Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Porto, the Douro & Trás-os-Montes Highlights
Wine-taste your way around the picturesque vineyards of the
Alto Douro
(
Click here
)
Lose yourself amid the medieval alleys of Porto's cinematic district,
Ribeira
(
Click here
)
Relax beside the Rio Tâmega and its medieval bridge in the charming town of
Amarante
(
Click here
)
Come face to face with Palaeolithic artwork at
Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa
(
Click here
)
Stroll the formal gardens and taste fine wines at the stately 18th-century
Palácio de Mateus
(
Click here
)
Hike across a medieval bridge or climb heather-draped hills to 21st-century windmills in
Parque Natural de
Montesinho
(
Click here
)
Swim in natural pools above the dramatic
Fisgas de Ermelo
(
Click here
)
waterfall in
Parque Natural do
Alvão
(
Click here
)
Take in the medieval tower and the 17th-century fortifications from the Roman bridge in
Chaves
(
Click here
)
TOP OF CHAPTER
Porto
POP 237,580
From across the Rio Douro at sunset, romantic Porto looks like a pop-up town. A colourful
tumbledown dream with medieval relics, soaring bell towers, extravagant baroque churches
and stately beaux-arts buildings piled on top of one another, illuminated by streaming
shafts of sun. If you squint you might be able to make out the open windows, the narrow
lanes and staircases zigzagging to nowhere.
Porto's historic centre is the Ribeira district, a Unesco World Heritage site where
tripeir-
os
(Porto residents) mingle before old storefronts, on village-style plazas and in the old
houses of commerce where Roman ruins lurk beneath the foundations. On the downside,
here and in other parts of the city centre stand many dilapidated early- 20th-century town
houses, left to crumble as the young and moneyed flee to the sprawling suburbs by the sea.
Yet despite signs of decay, in the last two decades Porto has undergone a remarkable
renaissance - expressed in the hum of its efficient metro system and the gleam of Álvaro
Siza Vieira's Museu de Arte Contemporânea and Rem Koolhaas' Casa da Música. More re-
cently, the arrival of low-cost airlines has turned Porto into a popular weekend getaway;
hence the boom in tourism.
