By: Elizabeth Wilding
5 days was NOT enough for my time in Portugal. My friend Maddie and I flew into Porto, Portugal from Barcelona, Spain (3 Days in Barcelona Travel Guide linked here!). We were super upset about leaving Barcelona, but little did I know that I would absolutely fall in love with Portugal. The old European vibe captured my heart in a way that I did not expect.
We arrived in Porto late afternoon and took the train from the airport right into the city (you can purchase tickets at the airport for the train!). As we approached the city, I was in utter disbelief at how incredible the view is. The entire city is built on a hill, with so many layers to be explored. We got settled into our air bnb and headed out to find dinner (everything in Porto is in walking distance!).
We ate at Tabeminha do Manel, located right on the water with gorgeous outside seating. Similar to Barcelona, we ordered tapas to share, including grilled octopus, a traditional Portuguese stew, empanadas, and of course, sangria!
After dinner, we sat on the riverside and watched the sunset over the water. Sitting on the ledge with my friend Maddie will go down as one of my favorite core memories; no photo
will ever capture how breath taking Porto is, you just have to experience it for yourself.
Once the sun went down, I was on the hunt for pastel de nata, a traditional Portuguese dessert. Luckily, it was not hard to find! We explored the city while munching on the creamy egg custard tart and popped in and out of souvenir shops looking for the best postcards for our collection.
On the way back to the air bnb, we noticed people congregating around a stage in a local park called Jardim do Morro. We walked up to see what was going on and there was going to be a DJ (Ze Neves was the name on the poster)! All of a sudden we heard drumming in the distance. All of a sudden we saw a group of men of all ages approaching the stage, all playing the drums. Later on, I tried to do research on the marching band, however I couldn't find the history behind the drumming men! After the drums, the DJ came on stage and we danced in the park with all the locals. What a way to end the perfect first day in Portugal!!
Day 2
We woke up bright and early on day 2 to head to a wine tour of Duoro Valley, we had to try port in it's origin country! The misty morning view from our air bnb balcony stirred up our excitement of our day ahead adventuring around Portugal.
We grabbed coffee and pastries at a cafe across the street from our air bnb, and the vibes were straight out of a movie. Men were standing at the counter drinking their morning espresso and everyone you passed by on the street shouted 'good morning!!'. We arrived a little too early to the location our wine tour was meeting at, so we went for a walk around the city square.
We soon after boarded the bus and headed for Duoro Valley (I linked a similar wine tour to the one we did, it's all the same events, just in a different order than ours was. We went to both wineries first, then had a super late lunch. All the port and no food would not be something I recommend! Bring snacks on the bus ride!).
The bus took us to the fairytale city of Pinhao. We only had 30 minutes to explore the city; 30 minutes was not enough!! I could've wandered around the city for hours.
Afterwards, we traveled through the vineyards of Duoro Valley (the road to get there was named one of the top 10 most scenic roads in the world! One of the fast and furious movies has a scene filmed here). The vineyards are unbelievable, with miles and miles of grapes that are still hand picked and stomped by feet. We toured two different wineries, took a short cruise down the river, and had lunch in amongst the vines!
We napped the entire bus ride back to Porto, and when we got to the air bnb, we were exhausted! We decided to order in a pizza, sit on the balcony and soak up the view, and have deep girl chat time. On our walk back from the tour, we randomly stopped to get an acai bowl at Oakberry Acai. The girl at the cash registered taught us that acai bowls originated in Brazil, which has a great history of Portuguese decent. This was the start of our acai addiction in Portugal!
Day 3
The hardest goodbye was parting ways with Porto, but we were off to Lisbon! We snapped a few final pictures before we headed to the train station.
This was the worst travel day we faced so far - we thought there would be food available for purchase at the train station (this was our mistake for assuming!), and there wasn't anything besides a vending machine. There was a small cafe on the train, but by the time we got to the food cabin, all of the food was sold out. I almost let my hanger get the best of me! Maddie also started to come down with a cold, which developed quickly during our time in Lisbon; we made a very interesting pit stop at a pharmacy in Lisbon to get meds! But this is all a story for another time.
There was food available in the Lisbon train station, so we got an acai bowl to hold us over until we got into the city. We decided to uber around most of Lisbon, which we were told was the easiest way to get around! We took an uber to our air bnb, checked in, and went to find lunch. Our air bnb was in the heart of the city and the decor/tiles were so dreamy (I'll have the exact air bnb linked here).
We sat down at the first restaurant in sight, and I ordered the seafood pasta. The prawns still had eyes!
After lunch, we accidentally fell asleep at the air bnb, but no worries we woke up and went out to explore Lisbon right after! Just like Porto, make sure to wear comfortable shoes because it's a lot of steep uphill walking. We stopped to get an acai bowl for dinner (we were still full from our late lunch!) and window shopped until it was dark. Lisbon's streets are lively, with street performers everywhere!
Day 4
Day 4 was a discouraging day for Maddie and I. Maddie's cold was getting worse and our plans for the day went downhill very quickly. We decided to uber to the National Palace of Sintra, however on the way there, our uber driver cancelled our ride and made us get out of the car. He couldn't speak english, so he also got out of the car and found a few policemen who spoke english to translate to us that he could not continue the ride. The police put us on a bus that took us up to the palace only to get there to find out tickets were sold out for the day (I always book in advance, I thought we'd be fine:( I linked the tickets because it is a GORGEOUS palace!). An employee told us the only tickets available for the day were at Parque e Palácio de Monserrate, so we panic bought tickets for this palace instead. Turned out it was 25 minutes away from where we were at. Parque e Palácio de Monserrate was underwhelming comparing to the National Palace of Sintra, but we tried to make the best of the situation!
Exhausted from our chaotic day, we took a quick nap before heading out to dinner. Travel naps just hit different!
For dinner, we ubered to Ponto, a rustic old school restaurant on the water. Get there early for dinner - you have to stand in line to put your name in, then you can order a drink and appetizers while you wait. They call out your name when your table is ready (no texting!). The bottles of wine are reasonably priced and the food was incredible!
Day 5
We woke up early to enjoy the last moments of our trip. We headed out to explore more of Lisbon, get a few more postcards, and eat one more acai bowl before we take off back to the United States!
Traveling is not always glamorous, but it is memorable. Portugal is a MUST visit if you love the old European lifestyle. I am already counting down the minutes until I can go back!