Portugal · Self-guided walk
Porto in one walk 8 sights, 55 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Porto Old Town: 8 sights on one 3.8 km loop, about 55 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 3.8 km, a loop
- Time
- about 55 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Torre dos Clérigos
- Steps
- on Escadas da Vitória, Escadas do Barredo, Escadas das Verdades, Terreiro da Sé, Escadas da Sé
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Porto walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Porto, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Torre dos Clérigos
the start · inside open Mon–Sun 09:00–19:00
Your compass. Lose your bearings anywhere on this level, look up, and it is there over the roofs. Granite, a great deal of it, on the highest ground the level touches. There is a stair inside if you want to stand above every lane you have eaten. I would.
Next: Chafariz da Rua das Taipas, 400 m, about 6 min, along Rua das Taipas.
2. Chafariz da Rua das Taipas
about 6 minutes of walking from the start
Set into the wall on a steep, quiet stretch, at about shoulder height, and easy to go straight past. Taipas is rammed earth, and the lane was once lined with it, and there is nothing earthen about the thing sitting in it now. Stop anyway. A chafariz was where a whole lane came to fill a jug, and this one is a long way uphill from the river.
Next: Muralhas Fernandinas do Porto, 390 m, about 6 min, along Rua da Vitória, Escadas da Vitória, Rua da Bainharia.
3. Muralhas Fernandinas do Porto
about 12 minutes of walking from the start
It is on Rua da Bainharia, at the foot of the Pena Ventosa hill, and you will not be looking for it. You walk past a house, and then the house turns into something four times too thick. Come at it from below, up the slope. I do not often meet anything my own size.
Next: Miradouro da Muralha Fernandina, 460 m, about 7 min, along Rua da Bainharia, Rua dos Mercadores.
4. Miradouro da Muralha Fernandina
about 19 minutes of walking from the start
The lane under it is called Cima do Muro, on top of the wall, so the name tells you where you are before your legs do. It is a haul up from the river and there is no polite way round that. This is the one place on the level where stopping and looking out is the entire job. Go late in the day.
Next: Paço Episcopal do Porto, 300 m, about 5 min, along Escadas das Verdades, Rua de Dom Hugo.
5. Paço Episcopal do Porto
about 23 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sun 09:00–13:00, 14:00–18:00
From the Terreiro da Sé it is a flat wall of windows and it gives the square almost nothing. Go down to the quay and look back up: from there the front rears over the hill like a cliff with rows of holes in it. It saves its entire face for the people at the bottom. Rua de Dom Hugo runs along its flank, and that lane is the quietest ground on this level.
Next: Praça da Batalha, 600 m, about 9 min, along Rua Chã, Rua de Cimo de Vila.
6. Praça da Batalha
about 32 minutes of walking from the start
The eastern end of the level, and the top of a long pull up from the water. The lane leaving it to the north is Rua de Cimo de Vila, the top of the town, which is exactly what this is. Sit on the steps a while. Everything from here runs downhill, and downhill is the best-tasting direction there is.
Next: Mercado do Bolhão, 490 m, about 7 min, along Rua de Santa Catarina, Rua Formosa, Rua da Glória.
7. Mercado do Bolhão
about 40 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sat 08:00–20:00, Sun closed
The one building on this level where everybody else is also thinking about food. It sits in a dip, two floors deep, galleries right the way round the upper edge, and the noise reaches the lane before you do. Two of the ways beside it are called Galeria Norte and Galeria Sul, which is as literal as a street name gets. You eat there. I eat the way in.
Next: Câmara Municipal do Porto, 450 m, about 7 min, along Rua da Glória.
Lunch break
Conga - Casa das Bifanas, Rua do Bonjardim 316, 322, about 30 m off the route, open Mon–Thu 11:00–22:30, Fri 11:00–00:10, Sat 11:00–01:00, Sun 11:00–22:30.
A yellow house on Rua do Bonjardim, a long counter, and thin slices of pork in a roll made in front of you since 1976. More on what to eat in Porto.
8. Câmara Municipal do Porto
about 46 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sat 09:00–17:00, Sun closed
The northern limit of the level, and the youngest thing on it by several hundred years. It sits at the head of a long slope that the whole avenue below aims straight at. Walk down it rather than up: the entire arrangement was laid out to be looked at from the bottom. I have firm opinions about pavement.
Back to the start: Torre dos Clérigos, 710 m, about 11 min.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Porto.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 160 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Porto Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.