The best time to visit Porto

You pick your month for Porto by the rain and by one night in June. The beach has little to do with it, since the Atlantic stays cold even in August, so a summer here means walking the hills and the riverbank, with a swim left for another coast.

July brings 20.4 mm of rain and August 32.9 mm, the driest stretch of the year, and the average daily high sits around 25 or 26 degrees. The record is 40.9 °C in August, which is worth remembering before you plan a long climb at noon. The sea runs at 17 to 18 °C, cold enough to keep the seafront at Foz and Matosinhos a place for strolling, with the water left to the brave.

This is the season for the bridge and Gaia on foot, for lunch outside, and for the kind of long afternoon on the riverbank that the rest of the year rarely allows, since you can leave the umbrella at the hotel and nobody will punish you for it. Summer here is gentle. A hat is the only precaution worth packing.

FoodFood covers what to eat when the days are long and dry, from the river to the hills.What to eat in Porto →

São João night, 23 to 24 June

The dates are the same every year, and the city spends the night outdoors. Fireworks go up over the Douro at about midnight and last some 12 minutes, with Ribeira and the Dom Luís bridge as the backdrop, and people on the bridge itself get the best view. Plastic hammers, sardines, leeks and paper balloons fill the streets around midnight, and the festival is as much about that cheerful mess as about the sky. Nobody takes the hammers seriously.

Most of the party runs from about 8 pm to 4 am around Aliados, Largo do Amor de Perdição and the Casa da Música. The city is full that night, so book your bed early, and plan a quiet morning after. If crowds and noise are not your idea of a holiday, pick another week of June, which is still among the drier stretches of the year.

Spring and autumn

May gets about 90 mm of rain and June only 40, so late May and June suit a first visit. September is the pick of the autumn, with 72 mm of rain and the warmest sea of the year at 18.3 °C. By October the rainfall jumps to 158 mm. The weather turns, and the long dry spell is over.

September and October also bring the grape harvest in the Douro valley, which makes autumn the time for the train upriver. The valley is hot in summer, so a harvest week usually beats a July day there.

Day tripsThe day trips cover the Douro in harvest time, with the trains that leave from Campanhã.Day trips from Porto →

November brings 172 mm, December 181 mm and January 147 mm, which makes winter the wettest part of the year by a wide margin. The average high in January is 13.8 °C, mild enough for a light coat. The sea cools to about 14 °C, so nobody expects a swim, and the beach stays something to look at.

Plan a winter day around a roof, and keep one hour in the middle of it free for whatever the sky decides to do. São Bento station with its tiles, the Clérigos tower and the port cellars are all worth the visit, and the funicular and the metro carry you between them. A good umbrella and shoes that grip matter more here than any itinerary.

Rainfall is the 1981–2010 average for the Fontainhas station; sea temperature is an average.

Getting aroundGetting around shows how the climb is handled in the rain, with the funicular and the metro doing the heavy lifting.Getting around Porto →

2 daysThe two-day plan bends easily to the weather, so you can swap an outdoor morning for an indoor one.Porto in 2 days →

Where to stayNoise and hills hit each area differently, so the page on where to stay helps pick one.Where to stay in Porto →