This classic building was constructed in 1910 on top of the ruins of the Real Theatre which burned down in 1908. With stylistic emblems representing pain, quality, hate and love. The main façade is inspired by its renovation in the style of Luís XVI, which is typical of the early years of the 20th Century, namely in France. Designed by Marques da Silva, it is considered a building of public interest. His main objectives were the creation and presentation of theatre shows, of various genres, and the encouragement of better public availability of specialist, classic and contemporary theatre works, spanning through the national and international drama repertoire. As well as the National Theatre São João, head-office, the building connects the Carlos Alberto Theatre to the São Bento da Vitória monastery.
This Romanesque wall was constructed in the 12th century, demarcating the administrative and urbanistic extent of Porto, after a long period of dispersed population. Of this structure, there are important remains that were not destroyed in the intervening years.
World Cultural Heritage, it started being built in 1538, and was concluded only around 1670. At first it was created in order to accommodate the Augustinian Friars of the Monastery of Grijó. Later, during the Civil War of 1832-1834, the liberal army settled in the monastery. As a result of the war and of the constant attacks it suffered, it was in a terrible state of disrepair and neglect, until in 1834 with the creation of the Royal Brotherhood of Lady of the Pilar, and later the Group of Friends of the Monastery of Serra do Pilar, in 1925, the whole building was recovered. The church, of circular plan, has the dome surrounded by a balcony; the cloister is also circular, with 36 Ionic columns, the only example in Portugal. From its grand terrace one can see the whole riverside area of Porto and Gaia until the Arrábida Bridge, and the historic center, with emphasis on the Cathedral and D. Luís I bridge. In the opposite direction one can see that the zone of Fontainhas and the São João bridge.
Planned by the engineer Teófilo Seyrig, a disciple of Eiffel, it was inaugurated in 1886 and it is composed by two overlapping iron decks. The bridge has 395 metres long and 8 metres wide, and its arch is still considered to be the world's biggest one in forged iron. Nowadays the upper deck is used by the Metro of Porto, connecting the area of Porto's Cathedral to the Garden of Morro and to the Avenida da República in Vila Nova de Gaia.
The city's most important Gothic temple, whose construction began in the fourteenth century. It is one of the most important works of the Baroque, by its gilded interior from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was the exuberance of its gild carved wood work that led Count Raczinsky to describe it as the 'Church of Gold'. And, overwhelmed, he adds: 'The gild of this church is so beautiful and rich that goes far beyond everything I have seen in Portugal and in the whole world'. It is worth of notice the Tree of Jesse, as well as the catacombs. It is a National Monument since 1910 and World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO since 1996.
A National Monument, the Palácio da Bolsa (Stock Exchange Palace) is the property and headquarters of the Commercial Association of Porto. It was designed by Joaquim da Costa Lima in a neoclassical style in 1842. Situated in the historical centre, it is one of the most visited monuments with the famous Arabian Room being its major highlight. A Cultural and Conference Centre, the Stock Exchange Palace is a venue with unique conditions for hosting events and excellent initiatives. Included in the Urban Wine Route. Accessible for people with reduced mobility through a side entrance.
Existing since 1885, this square is surrounded by Mercado Ferreira Borges and Palácio da Bolsa, located in the historical center. Here, there is a small garden, under which an underground car park was built and a Monument to the Infante D. Henrique, inaugurated on the occasion of the 5th centenary of his death. Its construction started in 1894, was completed in 1900, and represents the triumph of Portuguese navigation and faith.
This gorgeous botanical garden is one of Porto's best-loved escapes, with lawns interwoven with sun-dappled paths and dotted with fountains, sculptures, giant magnolias, camellias, cypress and olive trees. It's actually a mosaic of small gardens that open up little by little as you wander – as do the stunning views of the city and Rio Douro.
This market was built in 1885, by order of the City Council, in order to replace the old Mercado da Ribeira (Ribeira Market). It operated as a market for a very short period of time, having been used for various purposes. It represtents an important example of iron architecture in Porto, which was later renovated to become an entertainment venue, where Hard Club is now located.
A neoclassical building, built in the 19th century, according to a project carried out by the engineer Jean F. G. Colson. It has two facades, one facing the Douro river and one facing the city. Note the structural solutions that resorted to the use of iron in conjunction with other materials - stone, brick or wood - depending on the functionality of the different spaces. In 1987, it was decided to house the future Museum of Transport and Communications, in the building belonging to the Association with the same name. For this, restoration and adaptation works were carried out, according to the project by the architect Eduardo Souto Moura. The Association for the Transport and Communications Museum (Associação para o Museu dos Transportes e Comunicações-A.M.T.C) also manages a Congress Centre, spread across various areas in the Building of Alfândega Nova do Porto.
Seventeenth century church whose classical façade dates from the 1850s. The project has been attributed to the architect/painter Nicolau Nasoni. The altarpiece, of Porto rococo style, was considered to be a stylistically revolutionary piece. Building designated national monument.
Better known as Cordoaria Garden, this garden has been called João Chagas Garden since 1924. The name by which it is best known is due to the activity of the rope makers who stayed here - in the new rope maker's - for about 200 years. In the nineteenth century, the Municipality decided to transform the Praça da Cordoaria into a public area. The project, by the German landscaper Emile David, was built in 1865/1866. In the garden there are statues of Ramalho Ortigão and António Nobre and a set of sculptures by Juan Muñoz from 2001, as well as "O rapto de Ganímedes" (Kidnapping of Ganímedes). In the scope of Porto 2001, European Capital of Culture, this garden underwent remodelling.
The Clérigos Church is a Baroque church in the city of Porto, in Portugal. Its tall bell tower, the Torre dos Clérigos, can be seen from various points of the city and is one of its most characteristic symbols.
Church built in the second half of the eighteenth century. Due to its architecture and interior carvings, it is considered to be one of the most remarkable buildings of Porto rococo. In 1912, its lateral façade was covered with tiles. The drawings on those tiles were designed by Silvestre Silvestri. They are figurative compositions alluding to the cult of Nossa Senhora (Our Lady). Building designated national monument.
The Fountain of the Lions (Portuguese: Fonte dos Leões), is a 19th-century fountain built by French company Compagnie Générale des Eaux pour l'Etranger. Cast by the Val d’Osne foundry in France, it is a copy, in most part, of the fountain in the Town Hall Square of Leicester, England
Granite building, dating from 1582, rebuilt in 1767 in neo-classical style, according to the design of the architect Eugénio dos Santos, by initiative of João de Almada e Melo and financed by Companhia Geral da Agrigultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro. It presents a geometric sequence of windows (103 on the whole). This polygonal-shaped building has 4 façades, two of which are related to its main functions: the main façade, on Rua de São Bento da Vitória, allows you to enter the Court sector. The other façade, opened to the Cordoaria Garden, was formerly constructed for the direct passage of prisoners and is currently the building's main entrance. Camilo Castelo Branco, who was one of Portugal's most famous writers and was charged with adultery as well as the famous Zé do Telhado who was charged with theft were kept here. Between 1999 and 2002 the building was restored under the direction of Eduardo Souto de Moura and Humberto Vieira, to become the current Portuguese Centre for Photography, including an exhibition centre.
The building where the library is now located was inaugurated in 1906. Special mention goes to its beautiful Art Nouveau façade with neo-Gothic details. On the inside, the library is decorated in painted plaster imitating wood and presents a magnificent staircase linking it to the upper floor - one of the first reinforced concrete works in Porto. Also worthy of attention is the huge stained-glass skylight, bearing the library's monogram and motto: 'Decus in Labore'. In 2008, the English newspaper The Guardian considered this library the world's third most beautiful, as did the Lonely Planet in its guide "Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2011", describing it as an 'Art Nouveau gem', and particularly mentioning its 'neo-Gothic shelves' and the 'lolloping red staircase'.
Great way to discover Porto. Anna our guide had great English and was very well informed on Porto’s history and what we should see. Tuk-tuks are fun and easy way to be a tourist!!
Anna was amazing! Anna kept us entertained and up to date during the tur tuk tour. I highly recommend you book your reservation today!
The guide was knowledgeable, and she had a great sense of humor, which helped us enjoy the tour even more. We had a great time!
Fabio was our guide, he was great. He was helpful, knowledgeable and obliging. Porto has very steep streets and this was the perfect way to get up close and personal with the city without killing our legs. Highly recommended.
This was a lot of fun and a great way to see the many parts of the city easily ...especially with all the hills. Our guide Ana was a lot of fun and gave us lots of recommendations in Porto.
Where to start. Guide was 10 minutes late. We drove through town so fast we couldn’t even take pictures. We almost fell out a couple of times. We have done Tuk Tuks in most cities we go to - never have had such a rough ride. If this was my company, I would be livid someone was driving like that. There wasn’t much good about this tour other than the end. One positive: we did get great pictures across the river up on the hill.
The tour was lots of fun. We had a fantastic overview of the major attractions in Porto. The driver, Victor, was passionate about “his” city and provided a great historical perspective. We highly recommend this experience!
Terrible tour! Our guide told us nothing. The name of the place n no history. Liked the Port wine tasting at end. But not a good tour of Porto.
Our tour guide Vincent was amazing, he was so informative and took us to places we would never of discovered. This was a great way to see Porto and places off the beaten track. I would highly recommend Vincent if you could pre book him. 10 out of 10 fabulous day.
Very disappointing. Our driver/guide was poor. He offered no narration during the tour only a very brief description at each stop. We drove by many areas and bus with no explanation. Spent several minutes traveling down cobblestone alleys with no idea where we were. We do not recommend this tour.
The best way to see Porto! Amazing views and seeing all the sights. So much packed into a few hours and you don’t have to walk the hills. Loved going down the narrow, winding streets that we would have never found ourselves. Our driver was full of information and fun facts.
Our guide was excellent. The tour was very inclusive of what to see in Porto. Our only disappointment was we could not go in the bookstore because tickets had to be purchased ahead of time. I suggest you tell people that when booking so they could purchase tickets ahead of time.
Reuben was very informative and friendly! We had a great tour of Porto in a short period of time, which is what we wanted. He made recommendations for lunch, dinner and things to see to fill the rest of our day, which turned out to be fantastic! Highly recommend!!
So much fun! (and so much better than walking up and down the steep hills all day) ...Our guide, Tito, was great as well. ...I really loved all the different panorama photo spots he took us to. ...Never would have found such spectacular viewpoints if I was just walking around on my own.
We were only in Porto for one day and got to see a lot of the city with this tour. Would definitely recommend.
Ana, our guide, was awesome. She knows Porto inside out, and we went to many "off the beaten path" areas with her. A great way to manage the steep hills!
A very good tuk-tuk tour of Porto and a great way to discover the city’s main highlights, historic neighborhoods, viewpoints, and hidden corners. The tour was comfortable, and enjoyable from start to finish. Special thanks to our guide, Anna, who was friendly and made the experience even more enjoyable. Highly recommended!
Ana was very informative and customized our time with her to see the areas we were most interested in. Riding in the tuk tuk was fun and we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon
The meeting point for our 4 hour private tuk tuk tour in Porto was ridiculously obscure. A street address was provided which did not appear in Google maps, and our hotel had little idea of the location. Our cab driver believed he did know but dropped us off in the wrong location, some 300 m away. After seeking advice from locals, we finally managed to find our guide who was parked by her self, no signage at all, right opposite the bus depot. This additional information would have greatly assisted us in locating her. The tour started on schedule at 0930 and our guide Anna was very good and informative, no issues there. Early in the tour I sought to confirm that our 4 hour tour would complete around 1330, but she advised that we were due to wrap up at 1300. When we arrived at our final location at 1230, she advised that the tour was now finished as she needed to travel to a different location for her next tour starting at 1300. We didn’t see any point complaining as she just seemed anxious to finish with us and move to the next job. We expressed our displeasure by not providing any tip. So if you are contemplating any private tour, you should confirm the finish time at the beginning. This was booked through Viator and I will be requesting them to refund a quarter of the $523 cost based on the hours provided vs advertised
Fabio made our trip outstanding. Went above and beyond his way to make our day special. Highly recommend this tour and Fabio. A great day!!
Terrible customer service. We booked and paid (over $200) for a private tour with 5 wine tastings. The company added 2 guests and changed the prearranged meeting time to 1 hour earlier. We arrived 20 mins before our reservation and it was then I became aware of the change. I immediately texted - no reply. I called 3 times - no one answered. Eventually I received a text saying they tried calling me, but I have no record of such. I expected at least a partial refund.... nothing!!! FYI - we always use a tuk tuk/golf cart tour bc my partner cannot walk distances, so this was not my first rodeo. Beware!!!
Victor was an excellent tour guide with a lot of knowledge and passion about Porto. We went to areas which we would have never thought of seeing and seeing the beauty of Porto.
I think a lot of these kind of tours depend on the guide. When you use this platform you just get the guide they give you. Ours didn’t seem happy to be there and was just tolerating the tour and we spent most of our time outside the city driving around and not actually learning anything. For paying over 300€ I expected a much better experience.
Anna was our guide and so nice and intelligent and had tons of information to share. Getting around Porto these days can be a bit tough with all the traffic but she handled it like a champ! Took us to most all the places and gave us great advice.
Fabio was a wonderful guide. We saw some great parts of Porto and Gaia. Fabio made this tour very enjoyable! We learned a lot about the Porto area that would not have experienced by ourselves.
Victor was an excellent friendly, knowledge tour guide. Lovely city, filled with history, friendly people.
Gives a nice overview of the city. Parks and river were beautiful. Bring a jacket as it gets windy by the ocean. Our guide was super nice; stopping to allow pictures and little explorations.
Anna was great. We were on a group trip and the day before we had a walking tour of the city. So when we met Anna, we told her what we had already done and ask if she could just take us to places we hadn’t seen. She did an awesome job of showing us things that we never would’ve seen in Porto. Then we ask if we could be dropped off on a specific street in order to do some shopping and she accommodated us at the end of our tour. She was extremely friendly, great English. We really enjoyed her.
Ana was the most amazing tour guide with an incredible amount of knowledge and personality. We appreciated every little hidden gem, every recommendation, and every joke she cracked! I would absolutely do this tour again as long as Ana was the one doing the tour!
Our guide provided a great overview of the city. We enjoyed our experience and what certainly do this tour again.
This was an extremely quick and thorough overview of things to see in Porto. We saw all the highlights - great views - our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly - and even took us to the beach (which was beautiful). My only concern was that we saw too much! Porto is really worth a full day, even in "overview mode"
Perfect way to explore Porto, the 4 hrs flew by, enjoyed the experiential views from the tuk tuk and the fun stories from our driver, Anna. She was so nice and easy to talk with, felt like a friend driving us around explaining the city that she so clearly loves!
Our tour guide Ana was great! She gave the kind of tour and experience that we were hoping to get for a first time in Porto. She was very friendly and great with kids. She was also very informative and knowledgeable and gave a great historical overview of Porto. She provided great local attraction and food recommendations. Would highly recommend a guided experience from her and will strongly request to have her next time! Our 6 and 9 year olds loved her also! Knight-Myers family
We had a wonderful afternoon exploring Porto and the surrounding area. Our guide was knowledgeable and allowed time for pictures. We were very happy with our tour!!!
This was the perfect way to really see Porto. Our guide was a local who really loved his city and shared great insights with us. It allowed us to see not only the main sights but some local favorites as well: I would highly recommend this tour.
It was fantastic... all due to the driver Victor...thorough and so informative... he was so proud of Porto and Portugal and this made the tour the BEST. Definitely book the longer tour.
If I could give a zero rating I would! Don’t bother booking with this company - leave well alone. Gifted a 2 hour tuk tuk tour for 1100 hrs today! No sign of the driver arriving ! Messaged the company with no response. A driver from another company notice us waiting and came to assist us. He phoned the driver (Victor) who apparently had forgotten he had a ride booked ! 15 minutes later he turned up. First stop the Cathedral… dropped us off and said he’d be waiting for us at the drop off point . No sign of him when we came out 20 mins later. Got soaked waiting in the pouring rain. When he turned up after 35 mins he said he’d been waiting in a different location… no explanation of this before he left us! As a result we couldn’t continue with the tour as we were soaked to the skin. Really disappointed. Money wasted.
This tour was disappointing and fell far short of what was advertised. The driver arrived late and then rushed through the itinerary, often speeding past sites without stopping. Communication was difficult, especially while moving, making it hard to understand any explanations. Safety was a serious concern—the driver drove recklessly and nearly hit a pedestrian. He also smoked at several stops, which was unpleasant and unprofessional. Although he claimed he was driving fast so we could “see more,” the tour ended in under two hours, well short of the promised 3–3.5 hours. I would not recommend this tour based on our experience.
We enjoyed the TukTuk tour very much. We felt that 1/2 day was perfect for what we wanted. Very enjoyable but not too much riding in the vehicle. The tour guide was excellent and knowledgeable in the city and the historic sites!
Our guide Goncalo was informative. He took us to historical spots and great vistas. Seeing both Porto and Gaia was helpful.
standard issue tour. Our guide was pleasant and communicated well; the views were nice; however, it was less a tour and more a few places for us to look around and figure the history out on our own
We had a fantastic tour guide who was very knowledgeable. The 3 hour tour was perfect for seeing the most in the amount of time we had. We hit all the best sites and views.
We had a wonderful day exploring Porto! Our driver (Rafi) took us through many tiny backstreets to show us the true character of Porto. It was obvious that she knew the history and loved her city of Porto. The only drawback is how obstructed the view can be due to the cover on the tuk tuk.
Our tour guide Rafael was amazing. She was so accommodating, sincere and very knowledgeable. She shared with us so many interesting facts about the city that you could only learn from someone with the passion to share her city with you. I cannot say enough good things about our guide Raf! Thank you thank you for such a wonderful experience!
Raf was a great guide. The only way to see this city in a few hours. Thank you! My father uses a wheelchair and was able to transfer to the tuk tuk to enjoy the ride.
Very informative and fun tour in Tuk Tuk with Gabi! She took us to so many sights and gave us so much information along the way! She really tailored the tour stops based on our interests. Several stops where we could get out and take pictures and explore. Going over the bridge to Gaya was a real treat. She also took pictures of my husband at several sites. She skillfully navigated our Tuk Tuk through narrow streets, busy traffic and construction zones. Great way to spend a rainy morning!
We saw many (if not most) of Porto’s sites and had a wonderful time with charming and energetic Rafaela. We had a cloudy and occasional rainy day and sometimes it was hard seeing all the sites with the cover over the tuk tuk. Our guide, Rafaela, was wonderful and we enjoyed her so much, we gave her a hug goodbye. We did this tour on our first morning in Porto and it gave us a look at the city and what sites we would want to return to.
Saw very few sites - was given too much time at two markets and not shown enough other attractions - supposed to be wine tasting, not done - advertised as private tour, was semi-private tour as another couple joined (unknown to us) - also, Tuk Tuk guide kept asking us to look up at attractions, only problem was canopy ceiling had plastic windows that were oxidized and could not see out - there was a problem with traffic in the city, police had created some bottlenecks, Tuk Tuk guide not able to find a way around.
Ana was a great guide. She had lots of explanation for all our stops. She worked around the traffic accident and made sure we saw all the sights. She stopped for quick pictures and worked with our requests. Would do this tour again with her.
I would not book again with this company. Driver was 20 minutes late and informed us our private tour was no longer private…. We had to get in with another couple who also had booked a private tour. We were told we would get a 10 percent discount but I am not holding my breath. Driver was nice enough but didn’t get much history nor could we hear him most of the time.
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