Five Days in Portugal

Lisbon, Porto & Douro Valley

Wanna be updated about new posts and destinations?

All you need to do is write you’re email here (promise not to flood your inbox).

When a close childhood friend (Avichai) moved to Portugal with his Portuguese girlfriend, it was only a matter of time before I came to visit them and travel Portugal with him. Adi gave me the green light, of course, so for the first time as a married father, on August 15th, 2017, I traveled solo to the airport, and took a flight to Portugal. The plan was to do a solo first night in Lisbon, and the next day to take a train to Porto. Meet Avichai, then drive to his house at the time in Villa Real, and spend a few days with him. This post was mostly written by Avichai. I wrote the part on Lisbon and arrival in Porto, and Avichai wrote the rest. He has been living in Portugal for several years, and for the last year in Porto, so these are gold recommendations from a local.

Tuesday - Recommended Hostel in Lisbon

Is it the annoying thing at Ben Gurion Airport that you have to get in the flight 3 hours before, then queue for luggage deposit, then queue for security, and then queue for passport checks, and it takes hours for the moment when you hire to take off?

I had an afternoon flight, and to this day I remember my astonishment at Ben Gurion Airport for the fact that it took me exactly 12 minutes from the moment I stepped in the airport until I reached the Duty-Free. That’s how it is when you don’t have to deposit suitcases because all you have is a medium-sized backpack. F*cking 12 minutes and I was already in the duty-free with the nice waterfalls. Now I only had about two hours to wait for the flight. Peanuts!

Fast Forward, 21pm and I land in Lisbon. I strictly follow the instructions I made myself for arriving by train from the airport to the hostel, excited by how easily everything goes, and by 22pm I am already in Lisbon.

I’m hungry, so before I get to the hostel, I decide to go to a recommended vegan restaurant called Vegana Burger. Google maps shows that it closed on at 23pm. It should take me 10 minutes. A quick walk, I arrive on time (!) Only to find that they have already closed. A serious crisis of trust between me and Google maps. Meanwhile I was chatting in Whatsapp with another childhood friend and his girlfriend who just happened to be on a trip to Portugal, and just so happened to be in Lisbon that evening. We decide to meet.

I walked to the hostel I booked in advance – Sunset Destination Hostel. A nice guy shows me the room and then I go up to the hostel’s roof and meet them. Good air, good conversation, good beer. Superbuck beer, which is Portugal’s local beer only costs one euro in pubs, and 30 cents at the grocery store.

The hostel itself is highly recommended and I regret spending just one night there. The highlight of the hostel is the roof. Stunning rooftop, with a nice, small, inviting, round pool overlooking the river. Have a look at the video (apologies for the instability in photography).

A great rock club in Lisbon

Around midnight, they retire to their Airbnb apartment, and I decide to head down Pink Street, which is 3 minutes from the hostel. I read that there are some clubs out there. I take a shower, dress up, put on my sandals and head to the Viking bar. All this is just to bump into a Portuguese guard pointing to my sandals and telling me there is no way I’m going in like this. Luckily, I also brought shoes, so I’m not giving up. Going back to the hostel to change shoes, and 10 minutes later I’m back in the club again, this time going in without a problem.

I don’t remember much of that night, other than drinking loads of beer (there was a 1 + 1 sale on the SuperBuck), dancing to great music from the 90’s and 80’s, and returning at about 4am.

The following video brings you to the club with me, and gives you a taste of the music and atmosphere.

Wednesday - Arriving at Porto & Villa Real

10 am and I get a call from Avichai, realizing I was sleeping too much. There goes my plans to tour Lisbon before the train to porto. I have to be at the station within an hour. I feel a little bit Hungover, so I take a shower, dress up and makes check-out. I go for a walk along the Tagus River. A sunny summer day, people sunbathing on the river bank, statues of sand scattered throughout, artists create there art. You can see some of the pictures below. I decide I must dip my feet in the river. What a feeling! At the end I arrive at the Santa Apolonia train station, buy a digusting pastry that i throw away, and 3 hours later I am already in Porto, with Avichai waiting for me at the station. We eat lunch at the Black Mamba, a well-known vegan burger 10 minutes’ walk from Trindade Metro Station. It’s a nice burger, but nothing more.

Recommendations from a local - Vegan restaurants in Porto

The Black mamba is a good example of many restaurants that have opened in Porto in recent years. It’s part of the vegan diet that is finally getting popular in Portugal. The problem is that just like the situation in Israel a few years ago, most vegan restaurants are run by animal rights activists and not restaurateurs and chefs. For better or worse. The Black Mamba is just that plus heavy rock.

So if you didn’t like the hamburger, or the best of “Cannibal Corpse” songs in the background, you can hop into O Burrito, a cute vegan burrito restaurant just a minute’s walk from the Mamba and grab a donut at DUH! Vegan Donuts.

Beyond that, Porto certainly has some interesting options for vegans. First of all, you can’t talk about vegan restaurants without mentioning Da Terra. De Terra has several branches in Porto and the surrounding area. The concept of the restaurant is an all-you-can-eat buffet that offers a variety of dishes depending on the meal (morning, lunch or evening). I didn’t encounter a particularly dramatic dish but overall it is a nice and comforting meal, unless you are a breakfast lover. If you like to open the morning with a buffet of pancakes, baked goods and salads, skip to De Terra and get ready for a delicious meal. The main branch, by the way,can be very busy in the evening, so come with patience.

Pastries and Franciscinia

Another recommendation (which will require some investment) concerns the pastries. Portugal is an empire of dough and egg sweets, a fact that may leave vegans a little frustrated. While most of the vegan-friendly restaurants in town offer some sort of dessert, you really need to hop by taxi or car and visit the southern suburb of Porto – Vila Nova de Gaia. Padoca is a traditional bakery in a drowsy neighborhood, which doesn’t stop it from offering an amazing variety of classic Portuguese pastries tailored to the vegan crowd. Taxis in Porto are not that expensive, so if you are willing to spend about 10€, don’t hesitate. To find the place simply search for Padoca / PadoVegan or click on this link.

Another last food recommendation. One of the flag dishes of Northern Portugal is the Franciscinia. A kind of toast with several types of meat, wrapped in cheese and swimming in sauce, coming with a mountain of french fries. If you do not suffer from heart disease you must give it a try and this dish also has vegan versions. Best of all in my opinion is at casanova, a lovely restaurant in central Porto, which offers a few more vegan dishes.

So back to the trip …

From Porto we take a bus to Villa Real. Imagine grey dull suburb, only with a valley and a river in the middle.

So yes, Villa Real is not exactly on the international tourist map and is mostly recognized (when it is at all) as a provincial town in the Douro Valley area. Anyway until a year ago I lived there so Yoav didn’t have much choice but to visit.

Thursday - Villa Real

So while Villa Real is not the most flashy place in Portugal, it has its advantages. One of the oldest neighborhoods in the city is called ruas dos ferreiros and it consists of small wooden and stone houses built along the hillside above the Corgo River. There I lived with my wife in a small wooden house overlooking an ancient Roman bridge over the river.

So we spent Thursday in town – bathing in the Corgo River and hiking in the park around it. On the banks of the river there is one “declared beach” and all kinds of nice and quiet corners where you can get in the cold water. From there we went on a walk downtown. Stone-paved streets, churches, medieval alleys and especially many shops that ignite flashbacks from the 80s. We ended the day at one of the most special pubs / clubs I’ve been to (and I’m not just biased because the owner is a good friend) – “Club de Villa Real”. The club that has since been closed and replaced management has hosted performances from around the world on a daily basis. Sadly when Yoav visited there was no performance so we settled on drinking and chatting with Merito, the owner, and other friends.

Local recommendations for alcohol lovers in Portugal

Talking about drinking, Portugal should be given proper respect for its alcoholic beverages. First of all – wine – it’s a wine paradise. It’s not just the price (which is far cheaper than most western countries), it’s also the diversity and differences. As for Red Wine, you have to give the Port (and White Port) and also try muscatel. Ask for favaios and thank me later … Vinho Verde green wine is also worth a try, especially if you like white wine.

As far as beer is concerned, I don’t know if Portugal has anything special to offer but SuperBuck, which Yoav has already mentioned, is a great beer and can be found at any pub, cafe and restaurant. If you really want to fall apart, give a chance to aguardente, just don’t make many plans for the morning after. Oh yeah, liqueur enthusiasts are welcome to try licor beirao.

Friday - Douro Valley

On Friday, we took the car and went to visit one of Portugal’s main attractions – the Douro Valley known for its vineyards and wineries. We started in Regua, a small and magical town on the banks of the River Duo. This is the place to snack, have some coffee (or a glass of wine) and get on the train to Pinoy Pinhao. While it is possible to do the same route in the car, the train ride through the green hills and the vines with the river and valley in the background is an experience not worth giving up. We went down in Pineo, a small village in the heart of the valley. Pineo is mainly recommended because of the scenery so after a slight impression of the train station (note the mosaic) and the village, we crossed the bridge and walked along the river for a short walk. A few hours later, we returned by train to Ragoa and Yoav finally got in the Dou River (he really wanted to) before returning to the car and driving back to Villa Real.

Saturday - Porto and the worst tour in the world

Porto has a lot to offer and in recent years it has jumped to the top of the list of recommended tourist destinations. Under every fresh tree you can find tours and guides today but most of them will take you to the same churches, the same markets and in short to the same classic itinerary. If you want to see and understand a little more about the issues that bother the people of Porto – The worst tours is the best (and most interesting) tour you can take. So of course I took Yoav on a tour and Pedro, our guide took us on a fascinating tour that touched on issues of gentrification, tourism, history and everything in between.

The tour is long (about 4 hours) but very interesting and enriching. We ended up finding ourselves over the River Duo (yes, it’s the same river from the previous paragraph), near the amazing bridges stretching above it. The Iron Bridges are reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower. They were designed by Gustavo Eiffel’s architectural firm, who later designed the famous tower in Paris.

Nightlife and beaches in Porto

To Yoav’s credit, he said he asked me about a beach he saw on the riverbank from the train window on the way from Lisbon. Yet, I (not living in Porto at the time) didn’t know what he was talking about. As a general rule, I have never been excited by the beaches of Porto because who wants to bathe in the Atlantic (cold and windy) after growing up on the Mediterranean coast. But what Yoav saw was something else entirely – a sandy and pleasant beach on the banks of the River Duo found in Gaia. The town that is across from Porto (which we mentioned earlier in the context of the bakery), on the south bank of the River Duo. So sorry Yoav that I didn’t take you there, you were right, it’s a beach! If you arrive in the summer and you don’t have a car, take the yellow metro line and drop off at Jardim do Morro station. From there it is a pleasant walk on the banks of the river to Areinho Beach. Don’t rely on Google maps in that regard, as it will take you on a 45-minute walk through the neighborhood, which is also nice but much longer.

One last recommendation about Porto is about its nightlife. If you are looking for a street lined with pubs, tourists and a general avenue of entertainment – Galeria de Paris is the place for you. If you get there after midnight you’ll see crowds of people inside and outside the pubs, and if you’re OK with that – this is the place for pub crawling and having a drunken conversation with tourists from around the world. If you need a place out of the frenzy you can give a chance to Terraplana, passos manuel, or Maus Hábitos who becomes a nightclub after midnight, and has recently started serving vegan food at the restaurant as well.

However, we were already tired that night, so we ended it on the roof of the recommended Rivoli Cinema Hostel. In the morning we woke up, Yoav took a train to Lisbon, and flew home.

It was a great trip, and good quality time. Hope you are able to get some of the tips and recommendations outlined here, and we will be happy for your feedback in the comments.

פורטוגל מזוויות נוספות

Adventurous Kate has a great blog post about the Douro Valley

Bright Nomad has a great blog post about Porto

You're most welcome to follow me on Facebook & Instagram

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *