PORTUGAL TRAVEL VLOG | Exploring Porto & Lisbon 🇵🇹

Hey everyone! Today is officially day one in Porto and I'm already so in love with this place. So I actually got here yesterday and had a very like chill and laid-back day, did a free walking tour and kind of got acquainted with the city, learned a bit about the history and the walking tour itself was really nice and a great way to like get to know the city. After that I tried this which is a meat-based dish but I tried the vegetarian version and I don't know if I liked it to be honest but it's definitely worth trying while you're in Porto. But anyway I'm in Porto for the next three days and I'm so excited to be here because I've heard amazing things about the city and I mean look at how beautiful this is. So right now I'm in this area called Ribeira which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is sort of like the old part of Porto and behind me the bridge that you see is called the Ponte Luís Bridge. If you google Porto this bridge is like what shows up so it's one of like the most popular spots here and the vibe here is just amazing. There are so many restaurants, there's live music and these amazing views. So I'm in Porto for the next three, three and a half days and in Portugal for the most part I'm actually traveling with one of my high school friends. I think it's really cool that in my 30s I'm actually like traveling with so many of my high school friends. I do have a couple of solo days here in Porto as well where hopefully I'll catch up on work and just chill in the city but the city is just so vibrant and the vibe is amazing. Something really nice about Porto is that it's a very walkable city. Anywhere you want to go to will probably be in a 30 to 40 minute radius so it's very nice to just walk around but it is very steep and slopey so you may have to like walk up and down hills which is a bit challenging especially with my knee but something that's really surprised me not just about Porto but like Portugal in general because I felt this in Lisbon as well is that taxis here are so inexpensive especially if you're like a group of two or more people it may just make more sense to take a taxi instead of using public transport. One of the most emblematic representations of Porto's history are these blue tiles that you see all over the city. There are so many buildings with different types of blue tiles and they're called as wellos and not just in like the bigger more famous buildings like cathedrals and stuff but even like regular houses you can spot them and it looks so beautiful. In fact that's actually a popular souvenir that you can buy over here because there are so many stores where you can pick up tiles. Doing some souvenir shopping. Something you have to do when you're in Porto is explore the food scene here. Porto is really famous for some of its dishes like the francesinha which I tried the other day and a lot of seafood but because I'm vegetarian there aren't too many local Portuguese dishes that I can try uh so right now I've come to a vegan cafe there are lots of really nice vegan cafes here in Porto so I'm at this place called Apurro and the food I've ordered for myself is looking very good so I'm super excited for this meal. Porto surprisingly seems to be really good for shopping and I don't mean like the usual stores that you see everywhere but there are so many like vintage stores this street in particular had like some really cool or very like niche stores that I really enjoyed unfortunately because I'm doing a long trip I think this is going to be like a two three month long trip I don't think I can shop too much because I'm already overweight on my luggage allowance. So fun fact about Porto especially if you're a Harry Potter fan is that JK Rowling actually used to live somewhere here in Porto in this neighborhood actually and in the back there there's a famous library which apparently inspired a lot of like what Hogwarts looks like I'm not sure how true it is but that library is really popular here there's always a long line to enter and there's also like an 8 euro fee I think to get in I wanted to check it out but looking at the line like I really don't think I want to go inside but a lot of things in Porto including that library and apparently like the uniforms of college students here with the black robes was like inspiration for Harry Potter and coincidentally I'm actually wearing Harry Potter socks today I think this is one of the nicest viewpoints in the city how stunning is this view so for lunch I've come to a really nice spot it's right by the water this is my view there's live music going on over here and I've gotten myself some nachos and I've gotten myself a Porto tonic which is quite a popular cocktail here it's basically a port wine white port wine and I can see orange cinnamon and this tonic that lunch was so good the nachos were delicious the salad was really nice too and I think the highlight was definitely the spot we were at because there was live music and the Porto tonic was really nice so honestly it's been a very like laid back and chill afternoon but right now since we're by the river we thought we'll do a boat tour so there are tons of boat tours here like different companies running them and there are six big bridges here in Porto and these boats take you sort of under those bridges so I thought that might be nice to check out so heading to do a boat tour now this is our boat and it's not very full thankfully and we paid like 18 euros per person for this this is like a 50-minute boat ride and the lighting right now because it's almost evening is really nice the water looks amazing so I'm really excited for this boat tour as we can see the infant on Enrique bridge I just got done with the boat tour and the views were amazing it was only 50 minutes so it felt like it got over really fast but we went under the six bridges which are all quite close to each other but the boat ride was a great way to like see the city from the water and get a different perspective and the views were just amazing but right now the sun is going to set in a couple of hours so I want to get on top of that now and I'm going to do a boat tour of Porto bridge and cross over to the other side because I've heard there's a really nice viewpoint from where you can catch the sunset so hopefully the sunset today is nice so just took this bridge and came over to the other side and this side of the city this is no longer Porto actually it's a different city called Gaia and I'm just walking uphill to this garden which has an amazing viewpoint of the sunset but all of Porto and Gaia as well is quite steep so there is a lot of like climbing up and down the sunset spot we went to was super nice the vibe was amazing so many people but it didn't feel that crowded because there was space to sit and yeah it was just I think one of the highlights of my time in Porto so far definitely worth doing if you're there because the sunset view is just amazing and the river and everything just looks so spectacular but anyway walked back on the bridge to the other side now back in Porto and stumbled upon this really cute tapas place called Orfeo which looks really nice and I've ordered some vegetarian baos for myself a limoncello and some hummus. Porto has a ton of really nice cafes and I'm in one such cafe right now but this one is special because this is supposedly the oldest cafe in the city I think it was established back in 1899 so it's quite ancient and Porto itself actually is quite an old city because it's from the bronze age I think eight years before Christ so it's actually one of the oldest cities in Europe but anyway I've ordered myself a Porto tonic so in case you didn't know Port wine which I'm sure you've heard of is actually originally from Porto and I didn't know this but Port wine is actually more of a dessert wine because it's sweet I'm not really a fan of Port wine but this drink I seem to really enjoy this is the Porto tonic and it is so delicious another thing you need to try out when you're in Porto or Portugal in general is the pastel de nata which is the custard tart that is super popular here there are some places which are really famous for it I picked it up from this place called Castro and got some packed I've actually had so many of these in Lisbon and in Porto as well this is so delicious I feel like I could have this every day in fact I have been actually having this more or less every day good morning everyone it's day two in Porto and I'm off to quite an early start today so today I'm doing a day trip to this place called Douro valley which is about one and a half two hours from Porto and something that is really worth checking out when you're here and you can see why because look at that view behind me it is so beautiful this is just the first stop on today's tour so we started our day at like 8 a.m was our pickup time so obviously like woke up at like 6 a.m quickly grabbed breakfast at McDonald's which is supposedly the world's most beautiful McDonald's and the tour I've booked is a small group tour through get your guide so there's only six of us in the group which is really nice we have a private car which is driving us around and today we're going to be doing a boat tour on the Douro river and trying out some different types of wine so I'm really excited for today our first stop is this town called Regua which is so stunning you can see the river from here after a very scenic drive we made it to this place called Pinha which is so beautiful the drive itself was so spectacular we saw so many wineries along the way and this behind me is the Douro river and we're going to be taking one of these boats and doing a boat tour for the next hour This boat is so beautiful and the views are just amazing. We just got our first drink and there's some snacks on board as well oh my god how did you do that? I fell on a beach. You fell on the beach? Yes. But it's just a scratch I hope it's uh quite deep of a wound oh it's quite deep but it's getting better I hope you get better all right thank you so much thank you your hometown bye bye guys oh my god I think that was one of the nicest boat tours that I've ever done and I'm not exaggerating because I have been on like so many boat tours but the views and our guide on the boat and the wine everything was just so good I think this trip is off to such a great start there are so many nice viewpoints along the way like this one look at the view of the valley over there so our guide was telling us that this particular region Douro valley has microclimate so it's two three degrees warmer than Porto but it feels like it's much much warmer it's actually really hot right now and this is how it is apparently in the summer it goes up to like almost 50 degrees so this particular region is very warm but that's also why there are so many vineyards here our next stop for the day is this winery so as soon as we got here we were greeted with a glass of wine and they took us around this place showed us how wine is made gave us a tour of their kitchen and we're going to be having lunch over here I'm so glad I booked this tour because this is like a small group tour unlike some other tours that I'm seeing over here which are much bigger group I'm vegetarian and this place isn't really known for its veg food but they've made some vegetarian arrangements for me and we're going to be trying out a few different types of wine including port wine for dessert so I'm very excited for this we are at the second winery for the day and I think we're going to try out like four or five different types of wine regular wine and then port wine as well over here and they're also going to give us a tour of the winery this tour has honestly been so much fun I really enjoyed this winery it's so beautiful first of all and I think today we've tried out like 10 or 11 different types of wine so yeah I've consumed a lot of wine today and the views have been amazing this place is so beautiful and honestly this tour is so worth it especially because we booked a small group tour so it was just perfect I'm going to leave a link to the tour that we did in the description but yeah this was totally worth it so like I mentioned I was in Lisbon before this I spent four days in Lisbon and the vibe I've been getting in Porto is that the people here don't like Lisbon they've been very vocal about it and I as a tourist don't see why because I really enjoyed Lisbon it was amazing I unfortunately didn't end up logging there because I fell sick and I have a horrible knee injury which happened like a week and a half before but when I was in Lisbon it was just horrible I couldn't even walk properly so I didn't end up logging but I did take like a lot of shots of what I was doing so I'm gonna add a voiceover now and tell you everything that I did in Lisbon I started with a magical sunset boat tour that sailed under the iconic 25th of April bridge fun fact Lisbon is often called the San Francisco of Europe and it totally gave me those vibes from the bridge that looks like the Golden Gate Bridge to the trams and the hilly streets watching the Bellum Tower glow as the sun went down was just perfect then I went on a history focused walking tour which was very different from the usual tours I do but it was so fascinating and made me appreciate the city even more of course I couldn't miss spotting Lisbon's famous yellow trams weaving through the narrow streets I also spent some time wandering through Alfama Lisbon's oldest neighborhood oh my gosh Lisbon is very slopey so there's a lot of like uphill and downhill walks over here the cobblestone streets and colorful buildings made it so charming and Lisbon's views are unreal oh and I did an Airbnb photo shoot while I was there so I got some amazing photos of myself to remember Lisbon by tried some pastel dinata and paired it with a shot of Ginja and then there was my day trip to Sintra the Piña Palace was straight out of a fairy tale it was so windy up there though look at the clouds move strolling through this charming town felt like stepping back in time we ended the day in Caxcaix watching a gorgeous sunset from the cliffs it was such a vibe overall I had such a great time in Lisbon so it's my last morning here in Porto and Portugal because I'm taking a flight and heading to a new country in a couple of hours but I've just come to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch I feel like every time I'm traveling in Europe I reach a point where I kind of just want to have like Asian food with all the flavors and this place had like a lot of vegetarian options as well so really excited for this meal got myself some Vietnamese coffee as well and yesterday I kind of just ended up taking the day off to work because I do like these long trips this one is almost three months long I kind of need to like schedule in work day breaks so I was just working I didn't really do much kind of like went out in the evening and walked around but yeah for now very excited for this meal