Porto

Cedofeita & Miragaia

West of the centre, where Porto stops performing. Cedofeita is the creative and student half — a long pedestrianised shopping street, a block of contemporary galleries that all open on the same Saturday afternoon, craft beer bars, vinyl shops and the city's cheapest interesting food. Miragaia, downhill from it, is Ribeira with the tourists subtracted: the same river, the same stacked houses, arched 17th-century flood defences under the buildings, and almost nobody photographing them. Between the two sit the best free viewpoints in the city.

Who it's for: Anyone on their second or third day who wants to stop queuing. Art and design people — Rua de Miguel Bombarda is the only concentrated gallery district in northern Portugal. Drinkers who prefer a small bar with an olive tree outside to a riverside terrace. Budget travellers: this is where the good cheap food is. Sunset people who would rather sit on grass at Virtudes than pay for a view.

Things to know

  • Rua de Miguel Bombarda's galleries mostly close Sundays and Mondays and keep short hours the rest of the week — typically afternoons. Check before making a special trip.
  • Time a visit to one of the simultaneous openings if you can: several times a year every gallery on the street launches a new show on the same Saturday afternoon, the street fills, and there is usually live drawing and music. Agenda Porto lists the dates.
  • Jardim das Virtudes is free, faces west over the river, and is the sunset spot locals use instead of Jardim do Morro. It has terraced lawns, no bar, and no facilities — bring your own bottle, as everyone else does.
  • Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis is free on Sunday mornings, 10:00–14:00. Otherwise €5, or €2.50 with a Porto Card, student ID or if you are 15–25. Closed Mondays, and it opens at 14:00 rather than 10:00 on Tuesdays.
  • Centro Português de Fotografia is completely free, housed in an 18th-century prison, and almost nobody goes. The cells are still recognisable as cells.
  • Rua da Galeria de Paris and the streets off it are Porto's main bar strip, and nothing happens before 23:00. Turning up at 21:00 gets you an empty street.
  • Miragaia gives you the same riverside view as Ribeira, three minutes downstream, with a fraction of the crowd. Walk west along the water from the Ribeira quay past the Alfândega and keep going.
  • Cedofeita eats better than its reputation and the good rooms are scattered rather than on one strip: Meia-Nau on Travessa de Cedofeita for charcoal-grilled fish, O Caçula on Praça de Carlos Alberto since 1969, and tascö on Rua do Almada for modern petiscos. All three need booking.
  • This is the cheap-eating district. Rua de Cedofeita and the streets around Praça de Carlos Alberto carry Brazilian, Taiwanese, Mexican and Portuguese kitchens at student prices — it is a different and more honest picture of modern Porto than the francesinha circuit.
  • It is 10 minutes on foot from Trindade metro or from Aliados, but the walk from the river up to Cedofeita is a real climb. Plan to go downhill.
  • The Igreja de São Martinho de Cedofeita is the oldest church in Porto and is entirely unsignposted as such. It is free, takes ten minutes, and almost no visitor finds it.