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Getting Around - Porto

Porto Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport

The airport is located 11 kilometres from Porto. The Aerobus, run by STCP, provides a fast connection between the airport, the city´s leading hotels and the downtown area. It runs every 30 minutes and a single fare is €4. Tickets are valid until midnight of the date issued. There are also several buses that operate between the airport and various city areas: lines 56 and 87. The fare is €1,20.
Taxis are available daily 24 hours from outside arrivals.

General Transport

Most of the sights in the centre of Porto are easily accessible on foot. However, even if you don’t really need to, you should take a trip on one of the city’s old trams.


Porto's New and Old Trams

The tram system is one of Porto’s great jewels. Some of the vehicles have been running for over a century, but are still very reliable and retain most of their original features, with wood-panelled, leather-upholstered interiors and blinds to shut out the sun. They used to ply a network of routes across the city, but now run only from Ribeira along the river to the old town of Foz – the Eléctrico 18 route. They take just 20 minutes to reach the seafront, though cars and pedestrians frequently obstruct the lines, to the very vocal irritation of the tram drivers.




Porto’s trams are run by the STCP company. It is also in charge of the city’s buses, most of which run from 0600 to midnight, while at night routes operate from 0100 to 0500.

Porto - Taxis

Taxis are easy to find in the city centre of Porto and pretty inexpensive. Do exercise caution though: sometimes the meter will be hard to read and already running when you get in. If you feel you’ve been overcharged at any point, you can send a letter and a copy of your receipt to the consumer protection service (Centro do Informacao de Consumo e Arbitragem do Port, 31 Rua Damiao, Loja 6.)

Porto - Restaurants and Bars

The effort expended in toiling up the Old City’s cobbled streets perhaps explains why Porto’s food is so protein-rich and served in such large portions. At lunchtime, the traditional dish is francesinha. This means "little Frenchwoman" and is similar to French croque monsieur: a sausage, ham and steak sandwich wrapped in melted cheese and swimming in peppery tomato sauce.


Food in Porto

A somewhat less fortunate symbol of Porto’s gastronomy is tripe – more specifically veal’s tripe. Its popularity apparently stretches back to the 15th century. When Port-born Prince Henry set off to conquer cities in Northern Africa, the citizens patriotically supplied his caravels with all the salted meat they had. As a result, they had to subsist on tripe, which they cooked in a thick stew with sausages and butter beans and ate with big slices of dark bread. Their reward for such generosity was to earn themselves the unkind nickname “tripeiros”: those who eat tripe.

Other local specialities include bacalhau – salted cod – sheaves of which hang from the rafters of shops all over the city. Often it is served battered, in great fluffy mounds for two. Then there’s Caldo Verde soup, made with potatoes, julienned cabbage and a sprinkle of olive oil, which, due to its simplicity and lightness, is usually served at the beginning of a meal or as a late supper.

Text written by David Cunningham, author of CloudWorld and CloudWorld At War