Porto is small enough to see in a day and steep enough to ruin the attempt. The city climbs from the river in a series of terraces and stepped lanes, and a route planned on a flat map will have you crossing the same slope four times. The fix is simple: start high, finish low, and cross the river once in each direction at the right moment. Here is a day that does exactly that and still ends with a glass of port and the sun going down over the water.
Morning: the upper city
Start at the main railway station, which is not a transit stop but a sight: an entrance hall lined floor to ceiling with blue and white tiles showing scenes from Portuguese history. It costs nothing and takes ten minutes.
Walk up to the clock tower that dominates the skyline, and climb it if the queue is short, for the view over the whole city and the river.
The cathedral terrace nearby gives much the same view without the stairs and without a ticket.
The famous bookshop is close by and takes a timed ticket that is credited against a purchase. It is beautiful and it is very busy; decide in advance whether the queue is worth your morning.
Coffee and a pastry standing at a counter, which is how the city does breakfast.
Midday: down through the centre
Work downhill through the shopping streets and squares towards the river.
Stop at one great tiled church. Porto’s exteriors covered in blue and white tilework are the thing you will remember, and one seen properly beats three seen in passing.
Lunch away from the riverfront, a few streets back, where the ordinary restaurants are and where the same meal costs a fraction of the quay.
Arrive at the riverfront in the early afternoon, when the light is on the far bank.
Afternoon: across the river
Cross the lower deck on foot from the Ribeira quay.
Visit a port lodge, taking a standard tour with a tasting, which runs about an hour. Our guide to the port lodges in Gaia covers which house to choose.
Walk the Gaia waterfront, which has the view back at Porto stacked up its hillside, and is where the classic photograph comes from.
Take the cable car up to the level of the bridge, which saves a climb and gives another angle on the river.
A second lodge or a terrace glass, depending on how the day is going.
Evening: back across and dinner
Cross the upper deck on foot at dusk, which is the best twenty minutes of the day.
Dinner in the centre or in the western neighbourhoods, rather than on the quay, where the food is better and cheaper.
A last drink somewhere with a view if you still have energy, or an early night if the hill has won.
If you have longer
A second day buys the beaches at the river mouth, a tram along the coast, the market and the parts of the city that are not on this route.
A third is the Douro valley, which is the vineyard landscape upriver and one of the great train journeys in Europe.
For where to base yourself and what the neighbourhoods are actually like, our guide to where to stay in Porto covers the slope and the noise. And for the city in full, our Porto guide covers everything this single day leaves out.
The short version
Start at the top of the city with the tiled station and the tower, work downhill through the centre with one great tiled church on the way, and eat lunch a few streets back from the river. Cross the bridge on the lower deck in the early afternoon, visit a port lodge, and walk the Gaia waterfront for the view back at Porto. Come home over the upper deck at dusk. Plan the day downhill and you will have seen the city; plan it on a flat map and you will have climbed the same hill four times.
