We spent £1,093.77 on 4 days in Porto
If you read last week’s blog post about our recent trip to Iceland, you will be aware that it was quite full on and we managed to fit a lot of amazing things into the short amount of time that we were there. We knew that this was going to be the plan, and figured that we would likely be knackered by the time that we got home (spoiler - we absolutely were).
Therefore, we thought that it would be good to book another holiday whilst we both had annual leave and so thought a short trip to Porto, Portugal would be worth looking at is it is a city we were both keen to visit, but didn’t necessarily want to be stuck in the thick of it in the city centre all the time. Here’s how much we spent and what you can expect if you are planning to visit.
Flights (£238.54) & Airport Parking (£57.50)
I anticipate we could have got cheaper flights if we had planned further in advance but we didn’t so I’m not majorly fussed. Given we had driven all the way to Luton the week before, I was keen to not head back in that direction a few days later when planning this trip so opted to fly from Birmingham instead of Stansted which were the two airports that worked with our timings.
We flew with Ryanair which was absolutely fine apart from the mental torment of having to sit on the plane for 2.5 hours before leaving Birmingham airport because of fog issues at Porto airport. I’m sure, by now, you can think how my mind works and the brief thought of compensation was dampened with the realisation that 1) it was fog which is a weather issue and 2) the flight arrived 2.5 hours late which is less than the 3 hour limit for compensation.
Airport Lounge (£12)
As mentioned in my previous American Express blog post, I used my airport lounge passes to access the airport lounge on the way out of Luton to Iceland, and then also used them in Birmingham airport before heading to Porto. This was our first time using Birmingham airport and it was okay, no real complaints about the airport - the lounge was really nice though. It was considerably bigger than the No.1 Lounge that we had previously visited at Luton the week before spanning across a ground floor and a mezzanine level above.
This was a morning flight so the food selection was breakfast bits, as in the week before, but again for the price we paid (£6 booking fee each) it was phenomenal value. Whether I would pay ~£30-£40 to access the lounge is, again, arguable as it was comfortable, quiet and had decent food and drinks I wouldn’t say it's worth that level of cost.
We probably could have got away with not booking but knowing that we had it sorted was worth the small extra cost.
Hotel (£369.05)
This hotel was an absolute steal as we only had to pay for two of the four nights as I converted my American Express points to Hilton points to pay for the other two nights using points in full. We stayed at the Boeira Garden Hotel which was the other side of the river from Porto in Gaia. This one stood out as the points per night seemed like pretty good value considering it was a five star hotel, had everything we needed and was well located.
From the hotel to São Bento train station, it was a 2-3 minute walk and then maybe 5 minutes on the metro straight into the station which was so convenient, but the hotel was incredibly peaceful with a great indoor and outdoor pool and there was hardly anyone else there, which I think is due to strategic timing of visiting after schools had gone back.
The photos on the site don’t really do the hotel justice and for the price we paid this was absolutely spot on, and to be honest if we had paid for all 4 nights at this rate which would make it ~£740 for 4 nights I would say it is worthwhile. We didn’t eat at the hotel other than drinks and snacks at the outdoor pool, but the prices for food are quite high as you’d expect.
Food & drinks (£237.91)
You’re probably as surprised as I am on how low this figure is, considering around £60 of this is our tab from the hotel as well which wasn’t for any substantial meals, I was blown away by how cheap Porto was to eat (without visiting any particularly fancy restaurants).
We frequented the Bolhão Market which was a great spot to get fresh food of any kind, alongside the various Manteigaria stores throughout the city which served incredible pastel de nata all day for bargain prices.
Additionally, even when we ventured to (what we expected to be a tourist trap) the TimeOut Market by São Bento train station, the prices were reasonable coming into about £32 for food and drinks for two of us. Despite sounding like this was going to be hit-or-miss, I can confirm that the burgers upstairs in this place are something else, and should not be missed.
Of course, we also stocked up on some pastries and water to go in the fridge in the room which was dirt-cheap in the LIDL a 2 minute walk from the hotel.
Transport (£117.93)
We didn’t really have a plan of how we were going to get from the airport to the city centre when we arrived but when we asked the information desk they suggested Uber was a great option and not only was it easy but it was also really cheap, costing us only £15 (including tip) to get from the airport to the hotel for a 20ish minute drive.
We then continued to use Uber for a few trips further afield whilst we were staying there and used it to get back to the airport at the end of the trip. We ventured into the city centre every day to see various bits and pieces and to get some food which we used the metro for. This was less than £3 each way so was a really easy way to do it, and you probably could walk but it was quite hot whilst we were there so anything to make it easier.
There is a great (and popular) spot to watch the sunset if you were to get off the metro one stop before São Bento at Jardim de Morro. This is also where you can get the cable car down to the Gaia riverside of the Duoro River. You can cross the Ponte Luís I bridge by foot to get to Porto and if you crossed the bottom part of this bridge there is a funicular that you can ride to the top of the city rather than sweating buckets to get there!
Experiences (£43.94)
We didn’t set off to Porto with a checklist of things we wanted to do, and rather to experience the culture of the city and also to be able to switch off and unwind at the hotel pool (which we had incredibly good weather for). However, we did pay to do a few things which were well worthwhile:
Duoro River cruise - £30.42, a leisurely boat ride up and down the river which gave some good views
Livraria Lello - £13.52, an historic and beautiful book shop which is supposedly where JK Rowling wrote some of Harry Potter, it was incredibly busy. The cost of the tickets to get in (which gets very fully booked) gets deducted against the cost of any books we bought which I’ve not included the cost of here (but it’s not a cheap book shop, as I’m sure you can imagine!)
We didn’t do any port tasting tours, as there was a port cellar at the hotel where you could do a free port tasting and also received a free glass when we arrived so we were a bit port-ed out as non-port-drinkers!
City tax (£16.90)
We paid 5 Euros per night that we were there.
What card I used
I used my ZING card whilst in Porto and it worked perfectly, although I used my Chase card for the bulk of the trip as I had funnelled £1,500 through the account in August to ensure I earned 1% cashback on our spending whilst abroad.
Is this budget realistic?
Given the hotel was effectively half-price, I would say no if you wanted to stay there but you can certainly stay in the city centre of Porto for a lot less. The food and drink budget is certainly realistic and you could remove a good chunk of the travel costs if staying in the city centre as a lot of this was back and forth to the hotel.
I would certainly recommend visiting Porto if you get the chance as it’s a beautiful city. It could be worth tying it together with a trip to Lisbon as this isn’t far by train (too far for a day trip, but not if you were going to do a few days there).