The Language of Communication:

Most of the persons living in Porto city understand English language, except few living in interior places, do not understand English. The population of Porto city has great liking for persons who speak with them in their own Portuguese language, which has lot of similarity with French and Spanish language. The commonly used words are easy to learn in a short period.

National Holidays:

As in any country there are some specific holidays related to Portugal, which are celebrated here. Following are some of the holidays observed here:

January 1,  New Year’s Day.

February 12,  Shrove Tuesday/Carnaval – Bank holiday.

March 28,  Holy Thursday -Bank holiday.
March 29 , Good Friday.
March 31,  Easter.
April 1,  Easter Monday – not for banks.
April 25,  Liberation Day.
May 1, Labor Day.
May 30, Corpus Christi day.
June 10, National Day/Camoes and Portugal Day.
August 15,  Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
October 5,  Republic Day.
November 1,  All Saints Day.
December 1,  Independence Day, Youth Day.
December 8,  Immaculate Conception.
December 24,  Christmas Eve – banks.
December 25,  Christmas Day

Communication Facilities:

Being away from home, there is a craving to communicate with people back home:

Telephone Codes:

It is worth making a note that code for Portugal is 351; where as the city code for Libson is 22.

The nationally supported local number in respect of emergencies is 115;  Local information can be accessed by dialing 118; the international information and assistance can be accessed by dialing 098. These numbers should be remembered or note them in your personal diary or save in your mobile directory. There is likely change of the above mentioned numbers and need to be confirmed, when you make a visit to Porto City.

Local Calls

Local calls can be made from a of Phone privately operated café service, where there is metering device which displays value of the call you have made, make the payment of the call made at the counter.

The public Phones are coins operated, which have to be kept in a row. The quantity of coins required fall in the Phone box depending upon duration and distance of the calling station. You can obtain phone debit cards from the Post Office, which are accepted at Creditone and T-Sete booths spread all over the city.

Long Distance

For making long distance calls within Portugal put 0 before the provincial code, to access a phone call. A list of province code numbers is available at all the phone booths for necessary help.

To access a long distance call from a telephone booth can be irritating and in the hotels it is costly. One should go to telephone office and take help in getting the phone connected. As soon as the required telephone gets connected, the call gets transferred to a cubicle, for maintaining its secrecy. The payment of the phone service can be searched.

To make calls to other areas within Portugal, precede the provincial code with 0 (most phone booths have a chart inside listing the various province codes). The 0 is unnecessary when dialing from outside Portugal.

Sending Mail Home:

Mail to the home place can be made possible either through a postcard or an envelope by affixing Postage of the right denomination.

Transportation within City:

Transportation during peak hours can be a chaos. To be saved of the problem one should use Taxi or Bus service. While traveling during night time, avail the Taxi service or bus. One should know the Bus service timetable so that one reaches bus stand just at time the bus is scheduled to arrive.

The daily pre-paid tickets work out to be more economical and can be purchased by the Bus booth or from post offices and magazine kiosks.

The approximate cost to hire a car service is EUR 100 per day. The  Europcar on rental basis can be accessed from telephone Number. +351-219-40 77 90 or reservas@mail.europcar.com. Street parking cost about EUR 0.50 is extra per hour of parking in the city jurisdictions.

Phone Taxi: Phone Taxi service for going to the Airport costs EUR 18-20.

Entertainment in Porto:

City of Porto offers great entertainment options in the theatres and cinemas following places are of special mention from visitor’s point of view:

Balleteatro, Praca 9 de Abril, 76.

Casa das Artes (Arts House) Rua Ruben A, 210.

Coliseu do Porto (Porto Coliseum) Rua de Passos Manuel, 137.

Pavilhгo Rosa Mota(Rosa Mota Pavillion) Rua de D. Manuel II.

Rivoli – Teatro Municipal (Municipal Theatre) Praca D. Joгo I

Sa da Bandeira/Latino Rua de Sa da Bandeira, 108

Seiva Trupe – Teatro Vivo, C.R.L./Teatro do Campo Alegre Rua das Estrelas.
Teatro de Belomonte (Belomonte Theatre) Rua de Belomonte, 57.

Teatro Campo Alegre (Campo Alegre Theatre) Rua das Estrelas, 57

Teatro Nacional de S. Joгo

S. Joгo National Theatre. Praca da Batalha.
Teatro Helena Sa e Costa(Helena Sa e Costa Theatre) Rua da Alegria, 503

Teatro da Vilarinha (Vilarinha Theatre) Rua da Vilarinha, 1386

Teatro Latino (Latino Theatre) Rua Sa da Bandeira, 108

Casa do Medico (Doctor’s House) Rua Delfim Maia, 405

Porto city Guide is devised keeping in mind the interest of the Visitors to Porto City. It includes descriptions of various places of interest, which the visitor shall like to decide, which place to visit keeping in mind his interest and the time available with him so that the visit is memorable.

Glorious Past & Present of Porto City:

Porto is city in Portugal depicting both ruins of the medieval period as well as the modern architectural splendors marked by numerous bridges, making easy to navigate by all kinds of vehicular traffic, without interfering in the civic activities of the population in general.

The construction of massive bridges involves a high degree of town planning, which interests engineers and architects of other countries for make it a point to visit the marvelous creation for a close look and take help from the engineers involved in building of these bridges to understand the intricacies of the design deployed.

Some people treat a modern industrial town having finest planning of the internal roads and the bridges for fast and heavy traffic movement without any obstruction.

Status of Porto City:

Porto ranks as second largest town of Portugal its capital in the north, with all its natural beauties and charming locations for visitor attraction, of which Porto is truly proud. Proto has progressed into a high profile industrial town in the region.

Proto in the past was known by the name Portucale during the rule of Suedes, subsequently there was change of its name as Oporto, when it was ruled by Goths Moors and witnessed to be a rich trading centre of the medieval and present times. Now it is popularly known as Porto, which is truly cosmopolitan in its character.

Porto is also famous for its Monuments, Museums and Palaces built by its various rulers depicting their cultures and architecture of the era preserved and well maintained for posterity.

Guerra Junqueiro House-Museum, Rua D. Hugo:

It is 18^th century museum, situated near Cathedral and is used to display private collections of Guerra junqueiro housing some 14^th century Portuguese furniture items besides classic ceramics, silverware, brassware and very rare religious sculpture .

Museum de Arte Contemporanea da Fundasao Serralves

Rua D. JoAo de Castro:

It has mixed architectural designs and also has in addition 4500 square meter of exhibition area. It has annexed to it 8200 square meter area housing an auditorium, a public library, a documentation centre, a relaxation centre and a roof restaurant facing the park having finest natural look.

Soares dos Reis National Museum Rua D. Manuel II:

The museum is present in eighteenth century palace representing classical and eighteenth century architecture and has on display valuable collections in respect of nineteenth and twentieth century Portuguese paintings. Among all, the painting of “Porto school” pertaining to naturalist era has a special attraction. Art works of Silva Porto, Marques de Oliveira, Artur Loureiro and Henrique Pousao have their unique paintings on display besides the most typical art works of outstanding sculptor Soares dos Reis.

Romantic Museum of Quinta da Macieirinha Rua Entrequintas:

The museum has on display, collection of decoration art consisting of painting, Nineteenth century furniture and a number of articles belonging to King Carlos Alberto of Sardinia.

Stock Exchange Rua Ferreira Borges:

The stock exchange is extremely wonderful place being the merger of the past and present architecture. The most attractive part of this palace consists of Patio das NasУes and a beauty enhancing granite and marble stairs besides several rooms decked with outstanding paintings and furniture articles. Out of all of them it is the Arab Room, having outstanding significance.

The Monuments at Porto:

Capela de Nossa Senhora de Agosto - Porto Largo de Entrada da Rua do Sol:

It is a great Church depicting Sixteenth Century architecture created in the later period.

Castelo do Queijo:

It is Seventeenth century Fort, which is triangular in appearance, and is cut short facing the sea. This 17C triangular fort is truncated at the end facing the sea. At three corners watch towers are built to observe the surrounding area by the guards. Entire Fort is surrounded by a wide and deep water channel preventing easy sneaking of any person to the temple.

Inside the Fort there is a Chapel and this comprises the residence of the Governor.

EdifМcio da Livraria Lello & Irmao:

At no. 144 on Rua das Carmelitas, located towards west of Prasa da Liberdade, the entry to the monument is marked by amazing culture objects of the past. The glorious facade consists of a broad arch structure displaying two paint covered art figures one signifies Art and other is the Science aspect. The bulding is part of the national heritage of City of Porto.

There benches made of wood and covered with rich leather upholstery. There are book cases made of wood placed by the walls inside the room, give a very effect of Royal welcome to the visitor. In the middle of the room there are elegant stairs for going up, which give the ornamental look to the place. The rich artistic taste during the Gothic period is truly reflected in the artistic choices made in the construction of this monument.

Forte Sao Joao Baptista:

The Fort has two storey construction of defensive structure surrounding the fort, where the guards can walk and keep the fort vigilance and defense for protecting any one to enter from the sea bound  boundary surrounding the town. The chapel has hexagonal tile covering the cupola structure built over it surrounded by roof like structure having support of the brackets.