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The Palacio da Bolsa (pa-lah-SEE-oo dah BOL-sa) is the most-visited attraction in Porto, with more than 200,000 visitors each year. Its heavy neoclassical façade hides quite a few gems inside. The building is the headquarters of Porto’s merchants guild, and was designed with the purpose of showcasing Porto’s commercial prosperity and impressing visiting businessmen. It is located in Praca do Infante, the main square of the Ribeira neighborhood, a World Heritage Site. Construction started in 1842, and included works by the most renowned nineteenth-century architects, painters, sculptors, and furniture makers of Northern Portugal. It displays a variety of styles, from austere Tuscan architecture to nineteenth-century neoclassicism — including Arabian polychromatic and English neopalatial styles. You can find a floor-plan of the palace with links to panoramic views of each of the main rooms here.

Inside, you’ll find what is by far the most interesting interior in Porto. Its main attractions are the Arabian Room and the Hall of Nations.

The Arabian Room is where most receptions for foreign dignitaries visiting Porto are held. No images do justice to its spectacular colors, so you’ll have to see the room for yourself. (You can get a good sense of how it looks, though, by following the link to a panoramic image from 360 Portugal at the top of this review.) Built between 1862 and 1880, it is inspired by moorish-style buildings in Al-Aldaluz — the south of Spain, which was under Muslim rule until 1492. Lavish detailed decorations in plaster, wood, and gold leaf cover each square inch of wall and ceiling with Arabian motifs. The background is red and aquamarine, with an over-layer of inscriptions in Arabic extolling Allah. All windows are in stained glass, with additional Arabian themes.

The other great space is the Hall of Nations (panoramic image from 360 Portugal linked below), which was once an open-air cloister, and now has a glass-and-metal dome. It is decorated with the coats of arms of Portugal and its twenty most important trade partners in the early nineteenth century. The floor is decorated with tiles inspired by those in the ill-fated Roman city of Pompeii. The floor of the Porto Stock Exchange operated here till the mid-1990s.

Guided tours take you through other rooms that, though not as exquisite as these two, are not a waste of time either. Among these, the nicest are the library, the president’s room (decorated with mid-nineteenth century furniture in the first-empire style, using the best Portuguese and Brazilian woods), the board of directors room (also called the golden room because of the gilded carvings on the walls and ceiling, imitating bronze, gold, and wood, but which are actually made of plaster), the portrait room (featuring full-body portraits of the last six Portuguese monarchs before the 1910 republican revolution — all the constitutional monarchs), and the court room (in the French renaissance style, with large oil-painted panels on the walls).

Throughout the tour, pay attention to the floors, which feature some of the most beautiful wooden parquetry anywhere in the world (Brazilian exotic wood was important in Porto’s trade), with dizzying designs including a 3D trompe l’oeil stairway.

The Palacio da Bolsa has a great agenda of performances, exhibitions, auctions, and other stuff happening most of the time, so check their website if you want to attend (or avoid) a particular event.

Inside the palace there is also a restaurant, O Comercial, which is well worth mentioning. It offers contemporary Portuguese cuisine with an international twist, all in an elegant setting. Right next to it, you’ll find The Essence of Porto, a small port-wine shop with a great selection of ports — and a nice, quiet tasting room.

Price point: guided tours are 5 euros for adults; 3 for children. No visits beyond outside tours. No photography is allowed inside the palace, so you’ll probably end up buying some postcards in the gift shop.

Address: Rua Ferreira Borges, Porto.

Phone: (+351) 22.339.9000.

Website: http://www.palaciodabolsa.pt/

Opening hours: between November and March, open seven days a week 9:00am-1:00pm and 2:00pm-6:00pm; April through October, open from 9:00am to 7:00pm uninterruptedly. The Essencia do Vinho wine bar is open daily from 10:00am to 7:00pm. The restaurant — O Comercial — is open Monday through Friday 12:00-3:00pm and 8:00-11:00pm (till Midnight on Fridays).

Getting there: if you are driving from downtown Porto, the easiest way of getting there is to take Rua Mouzinho da Silveira down to Praca do Infante. Park there in the underground parking lot. Once you’ve walked back up to the street level, Palacio da Bolsa is the large stone building on the Western side of the square. If you’re not driving, walking from downtown should take you 10 minutes, and a taxi should take about 5 minutes.

For more wonderful Quicktime VR panoramic image of Palacio da Bolsa, click here. The link will take you to a map of the Palacio on 360 Portugal, a comprehensive archive of panoramic images of Portugal. As always, many thanks to Santiago Ribas, the man behind the camera.

Vinologia (vee-noo-loo-GEE-ah) is the best port-only wine bar in Porto — it matches the Solar do Vinho do Porto in terms of variety and beats it in terms of the enthusiasm and service. (OK, it is not as comfortable, but it makes up in liveliness what it lacks in plush.) Roy Hersh, an American wine critic who has covered port for a long time, has this to say: “If this was near my home, I’d be broke and homeless.” Owner Jean Philippe Duhard, originally from Bordeaux, settled in Porto in 1995 and became enamored of port wine. Five years later he opened this place, and has been doing all of us a favor ever since.

Located at the heart of the Ribeira neighborhood, Vinologia (a.k.a. La Maison des Porto — or the house of port in Jean Philippe’s native French) occupies an authentic eighteenth-century house. In it, you’ll find a tiny wine bar (25 guests max. at any time) as well as an excellent wine store devoted entirely to port. The decor is sober, mostly in brick, granite, and wood. Every nook and cranny in the place is filled with port bottles, port glassware, port books — all things port. Their slogan is “A glass of port, in the heart of Porto.”

As the name indicates — it stands for “wine-ology,” or the science of wine — the team at Vinologia takes their job pretty darn seriously. In fact, they don’t conceive of the place as a bar, more of a port wine school. And they’re well equipped to do so. Jean Philippe is a member of the Port Wine Institute’s confraria (brotherhood), an exclusive club to which only the most well-versed in port can aspire to belong. His son Gustavo possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of port, including minor producers and off vintages. And Cristophe, the Swiss bartender, is fluent in a handful of languages, making their mission of converting heathens into port-believers much easier. As you probably guess by now, service is attentive and enthusiastic.

Vinologia offers more than two hundred bottlings of port, which easily makes it the place with the widest variety of port in Porto. While the Solar do Vinho do Porto covers mostly the main producers, Vinologia specializes in small producers who rarely make it to the U.S. market. If you know little about port, this is a great place to catch the bug. If you already know a bit and would like to know more, then this is the place to develop a nuanced knowledge of the world of port and a real grasp of its intricacies.

You can try port by the glass, or you can go for one (or more…) of the flights on offer, from basic introductory stuff to top-notch wines. The prices are easy to follow — each wine of the same kind (dry white, ruby, tawny, 10-year old, 20-year old, 40-year old, LBV, vintage, colheita, etc.) has the same price. Whites are served with apricots and salted toasted almonds; rubies with prunes; and tawnies with chocolates and raisins. If you’re hungrier than that, Vinologia offers raisin bread, chocolate, nuts, and the king of Portuguese cheeses — Serra da Estrela (SEH-rah dah Esh-TREH-lah) — a raw sheep’s-milk cheese that makes a perfect accompaniment for port and is one of the best cheeses in the whole world.

In sum, Vinologia is an excellent spot for several stops during your stay in Porto. Take a break during the day and taste a three-glass flight. Go there after dinner and indulge in a longer tasting. If you’re staying at the Porto Pestana Carlton (our favorite hotel in town), the walk home is only one block downhill. Enjoy, and Godspeed!

Price point: ports by the glass from 1.5 euros; degustation flights from 6 euros. Prices in general are very reasonable for the quality of the ports served. Bottles of port are 10 euros and up.

Address: Rua S. Joao 46, Porto.

Website: http://www.lamaisondesporto.com/

Opening hours: open daily from 2:00pm till midnight.

Reservations: required only for groups of 10 or more; call (+351) 93.605.7340.

Getting there: if you are driving from downtown Porto, the easiest way of getting there is to take Rua Mouzinho da Silveira down to Praca do Infante. Park there in the underground parking lot. Once you’ve walked back up to the street level, face the river (which means turn your back to the red metal structure on the higher side of the square, the Mercado Ferreira Borges, an old market). Then walk to the lowest part of the square, and turn left. Vinologia is on the next crossing, at the beginning of the block that leads to the tunnel heading to the D. Luiz I bridge. If you’re not driving, walking from downtown should take you 10-15 minutes, and a taxi should take about 5 minutes.

Ribeira (ree-BAY-rah) literally means riverside. It is the neighborhood next to the Douro river closest to downtown Porto, and it once was the center of the city. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Porto’s economy revolved around the port-wine business. Cellars were (and still are) located across the Douro river in Gaia, while shippers were located in Ribeira. After going through some decline during most of the twentieth century, the neighborhood was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996. Since then, works restoring this precious neighborhood of medieval origins have been proceeding at a steady pace.

The World Heritage Site also includes the medieval section of Porto, which is within the fourteenth-century Romanesque wall, uphill from Ribeira. This other neigborhood, called Se (the cathedral is there) has the oldest buildings in Porto.

Attractions

Ribeira occupies the lower part of the slope descending from Baixa — downtown Porto — to the Douro river. Besides the picturesque riverfront walkway, it has two centers of attraction: Praca do Infante and Praca da Ribeira.

Praca do Infante (the Infante, by the way, is Henry the Navigator, who is supposed to have been born just steps away, in the Casa do Infante) has several attractions: the Palacio da Bolsa, a nineteenth-century palace that is the headquarters of the Porto commerce chamber and has lavishly decorated rooms; the Mercado Ferreira Borges, a nineteenth-century red metal structure that used to be a market and nowadays hosts exhibitions of different sorts, like antiques, city planning, etc.; and the nearby S. Francisco church, which is not only one of the few remaining medieval buildings in town but also (on the inside) one of the greatest exponents of baroque religious art in Portugal.

Praca da Ribeira is a riverfront square of medieval origins transformed in the eighteenth century, which is now full of coffeeshops with outside tables. It is a good place to sit, enjoy the view and mingle with the locals.

The nearby Cafe do Cais (if you’re in Praca da Ribeira, walk to the river, then turn right — the coffeeshop is the glass building on your left, right on the river edge, less than 100 yards from the Praca) has a better view and a more refined atmosphere, but you find a more middle class sort of local clientele there, as opposed to the coffeeshops in Praca da Ribeira proper, where the clients are mostly students (especially at night) and people from the neighborhood. Cruise-ships that go up and down the Douro depart from right next to this coffeeshop, offering tours lasting from fifteen minutes up to several days.

The narrow streets, arcades, and stairways around the two piazzas — Praca da Ribeira and Praca do Infante — are well worth exploring. Furthermore, if you walk along the river from Praca da Ribeira towards D. Luiz I bridge, right before the bridge’s lower-level crossing starts you will find a large tile panel. It is the Ribeira Negra (black riverfront) panel, by Portuguese painter Julio Resende, representing the darkness (in more than one way) of local life.

If you walk downriver from Praca do Infante (or, for that matter, from Praca da Ribeira) after about half a mile you will get to Miragaia (literally, “see Gaia”), the next riverfront neighborhood. It is centered on the large granite river-front customs building. The lower-level streets, alleys, and archways in front of the customs building are also worth exploring.

Atmosphere

A mixture of locals and tourists, medieval and twenty-first century, wealthy and poor, lively and secluded, Ribeira is a rather unique place, where in seconds you can go from a bustling piazza to a damp narrow alley where you’ll only find locals.

Most of the neighborhood’s houses date back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and are small two-, three-, or even four-storey dwellings painted in bright colors. Most of them are inhabited by senior citizens, and you will see them going about their daily lives, which for the most part means men gathering at coffeeshops and women doing house chores, hanging clothes on the line to dry outside their window or just perched on the window sill watching passers-by or chatting with their neighbors across the narrow streets. It’s an ideal place to get the feeling of what Porto really is.

Ribeira is worth visiting a few times, as its colors change dramatically with differences in sunlight. Foggy mornings will draw out cool tones; bright afternoons will highlight warm pastel tones; and evenings will create pointillistic images of neon signs and their reflections on the river.

The whole ensemble of Ribeira is at its best when seen from across the Douro river from the coffeeshops along the riverfront in Gaia (the twin-city of Porto, on the left margin of the Douro river). Among these, our favorite spot for a picture-perfect view of Ribeira is Bogani, a mere fifteen-minute walk from Ribeira across the river and then to the right (you can find more detailed walking directions in our review of it). You’ll enjoy a view that mixes colorful buildings with the stark granite mountain slope. It is this view that defines Porto.

Where to Stay, Eat, and Drink

During the day, enjoy the many coffeeshops in the neighborhood. For lunch, we recommend the D. Tonho outpost across the river in Gaia.

For dinner, you have two terrific options: the D. Tonho main dining room (between Praca da Ribeira and the D. Luiz I bridge) or A Mesa com Bacchus (walk along the river downstream from Praca do Infante past S. Francisco church and half a mile later you will find a large building on your left, the customs building; the restaurant is just across the street from there; more detailed directions in our review).

At night, both Ribeira and the Gaia riverfront are lively places full of bars and clubs. Bogani, across the river in Gaia is a must day or night, both for its coffee drinks and, especially, its view. Back in Ribeira, Aniki Bobo (on Rua da Reboleira, the narrow street to your right if you’re on Praca da Ribeira facing the river) is a classic bar in Porto, attracting the local intelligentsia. If you prefer a lively Irish pub, go to Ryan’s Irish Bar (on the street connecting Praca do Infante to the tunnel that leads to the D. Luiz I bridge).

In any case, keep in mind that Portuguese nightlife starts between 10:00 and 11:00pm, so don’t be surprised if all the bars are empty between 9:00 and 10:00, which is still considered dinnertime.

Above all, we recommend the Pestana Porto Carlton as the place to stay in Porto. It is right in the heart of Ribeira, on Praca da Ribeira, facing the river and the D. Luiz I bridge.

The only downside to Ribeira, as is the case with many other picturesque neighborhoods around the world, is that it became a bit touristy and many restaurants became over-priced tourist-traps. Follow our recommendations and you won’t go wrong.

For wonderful Quicktime VR panoramic images of Ribeira, click on the large images above. The link will take you to 360 Portugal, a comprehensive archive of panoramic images of Portugal. While you’re at it, you may want to see more of Ribeira by following the links in the detailed maps of Porto available on that website. Ribeira and the surrounding areas encompass maps A2 (Miragaia), A3 (Infante), and A6 (Ribeira). Also, check out the panoramic images taken from Gaia, across the Douro river from Ribeira, by clicking on the links placed on the southern margin of the Douro on their general map of Porto. As always, many thanks to Santiago Ribas, the man behind the camera.

A Mesa com Bacchus (AH ME-zah komm BAK-hoos) means “at the table with Bacchus,” and that is what you get in chef-owner Mario da Fonte’s restaurant and tavern. This is a tiny place, with seating for 14 people. There is no menu — you just eat whatever Mario has prepared that day. (If you have any special dietary requirements, let him know when you call to make the reservation.) The A Mesa com Bacchus experience consists in a 9-10 course meal with a taste of a few olive oil samples and half a dozen carefully chosen wines (mostly from the Douro region) to go with it. Expect to spend between three and five (!) hours there.

A Mesa com Bacchus is located on the Miragaia neighborhood (made mostly of medieval houses inhabited by local fishermen), in a crooked street very close to the river. The dining room is soberly decorated, keeping the stone walls in sight. The table setting is also excellent.

Mario is a friendly host, and makes you feel like you’re having dinner at a good friend’s place. Don’t be intimidated if he asks your name when you arrive and starts calling you “my good friend” after 10 minutes. This is the restaurant where top Port wine makers bring the most renowned international wine critics for dinner whenever they visit to sample new wines.

A recent visit started with chilled white wine and grapes. Mario invited us to taste the wine before and after having a grape, comparing the nuances between sweet and sour. Then he offered us several olive-oil tastes with fleur de sel, and later quizzed us on which olive oil was used in one particular dish. The menu also included fried corn bread (broa), herb-seasoned requeijao (a Portuguese version of ricotta, not to be mixed up with Brazilian requeijao, which is much more liquid), grilled squid with garlic and toasted almonds, a salad with bacalhau (dried salted cod) marinated with bell peppers, and a bacalhau risotto with fresh oregano. As a popular party had started outside during our meal, Mario offered us white port glasses and encouraged us to join the partying locals while we waited for the next course — an ice cream with balsamic vinegar.

Mario is also the resident DJ in his one-man operation, and he has an ear for good lounge music.

If you like interaction with the chef, A Mesa com Bacchus is destined to be a memorable experience. If you rather be left on your own, Mario will probably pick it up soon enough and become self-effacing — but that would be missing the point of his tavern…

Overall, A Mesa com Bacchus is a unique experience, with wonderful food, olive oil, and Portuguese wine, delivered by Mario da Fonte in a ritual filled with detail and humor.

Price point: around 45 euros plus drinks.

Address: Rua de Miragaia 127, Porto.

Website: unavailable.

Opening hours: open for dinner only, Monday to Saturday (8:00pm-1:00am).

Reservations: required; call (+351) 22.200.0896 or (+351) 91.455.3823.

Getting there: difficult parking nearby; taxi recommended. If you are driving from downtown Oporto, the easiest way of getting there is to take Rua Mouzinho da Silveira down to Praca do Infante, turn right and start following the river on your left. After about 1/2 mile, you will see a large stone building on your left, just on the riverfront. It’s the “New” customs building, from the XIX century. The restaurant is in the little plaza across the street from that building. You can park there if there are spots (rare). The other option is to park on the riverfront parking you’ll find on your way from Praca do Infante there. The 1/3 mile walk is very pleasant in good weather. If you’re not driving, take a taxi (15 minutes).

D. Tonho (DON TO-gno) is the best place to eat traditional Portuguese food in a contemporary setting. Owned by singer-songwriter Rui Veloso, it consistently attracts a lively crowd across ages and walks of life. It is located right next to the river in the heart of the Ribeira (riverfront) medieval neighborhood. There is also a smaller outpost right across the river in Gaia, which is equally good, especially for lunch. The chef prepare most of the top dishes in Portuguese traditional cuisine consistently well.

The main D. Tonho restaurant is in a lovely XVI-XVIII centuries stone building. The dining room features a sober contemporary decor and has a view of the river and the exquisite nearby D. Luiz I bridge. The Gaia outpost is a glass and metal stand-alone structure right next to the river, making the most of the magnificent views.

You can’t miss the ameijoas a Bulhao Pato (clams in a garlic, white wine, and parsley light sauce) as an appetizer. Try also the roupa velha (old clothes), which consists in a mix of bacalhau (salted cod) with vegetables slowly sauteed in olive oil — what most families have as a first course on Christmas Day, prepared with the left-overs from the traditional cod dish that features prominently on the Christmas Eve supper menu. If you still have room, go for the pataniscas de bacalhau (salted cod fritters), a staple of Portuguese XVIII century fast food.

As for main courses, try the lamprey (a seasonal large eel that is much appreciated in Northern Portugal) either cooked in wine (a bordalesa) or with rice (similar to a risotto). The menu also includes several great bacalhau (salted cod) dishes, including bacalhau assado nas brasas com batata a murro (char-grilled cod with greens and baked potatoes, which are punched half-way through baking so as to acquire a softer texture). Among the fresh fish, we highly recommend the robalo ao sal, a whole sea bass baked in a salt crust. The seafood section also includes polvo (octopus), masterfully grilled or baked. But our favorite is undoubtedly the cataplana de bacalhau com ameijoas (salted cod and clams steamed with herbs and white wine in a cataplana, which is a large clam-shaped copper pot that looks like two woks on top of each other and that can be hermetically closed, allowing the food to slowly cook in its own juices; used in many fishermen villages to prepare fresh fish). Among the land-based dished, the arroz de pato is a terrific rice with duck, smoked sausages, and cheese, drier than a risotto but equally delicious. Highlights must also include the tripas a moda do Porto, which is the flagship of Porto’s culinary tradition. It is a bean stew similar to a cassoulet, featuring different kinds of smoked sausage besides the tripe (tripa) after which the dish is named.

The Gaia outpost (check out the view on the bottom picture) also includes several francesinhas on the menu. These are hot sandwiches unique to Porto, stuffed with coarse fresh sausage, wet-cured ham, linguiça (known in New England and Hawaii as “Portuguese sausage”), steak or roast meat and then covered with thin slices of a Portuguese Gouda-style cheese called flamengo and baked until the cheese melts. Before coming to the table, a hot thick sauce with beer, brandy, tomato, and hot peppers is poured over them. You will not forget these. In fact, you may well feel the need to come back to Porto for more!

Short dessert menu, featuring a few local specialties. Rabanadas is something all Portuguese have for Christmas, and could be described as a more sophisticated version of French toast, with a sauce that includes Port wine, tea, honey, spices, etc. The pera borrachona (drunken pear, cooked in red wine) is also well worth a try. Member of a family that was popularized world-wide, the leite creme caseiro is the Portuguese version of the crema catalana.

The wine list is very good, having won the prize for best Port wine offerings in 2005. It features around 250 table wines and 150 Ports. Ask the sommelier for suggestions among the many great Portuguese wines and don’t pass the opportunity to have a good Port for dessert.

Service is professional but friendly.

Price point: around 30 euros plus drinks.

Address: Cais da Ribeira 13-15, Porto; Esplanada do Calem, Gaia.

Website: http://www.dtonho.com/

Opening hours: open daily for lunch (12:00pm-3:00pm) and dinner (8:00pm-12:00am).

Reservations: recommended, especially for dinner and during the weekends; call (+351) 22.200.4307 (Porto; main dining room); or (+351) 22.374.4875 (Gaia outpost).

Getting there: difficult access by car; taxi recommended. If your driving from downtown Oporto, take Rua Mouzinho da Silveira down to Praca do Infante, turn left, go through the tunnel and turn sharp right as you exit the tunnel before crossing the bridge. The restaurant is 100ft down the street on your right side — on your left side is the river. Parking is difficult, so it is better to leave the car in the underground parking at Praca do Infante and walk down Rua do Infante until you get to the river. Turn left and follow the river; the restaurant will be on your left just before you reach the D. Luiz I bridge. If you’re not driving, you can walk from downtown (around 30 minutes downhill) or take a taxi (5 minutes). In order to get to the Gaia outpost, you must cross the lower level bridge and turn sharp right as soon as you are on the other side, in order to stay on the riverfront. Park and look for a long glass pavilion about 1/4 mile from the bridge.

In Portuguese, Sessenta Setenta (seh-SEN-tah seh-TEN-tah) literally means “sixty seventy” but can also sound like “if you seat yourself, you tempt yourself.” So it is.

Sessenta Setenta is located (or, perhaps better, hidden) in the ruins of the Monchique monastery. You take a narrow winding street down the hill to get there and halfway through you’ll find a metal door with the restaurant’s logo. You enter through a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, take a moment to enjoy the view of the ruins with the river on the background — by night the ruins are particularly pretty with spotlight illumination — before you enter the restaurant. The dining room has stone walls and narrow windows that capture the magnificent view of the river right there at your feet. (You can also dine al fresco when the weather is pleasant, say, from May to September.)

Chef Francisco Meireles’ menu consists mostly of Mediterranean and contemporary Portuguese cuisine. Beyond the seasonal dishes, there’s typically six cold appetizers, nine hot appetizers, four fish courses, twelve meat, poultry, and game courses, and a dozen desserts.

Among the appetizers, we recommend the crab mousse, the chicory salad with parmigiano cheese (which features a bacon and walnut crumble), or the patatu (a mixture of potatoes, fava beans, olives, and goat cheese au gratin).

Main courses include a sea bass with saffron; a couple of good bacalhau dishes (among which the a Frexieiro, baked with bread and olive oil, stands out); baked potato stuffed with game over leeks; a pigeon with chila (sweet preserved pumpkin); a lamb carre; and several good stakes — including a tuna steak. Great desserts, among which the passion fruit tapioca, the apple pie, the fruit puree with ice cream, and the Grand Marnier souffle stand out.

Seasonal menus include great stuff, like the savel (shad) de escabeche (a way of preparing fish in vinegar and herbs in order to soften the bones), lamprey (a seasonal large eel that is revered in Northern Portugal) cooked in wine, Stilton cheese with apricot butter, and a glacee apple in saffron and starched anis.

The wine list has around 80 choices, many of them excellent Portuguese wines, most at reasonable prices. The Port Wine Institute has awarded the restaurant for its top choices.

Service is friendly and attentive; the chef is often in the dining room or at the door.

The decor is dark and a bit minimalist, which fits the monastic environment well. It also matches the foggy river close by.

Price point: around 35 euros plus drinks.

Address: Rua Sobre o Douro 1 A, Porto.

Website: unavailable.

Opening hours: open Monday through Friday for lunch (12:45 to 14:30pm) and Monday through Saturday for dinner (8:00pm to 1:00am).

Reservations: highly recommended for dinner; call (+351) 22.340.6093.

Getting there: difficult to access by car; taxi recommended. If your driving from downtown Oporto, take Rua da Restauracao downhill, heading toward the river. Around halfway through, there is a low contemporary white house on your left (easy to find because on that section of the street there are few other houses on the left side, only the downward slope). Enter the narrow street next to that house (you actally have to go through the main street’s sidewalk to do that) and continue to go down, only now in the opposite direction. After a few sharp turns, you’ll find the restaurant on your right. Parking is usually easily available, but you need to be accustomed to parking on narrow streets. When you exit the restaurant, continue to drive down and you’ll hit the riverfront road. Take a left to return downtown or a right to go to Foz (the seafront). If you’re not driving (or if you don’t feel comfortable driving in very narrow streets), take a taxi. It should take only fifteen minutes to get there from downtown.

No other place comes even close to the Porto Pestana Carlton Hotel (POR-tu Pesh-TA-na) for short stays in Porto.

This boutique hotel consists in six small inter-connected buildings in the heart of the historic Ribeira (ree-BYE-rah) neighborhood, which was declared a World Heritage site by Unesco. On the outside it’s a set of eighteenth century constructions; on the inside, a contemporary luxury accommodation. (The hotel consists on the yellow building in the pictures plus five narrower buildings to its left.)

Since the building is right next to the river, most rooms have splendid views. Across the river, all Port wine cellars have their lights up at night. We can’t imagine a more romantic location for a hotel.

Make sure you ask for a river-view room or, even better, a corner-suite, with a view of the D. Luiz I bridge, designed by Gustave Eiffel’s associate Teophile Seyrig. All river-view rooms have balconies (the bottom picture is taken from one). Rooms are comfortable and spacious for a hotel in a medieval neighborhood.

Staying here means you will be in the heart of Porto, within steps of the riverfront and only a short walk from both the Baixa (BYE-sha) neighborhood (downtown) and the Port wine cellars in Gaia (GAH-ya). This is the place to stay if you want to get the feeling of what Porto is.

The neighborhood is a little noisy at night (there are plenty of bars within walking distance of the hotel), so if you demand extra quiet surroundings, you may want to consider staying somewhere else. Overall, we strongly believe the pros of staying in such a unique place more than compensate for the minor cons involved.

The Pestana hotel group is consistently ranked among the best Portuguese hotel groups, ensuring excellent service.

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Price point: from 160 euros for a river-view room and 250 euros for a suite.

Address: Praça da Ribeira 1, Porto.

Website: http://www.pestana.com/

Reservations: call (+351) 22.340.2300.

Getting there: difficult access by car; taxi highly recommended. If you’re staying at the Pestana Carlton, we highly recommend not renting a car. Since the whole neighborhood is pedestrian-only, the parking lot used by the hotel is a 10-minute walk away, making it not very practical. Use taxis and, above all, walk around in the neighborhood.