easyJet Launches a New Route Between Prague and Porto

Porto has long been a hot destination for wine lovers – it’s the go-to place to find the best of that sweet, tasty port wine. But this city by the sea has more to offer than vinho. Travelers can visit the city’s wealth of museums, admire its varied architecture, relax in its verdant parks and, of course, hit the beach.

The city earns its nickname Cidade das Pontes, or “City of Bridges,” from the six arches spanning the Rio Douro (Douro River), which runs along Porto’s southern edge.

Views of the Douro River are best enjoyed from the Dom Luís I Bridge, the most iconic of Porto’s six structures. From here you can get a sense of Porto’s unique charm, from its colorful UNESCO World Heritage historic district to the north to the neighboring town of Vila Nova de Gaia just south, where you’ll find the region’s famous wineries.

You could spend a long weekend or a week here strolling the city, discovering the contemporary art in the Serralves Foundation complex and appreciating the history behind Porto’s old churches like the Sé and Igreja de São Francisco.

The Ribeira (literally “riverbank”) district is the city’s most colorful and touristy quarter. Strolling the Ribeira embankment, while popping in and out of shops that line the way, is Porto’s best lazy-afternoon activity. Be sure to duck into the back streets where time-worn faces and once-dazzling facades seem to ferment into an intoxicating sip of port-for-the-eyes.

The town’s two most famous foods — tripe stew and a quadruple-decker sandwich drenched in sauce — say it all: This place is unpretentious. Locals claim they’re working too hard to worry about being pretty. As an oft-repeated saying about Portuguese cities goes, “Coimbra studies, Braga prays, Lisbon parties…and Porto works.”