5 Reasons Porto Is My New Favorite City

1.FOOD

Oh sweet Jesus! I love food, and this is no secret, but I don’t remember the last time I ate and enjoyed eating so much. ( Today for lunch…🤓 )

Honestly,  the city has seemingly infinite eateries, and a lot of them cater to vegetarian and vegans. As if this wasn’t enough, you can find almost any international cuisine in Porto’s busy downtown.
To top it all off, traditional Portuguese food is incredibly delicious. It has the spice, culture and creative influence of its own history, mixed with an increasingly modern twist which allows foreigners and locals alike to indulge.

I personally did not love the ever so popular Francesinha ( it’s just a heavy meat and cheese sandwich ) but maybe it’s because I had a vegan version of it, ( and vegan cheese is not my best friend – but it’s cruelty free ).

My favorite meal of my entire stay happened at TAPABENTO and I wish I could eat there once a week for the rest of my life. It’s a small eatery, and often crowded (as is every other good place to eat in Portugal) but the wait is more than worth it.
My palate went on a tastefully catered trip… and the rest of my senses were not even jealous!

2.PEOPLE

The people of Porto are the friendliest people I have ever encountered in a big city. Porto became a UNESCO World Heritage Site a long time ago, and in the past 10 years the city has seen its tourism more than double. All of this would make any local angry, or at least annoyed at the “lost tourist” surplus. BUT not in Porto. The locals are friendly, mostly everyone can/will speak English and/or Spanish. Everyone from our AirBnB hosts to every server/ vendor/ stranger we encountered.

She 👈 is Isabella. She greeted us at Tapabento when there was no room for us ( and of course no reservation 😫) , and kindly told us to wait 25 min until the bar freed up with enough room for us. As if that wasn’t enough, she then proceeded to take us to the nearest train station, which happens to be THE train station to see in Porto.

The Sao Bento station  displays the most amazing mosaic wall of #azulejos depicting Porto’s history. When we left she hugged us, bid us goodbye, and gave my cousin a blanket because she was cold. If that’s not nice, then I don’t know what is.

So much detail…I could stare for hours.

Love the presence of women in Portuguese history.

EVERYWHERE you look!!!

3.ART

How do I paint you the picture of a place where everywhere you look there is art. Think it’s too good to be true? Think again! I think the water in Porto has inspiration infused, because it seems artists are spewing from every corner.

This is the decoration at another great restaurant.

Me being blown away by people’s creativity

 I stopped on my tracks more than once to snap a photo of a random wall, sticker, writing on the wall, sculpture….the whole city is inundated with art, and…

 IT.MAKES.YOU.FEEL.SO.MUCH!

4.ARCHITECTURE

We were not blessed with clear skies…but it did not matter.

One of my favorite Azulejo/ great door combination

From medieval alleyways and crumbling buildings being restored to serve a much more modern society than the one that built it, to modern architectural wonders and graffiti murals all over. The city of bridges truly has it all. I walked around for hours, literally doing nothing but staring in awe at every beautiful facade.

I would restore this building and keep the facade

Look at these super aligned birds!

 5. WINE

I’m sure you can guess from the name that Port wine and Porto have a lot in common, from the legendary Sandeman to much less known- but equally tasty- port brands, to the history the city and wine have together.

From port wine to vinho verde…I can’t stop salivating just thinking about it.  If you start getting into it, then it varies by regions you can’t even fathom fitting into Portugal…I mean, how can they have so much variety? But, they do, and it is a gift! You can always count on restaurants, cafes, eateries and your neighbor’s house to have some great wine in Porto.

I love wine so much and Porto really spoiled me rotten with an array of delicious ports.  😊

BONUS: WIFI

If you’re a digital nomad, or simply someone who enjoys good internet; GO TO PORTUGAL!

If all these reasons are not enough for you, well then, who are you?
Porto seriously has everything I need to be happy, especially considering it’s surrounded by beaches for the summertime and it has lots of yoga studios and vegan friendly eateries. Maybe Portugal will be one of our 2019 “homes”.

Anyone has a nice apartment in Porto you want to rent to us for 3 months next year? #askingforafriend