Getting around Porto

In Porto the metro is for arriving, and your legs do the sightseeing. A single line carries you from the airport into the centre without a change, one short funicular spares you the steepest climb from the river, and everything else is a hill you walk up and a view you earned on the way.

From the airport to the centre

Line E, the purple one, leaves Francisco Sá Carneiro airport and reaches Trindade without a change, a ride that takes about 30 min. The fare is the Z4 single at €2.30, and the metro beats a taxi on a simple point, because it keeps its schedule whatever the traffic on the road is doing that morning.

Buy the Andante Azul card at a machine in the station first. The card itself costs €0.60, you keep it for later trips, and you load the Z4 fare onto it. Validate the card at the gate before you go down to the platform, and again every time you change line. Trindade is the hub where all the lines meet, so if your bed is in the old town, change there to line D, which stops at São Bento.

From Lisbon, the Alfa Pendular takes about 2 h 45 min, and a second class seat one way is €34–36. It pulls in at Campanhã, a station east of the centre, so your first move in Porto is a metro or a local train into town.

Campanhã is also where the trains for the Douro valley start, so a day trip towards Pinhão begins on the same platforms you arrived on. São Bento is the station of the old town and sits on metro line D, a handy fact once your luggage is dropped and the cathedral hill is next on the list.

Metro, buses and tickets

For a short stay only two choices matter, the single fare and the day pass. Tour 1 gives you 24 hours from the first validation on metro, bus and train, and Tour 3 stretches that to 72 hours without any top up. Take a pass only if you really ride several times a day, because the funicular and the STCP trams are paid for separately and neither pass covers them. For one or two rides a day, load single fares on the card and walk the rest.

The funicular and the trams are paid for separately.

The Guindais funicular links Ribeira at the water with Batalha at the top, and it climbs 61 m in roughly 2.5 minutes. A ride costs €3 with no return fare, and Andante does not work on it. Use it going up, where the hill is steepest. Then walk down through the lanes afterwards, because the way down is where Porto shows its streets.

Two decks make up the Dom Luís bridge. Buses, taxis and pedestrians use the lower one, while metro line D and pedestrians share the upper. Tram 1 follows the river to Foz in about 20 minutes, and like the funicular it falls outside the Andante Tour pass. Shoes that grip uphill matter more here than any ticket, since a good half of your day will be spent on a slope.

Across the river to Gaia

Gaia, with its port cellars, sits on the opposite bank and you can simply walk to it over the bridge. The Teleférico de Gaia is the other way across, a ride of about 5 minutes over 573 m, and a return ticket is €6. Take the cable car one way for the view, then walk back.

2 daysThe two-day plan already has transport built in, so you can follow it without working out a single route yourself.Porto in 2 days →

FoodFood shows where to eat between the climbs, with each stop placed where a slope ends.What to eat in Porto →

Day tripsThe day trips list the trains that leave from Campanhã, including the Douro line.Day trips from Porto →

When to goThe page on when to go explains how bad the climb gets in the rain, and which months to avoid.The best time to visit Porto →

Where to stayAreas differ in transport and climbs, and the page on where to stay compares them.Where to stay in Porto →