In Summary…
This was our second time to this Portuguese gem of a city…this time in much different circumstances. The first in May 2022 was a brief four days, warm, already congested and crowded, and I (Mandy) was on excruciatingly limiting crutches. The second, due to a 2.5 week housesit, was cool and rainy, easy to bypass any crowds, and I could walk! That said, we had very different experiences each time and much preferred the latter despite the less-than-stellar weather. That said, below is our personal list of stats, money saving tips, and personal upsides and downsides.
Time Spent: 18 nights
Money Spent: $475 or $26/day in USD/two people, which breaks down to:
- $0 (Accommodation)
- $289 (Groceries)
- $9 (Restaurants)
- $54 (General)
- $123 (Transport)
Our itinerary: (18 nights) Porto Housesit
Would we return? 100%. This is our second time visiting Mr President, the cat who is far gentler than his name implies, and we’d stay with him again and again. That said, although Porto is very pleasant, if it weren’t for the cat, we’d probably choose other places in Portugal to spend more time.
Best Budget Saving Tips
- Had a housesit so paid zero for accommodation, which is key for us in expensive destinations like Western Europe. If you’re interested in saving 25% to join Trusted Housesitters, please use our link!
- We did 6 Too Good to Go (food waste program) orders, 4 from grocery stores and received meat, vegetables and dairy all several days from expiring for around $3.50-5 maximum and order. The other two were from a vegan bakery, which was unsurprisingly too much bread, and a Portugués restaurant which was roast beef and fries and terrible.
- We bought our groceries at Lidl where you always save money.
- Because Porto is so walkable and we had a great location, we exclusively used our feet to get around.
- We drank plenty of port and regular vino tinto, but bought it from the markets for $2-4/bottle.
- We didn’t do any paid sightseeing.
Our Upsides
- It is very easy to save money here, as illustrated above.
- Porto is utterly beautiful and walkable. It’s hard not to fall in love with its enchantment and charm, which you can do aimlessly for hours on end.
- When you need to take public transportation (for example from the airport), it is easy to use and affordable ($3.30 for an hour ride).
- It is easy to take care of things here through their abundant and high-quality services.
- For us this included: dental cleanings ($81), Mandy haircut ($21), and a visit to an osteopath ($58)
- Damn good wine for very affordable prices
- Almost everyone, young or old, speaks some level of English here.
- Fabulous street art
- Life is just easy here, especially after months in Central Asia where we had to work a little harder
Our Downsides
- Although it’s an amazing city to walk, it’s not the easiest for running. It’s very hilly and was difficult for us to maneuver down to the river where it’s flatter.
- There are also not a ton of parks.
- Very rainy and miserable weather…but we knew there was a reason it’s low season.
- From our experience this time and last, Portuguese food is nothing to write home about.
- It’s crowded and touristed. Fortunately, being here in off-season helped a lot and it was positively tranquil early on weekday mornings
- It rained about 13 of our 18 days. A lot.
- There doesn’t seem to be one central place to buy toiletries, vitamins, cosmetics, medicines, etc. (Like a DM or Rossman in other European areas.) Wells was the best, but you typically have to piecemeal it.
- The pharmacies are also annoyingly strict about prescriptions. Even though we have current prescriptions, they wanted a doctor’s note, which is never an issue anywhere else. I was finally able to get my heart meds at the 5th pharmacy I asked, fortunately.
- There has been a great migration to Portugal in recent years, particularly by our countrymen. Let’s just say, we ran into an excessive amount of Americans wherever we went and a few times they didn’t cast us in the best light. 😬😅
- Because of this we also noticed some locals were not overly friendly to us, which is not too surprising.
- We saw many street cats that didn’t seem to be taken care of, unlike the countries we’ve previously been traveling in.
