Porto

The moment we arrived in Porto, I fell in love! It’s such a lively city that feels even more vibrant than Lisbon. Musicians serenade the streets and you can find distinctly Portuguese culture at every turn: Fado performances, port wine, franceshina sandwiches, and the most amazing seafood dishes.

Porto’s most fabled food is the “Francehsina” sandwich. The Franceshina layers bread with ham, sausage, cheese and pork/steak topped with melted cheese and a salty sauce on top. I thought I would love it, but it actually felt way too heavy and salty in my opinion. We had it at Casa Guedes, but every restaurant has it on the menu.

Eating out in Porto was actually unbelievably challenging! The Google Maps hours weren’t updated for any restaurants, likely due to COVID closings, and many restaurants randomly close on Monday’s and Tuesday’s. For multiple meals, we would strike out 3x before hungrily sitting down at any restaurant that worked for us. I guess you could say we really worked for our food walking around ;)

The Luis I Bridge is the centerpiece of the city. You can walk along the top and bottom, and the views are equally stunning in the day and night!

Casa Portuguesa do Pastel de Bacalhau had the most thoughtful “experience” for Portugal’s famous “Pastéis de Bacalhau” or codfish fritters. Organ music plays in this royal library setting and they provide you a wooden easel with port wine and a codfish cake for 15€. It was very cool!

One of the highlights of Porto was visiting Livraria Lello, the bookstore that inspired JK Rowling to create Hogwarts from Harry Potter. We arrived right at 9am when it opened, only to be met by a huge winding line. We wavered on whether or not this bookstore would be worth waiting to see, but are so glad we stayed. The elegance is truly astounding. 100% worth the 5€ entrance fee as it was a magical experience!

I’ve truly never seen anything like it. We ended up buying the coolest fire engine book for Noah that turns from a book into a play-mat into a cardboard fire engine. Too fun!

The fire engine book was too big for our backpack, so we had to hold it in our arms as we attended the Graham’s port wine cellar tour like super casual cool parents. Graham’s is one of the oldest wine cellars in Portugal. Their port has even been served to the royal family in England! Steven planned this tour and it was definitely a highlight.

This wine tour was vouched for by multiple people as the best given you get a real tour guide as opposed to an audio tour. We loved all of the different port we tried in the tasting! Port is technically a “fortified wine” and has a 20% ABV. Given it’s usually considered a dessert wine, it doesn’t feel that strong but definitely is!

You can take a “six bridges” boat tour through the center of the city and it was oh so lovely! Steven also planned this and it was so nice to experience Portugal from the water.

Now, for our #1 all-time favorite meal in Portugal…Tapabento S. Bento! We managed to walk in without a reservation ironically after striking out from trying other restaurants that were closed. Surprise: we adored the food and loved single bite. Every time we finished a dish, we found ourselves wishing we had more!

The best fish soup we’ve ever had.

The most tender melt in your mouth pork cheek with potatoes and broccoli.

The star of the show: seafood cataplana, named for the clam shaped dish it’s cooked in. Wow, so savory and homey. Absolutely delicious! I’m not sure we can live without eating cataplana again one day soon. Just kidding, but it was truly that good.

Everyone, go visit Tapabento!!

The creamiest gelato we’ve ever had…Gelataria Portuense. Indescribable! Their passionfruit sorbet was extraordinary.

We spent one of our last nights in Foz, Porto to watch the sun set. It was really serene and made us stop and appreciate our time together without the kids. We missed them a lot over the trip, but this time away just for us two meant everything to us and really filled up our tanks to be even better parents when we returned!

It felt fitting that one of our last dinners was at Lareira, where we had been trying to go every day for the past three days (but it was always closed). The best white sangria in the city accompanied by one of our new Portuguese dishes, picapau (gravy laden steak + sausages).

Porto, you have our heart for sure. Thanks for the best vacay away! Interested in more Portugal adventures? Read about our memories in Lisbon here :)