I usually try to book a few different tours when we travel to Europe, just to help fill in the gaps when I don’t feel like figuring everything out myself. Lately, I’ve been booking a lot of tours through Viator because they have so many options to choose from in practically every city around the world. Before our trip to Portugal, I booked the 3 Hour Food & Wine Tour in Porto to help introduce us to the culture and the cuisine on our first full day there. It sounded like a nice and easy walking tour around the city and a good introduction to the food and wine. Portugal is specifically known for Port (obviously!), so I was super excited to learn a little bit more about it. My husband is a whiskey aficionado and we love trying local spirits and liquors when we’re traveling. I also loved that the tour was only 3 hours long because I knew on our first day in Porto we’d be slow-moving. I planned a full-day excursion to the Douro Valley for a few days later once we were more settled and rested.
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WAS IT WORTH IT?
Absolutely! The tour wasn’t super fast-paced or overwhelming in any way. We visited 4 different bar/restaurant locations throughout the city and our tour guide, Cristina, told us all about the history of Porto as she walked us to each destination. We walked through the famous marketplace, Mercado do Bolhão, and the beautiful train station, Sao Bento. She was extremely knowledgable and happy to answer any questions we had. The Portugese people are so incredibly kind and easygoing. We were actually visiting Portugal because we have been considering moving there! Porto was a bit of a bigger city than I was expecting, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I had envisioned that Porto would be a sleepy boating town, but it wasn’t sleepy at all! While it did have that relaxed pace, there was so much to do and tons of restaurants, bars, parks and beautiful landmarks. It was a stunning city. Just be ready to walk up and down a LOT of hills. Portugal is known for it’s steep cities and we definitely came home feeling a lot stronger than when we left!
The tour is super affordable and we were given snacks and drinks at every location. We truly enjoyed getting to know a few other travelers too. Our group was about 12-15 people, which was nice because we didn’t feel like the attention was all on us. We were headed to Lisbon a few days later for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, and 2 of the other couples in our tour group were doing the same thing! We all had tons to chat about. Not to mention, the weather was PERFECT. Another reason we’ve been considering moving to Portugal is because of the mild and beautiful weather. While it does rain quite a bit in Porto, it didn’t disrupt our trip too much. It was usually raining in the morning and would clear up by the early afternoon. Plus, I kind of enjoy the moodiness of a gentle rain while looking out onto a river filled with boats. As a photographer, I couldn’t ask for a more peaceful and calming scene!
I would definitely recommend this tour, especially towards the beginning of the trip. I think you might find it to be repetitive if you book it towards the end of your trip and have already been walking around Porto for a few days. I found it to be a perfect way to spend a few hours of our first day exploring the city. We were able to turn our brains off after the long plane ride across the Atlantic Ocean and just relax and enjoy a few drinks. It helped us get our bearings for the layout of Porto and our tour guide pointed out some major landmarks that kept our internal compasses working for the rest of our visit. Plus, you’ll find that a lot of the traditional Portugese restaurants serve the same styles of food, so after a few days of trying it out on your own and then taking a tour at the end of your trip, you might already be sick of eating codfish and pasteis de nata (though I never get sick of pastries)!
I posted a full video about our Food & Wine tour on my YouTube channel. You can check it out here!
If you’re interested in seeing more of the tours we recommend from Viator, you can check out my Viator Shop here. If you’re looking for hotels recommendations in Portugal, check out my blog post here on my food & travel blog that I share with my sister called C’est Le Brie! I also wrote a more detailed review of this tour on my travel blog here if you want to find out more!
Sign up for the same 3 Hour Food & Wine Tour we went on in Porto, Portugal here!
Happy traveling! I’ll be sharing a video and blog post about our full day trip to the Douro Valley soon so stay tuned!
<3 Myles Katherine
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