Porto

Porto wears its work on its sleeve. Where Lisbon glides, Porto climbs and clatters, a city of granite churches, iron bridges and steep lanes that drop straight to the Douro. The river is the whole point. It splits the city from the port lodges of Gaia on the far bank, and almost everything good happens within sight of the water. Give it a couple of slow days and it gets under your skin.

Where to stay

Stay in Ribeira or just up the hill from it. Ribeira is the riverfront strip, all tiled facades and arcades, beautiful and busy in equal measure. A room a few streets back, around Sao Bento or the Baixa, gives you the same five-minute walk to the river without the late-night noise, and puts the cafes and the famous bookshop on your doorstep.

Cross the Dom Luis bridge to Gaia and you can also sleep among the port lodges, with the whole skyline laid out across the water at breakfast. Either bank works. What matters is staying central enough to walk, because Porto is not a city you want to taxi around: the best of it is the climb.

Eat and drink

Porto’s nickname is tripeiro, the tripe eaters, and the local dish, tripas a moda do Porto, is a hearty bean and tripe stew with more history than glamour. If that is a step too far, the city has gentler hooks.

The francesinha is the local monument: a sandwich of cured meats and steak under melted cheese, drowned in a beer and tomato sauce, usually with a fried egg on top and chips on the side. It is absurd, and you should have one, ideally for a late lunch with nothing planned afterwards.

For something lighter, the Bolhao market has been feeding the city for over a century, good for bread, cheese and tinned fish to take home. And of course there is port. Book a tasting at one of the Gaia lodges, where the wine has aged in dark cellars for years, and learn the difference between a tawny and a vintage before you decide which bottle comes home with you.

Do not miss

Walk across the Dom Luis bridge on the upper deck. The metro and a stream of pedestrians share it, and the view back over Ribeira and the river barges is the image that sells Porto.

Step inside Sao Bento station to see the entrance hall lined with twenty thousand painted azulejo tiles, then visit the Livraria Lello, the curling staircase of a bookshop that draws long queues for good reason. Climb the Clerigos tower for the panorama, and finish with a sunset glass on the Gaia waterfront, watching the lights come up over one of Europe’s most underrated cities.