people come, and there are only three honest ways to drink it. What each one costs to board, how long it takes, and which side of the river it happens on.
Porto sits an hour from a wine valley and a national park.
The terraces upriver, the lodges directly across the bridge, canals at Aveiro, the castle where the country started, baroque stairs at Braga and granite waterfalls in the far north. Six places worth a spare day, and the best way into each.
The day people remember in Porto is the one spent on the Douro.
Six bridges in under an hour on a flat-bottomed rabelo, a sailboat out past Foz as the sun drops behind the bar, and the long run upriver into the terraces. The river built this city and it is still the best seat in it.
Every bottle of port ages in Gaia, not in Porto.
The lodges stand in a row on the south bank: Taylor’s, Graham’s, Cálem, Cockburn’s, Sandeman. An hour inside one is cool, dark and ends in a tawny beside a ruby. Cross on the top deck of the Dom Luís bridge and the view over is free.
Everything in Gaia →
Porto’s busiest bookings, from the river boats to the lodges.
Every Porto tour we have reviewed →The days out more travellers take than anything else in the city, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
The Unvanquished Tour in Porto City Center
Start at Porto City Hall and walk downhill through Aliados, Lello Bookshop, Carmo, Clérigos, Rua das Flores, São Bento, and the Cathedral. Guides such as Tiago, Jaime, Diogo, Sara, and Adriano mix history, local stories, food tips, and practical advice. The tour is pay what you want.
From · $3
Read our review →
2
Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & Lunch
from $82
3
Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruise
from $101
4
Six Bridges Cruise
from $21
5
Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Wine
from $23
6
6 Bridges Douro River Cruise
from $23
7
Torre dos Clerigos Entrance Ticket
from $11
8
Wine Tour with Lunch, Tastings & River Cruise
from $113
The Douro was terraced by hand, and the day out is a long one.
Ninety minutes upriver the hills are cut into steps that were built with picks and baskets and are still worked that way. The standard day is two quintas, a tasting at each, lunch on a terrace and an hour on the water at Régua or Pinhão. Out at eight, back by seven.
- 1Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & Lunchfrom $82
- 2Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruisefrom $101
- 3Wine Tour with Lunch, Tastings & River Cruisefrom $113
A bookshop people queue for, a bridge you walk across at roof height, and a wine that only ages on one bank.
Bookshops, bridges and cellars exist everywhere. A staircase worth an hour of queueing, a two-deck iron span crossed on foot level with the rooftops, and a wine that is only port if it slept on the far side of this river do not.
Livraria Lello
A neo-gothic bookshop from 1906 with a red staircase that splits and rejoins, a stained-glass ceiling and a rail track in the floor for moving stock. It got so crowded that entry became a paid, timed voucher, and the voucher comes off the price of a book. Go at opening or in the last hour.
- 1Porto Walking Tour, Lello Bookshop, River Cruise and Cable Car★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,354 reviews
- 2Walking Tour, Lello Bookshop, Boat and Cable Car★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 965 reviews
- 3Guided Walking Tour and Lello Bookshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 895 reviews
The Dom Luís I Bridge
Two decks on one arch, finished in 1886 by a partner of Eiffel. The metro and the pedestrians use the top, level with the roofs of the old town; cars and the riverside walkers use the bottom. Crossing the upper deck on foot is the cheapest thing to do in Porto and the best view of it.
- 1Six Bridges Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 11,680 reviews
- 26 Bridges Douro River Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 6,472 reviews
- 3River Douro 6 Bridges Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 4,168 reviews
The Gaia lodges
Wine made 100 km upriver has been aged on the Gaia bank for three centuries, because the cool damp air off the Atlantic suits a barrel better than the valley heat does. Rubies stay in big vats and keep their colour; tawnies sit in small casks for years and go amber. Every lodge tour ends with one of each.
- 1Cálem Cellar Tour, Fado Show & Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,530 reviews
- 2Taylor’s Port Cellars & Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,374 reviews
- 3Cockburn’s Port Lodge Tour and Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,360 reviews
Eleven dollars gets you up the Clérigos tower. Two hundred gets you the Douro to yourself.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best days in Porto come in under the price of dinner.
Tower tickets, the bridge cruises, an hour in a Gaia lodge and the city walks.
- 1Six Bridges Cruisefrom $21
- 2Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Winefrom $23
- 36 Bridges Douro River Cruisefrom $23
The full-day standards: the Douro with lunch, Braga and Guimarães, the Gerês.
Private drivers, chartered boats and the quinta days that earn the money.
Porto is granite, stairs and tile, and it only works on foot.
Every walk in Porto →
The old town falls from the Clérigos tower to the water in a set of lanes too steep for a bus. Walk down through São Bento and the Ribeira arcades, eat your way back up through Bolhão, and finish the night in a fado room.
Down to the river, and back up
Three hours from the tower to the quay, through the station tiles and the book shops, with the climb back up done at your own pace. The cheapest orientation this city sells.
Bolhão market, then the counters
Through the rebuilt market hall and out into the streets behind it for tripe, presunto, a bifana and the cheese nobody exports. Lunch is included whether you planned it or not.
A fado room with a glass of port
Two guitars, one voice, no microphone, and a room that holds a few dozen people. The early show leaves you enough of the night to eat afterwards.
Porto gets more rain than almost anywhere else people fly south for.
The Atlantic sits at the end of the street and from October to April it delivers. The answer is the one the city has always used: go underground into a lodge, into a kitchen, into a tiled church or into a museum, and come back out when it stops.
Francesinha, tripe, and a nata that is still warm.
Porto eats heavily and cheaply. A food walk gets you through Bolhão and half a dozen counters behind it, a class teaches you the pastry the rest of the country copies, and a craft-beer run answers everyone who does not drink port.
Lello sells timed tickets, the lodges cap their groups, and the Douro runs to a timetable.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed entry, small rooms and river schedules that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Porto Walking Tour, Lello Bookshop, River Cruise and Cable CarEntry is a paid, timed voucher, and the price comes off a book if you buy one. The early slots go first and the alternative is the queue on the pavement.
- 02Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & LunchA small-group day out has eight seats and one departure. In spring and autumn the good operators go days ahead of the date.
- 03Cálem Cellar Tour, Fado Show & Wine TastingLodge tours run in fixed language slots with a cap on each group. Late afternoon fills long before the first tour of the day does.
- 04Live Fado Show with Glass of Port WineFado rooms are small and the show runs once or twice a night. Turning up on spec gets you the back wall, if anything.
Three days in Porto: the city, then the lodges, then the valley.
The old town
Six Bridges
A fado room
MatosinhosBy place, in the city and out of it
By kind of day, on the water, in a cellar or on foot
The newest Porto tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Douro Valley Delights Wine Tasting and Scenic Vistas
Read our review →
Tour the Douro wine region, and discover the fantastic landscape
Read our review →
Private Tour to stunning Douro Valley and most renowned wineries
Read our review →
Douro Three Winery Small Group Tour with Lunch and Tastings
Read our review →
