Porto - Portugal

From airport to Porto.

Road from the airport to the city center is very easy, because in front of the arrival terminal is a mtro station. You just need to buy the ticket (with Andante Azul card) in a vending machine and you may jump into the train (violet line E). Metro in Porto is actually an over ground tram, but natives call it metro. The ticket costs about 1,8 Euro, but first you have to get a prepaid card “Andante Azul” which costs 0,5 Euro. It is similar to oyster card in London.  You have to pay some deposit and travel in metro as long as you have some money on the card.  (http://www.metrodoporto.pt/en/).

The most important stops are “Senhora da Hora” (If you want to go to the ocean), and Trindade in the city center. The structure of metro is very simple, and very smart planned so you shouldn’t lost.

                                                                        

During our trip in Porto we were sleeping in Pilot Hostel (LARGO ALBERTO PIMENTEL 11, Porto) and I recommend that place. Very clean place and safe place with amazing atmosphere. One night costs about 10-12 Euro. You can buy a breakfast for next 2 Euro.

The road to ocean is quite easy, you just need to use the blue line of metro and go into Matosinhos. Matosinhos is a fishing districkt, so you may find there many cheap places to eat a fresh fish.

If you want to go to other parts of Portugal you may go by:

-          1. A plane. Especially to Lisbon (Lisboa) you can find plane tickets for  15 Euro, but you have to go to an airport, so it means next few Euro  more.

-          2. A train. The cheapest, but the slowest are Urbino Regionale. Ticket to Lisbon costs about 20 Euro. Train Station Sao Bento is in the city center.

-          3. A bus. One of the cheapest line is Rede Express (www.rede-expressos.pt). Ticket to Lisbon costs about 17 Euro, and you can ask about discount for students under 29.  The bus station is near Sao Bento Train Station.

What about food?

You should avoid places where are a lot of tourists and try to find where Portugese eat. I have few nice places, like Matosinhos where you can eat fresh fish  outdoor on some stands.

Food is really cheap. Coffee costs about 0,5-1 Euro, as much a one glass of beer (0,2l). Full meal you can buy for about 6-10 Euro. I even found some small restaurant, where I paid less than 5 Euro for whole dinner. That place is marked as an orange point on a map as “delicious food”

The most famous local dishes are sardines, fransesinha, and tripa soup.  Portuguese food is not for vegetarians. It is heavy, and based on a meat or fish.

Don’t forget about siesta.

Weather in Portugal is rather hot, so to avoid working in a hottest hours in a day there is a siesta.  Between 1 PM and 4PM  shops and offices are closed.