At the start of early fall this year I was called and asked, “Do you want to go to Portugal?”…

This is how one of the best trips I’ve taken started. Long story short, some of my fiancé’s family had decided to move to Porto earlier in 2024. Now settled in, we had an opportunity to visit and explore. I was given the choice of planning a trip to Porto or Istanbul. While both locations would be amazing, I don’t regret choosing to visit Portugal in the least. Portugal provided one of, if not the most beautiful sightseeing trips I have taken. Not a bad way to visit Europe for the first of hopefully many times. As I begin writing this blog a couple of months after our Porto trip, as I am sitting in Ecuador on our current journey, I can’t help but have a smile and a romantic sentiment thinking of Porto.

Porto is a city that is hard to describe, but I’ll give It a shot. There is an unmistakable energy to it, with lots of commuters coming into the city daily for work. Factor this in with the popularity it has gained as a tourist location, and there is always a thriving amount of people and traffic. Thankfully, this doesn’t mean that you are waiting in lines everywhere you go, I would describe it more like a steady fluid movement of locals and travelers flowing through the city with quieter spots all around. A good sign for the health of the city is the amount of construction and renovations under way around the city. Locals informed us that due to the influx of interest in the city, it has brought good investors to preserve the beautiful architecture yet modernize the city. A good thing, indeed.

Porto proved to be a multicultural melting pot of locals and immigrants from all over the world, each with an interesting story. I would highly recommend taking an Uber to help get across the city and experience some of this yourself. Nearly everyone spoke English and was overall very friendly. Nonetheless, I would advise downloading an app like Duolingo and learning a couple of basic phrases in Portuguese in preparation, as you never know if you will need it, but also out of respect to the locals. Remember, you are a patron of this beautiful city to ensure all of us can still visit.

The Ribeira district viewed from one of the many river boat tours. Taken with the Leica SL2-S and 50mm Summicron.

The Ribeira district is going to take your breath away with the architecture and color. There is nothing like it in the United States that I have seen to date. For the sunset lovers, nearly every evening there will be a local gathering at the park across the Dom Luis I bridge to watch the sunset over the beautiful cityscape of the old architecture. There will usually be live music, some vendors and a laid-back environment. Trust me, it will not disappoint you unless it is an overcast day.

Porto is a very walkable city, however, sometimes it will be better to take an Uber, especially if you have a considerable distance to get to the historic part. Good walking shoes are a must in Portugal for travelers, as Porto and Lisbon will give your legs a workout if you are not used to climbing hills. But don’t worry, you will have more of an excuse to keep eating all of the amazing food and pastel de natas as you walk by the small shops.

The Douro wine valley tour should be at the top of your list of things to do in Porto.

I normally avoid touristy things like the plague, as I prefer to wander and people-watch with my Leica camera hanging on my shoulder. However, I stand corrected in the instance of traveling to Portugal. My Fiancé and I took a tour of the Douro wine valley, which would provide some of the best landscape views of the entire trip. We signed up for the Douro Valley tour with Living Tours Porto, which I would highly recommend. Our tour lasted the full day, arriving at 7 A.M. and returning to the city around 5-6 P.M. We were well fed and were able to sample some very good wines. One of the nicer things about the tour was the multiple stops in smaller villages and the time to have a quick tour, get a snack, and take some photos at good viewpoints. The last leg of the tour involved a river cruise to tour the Douro Valley and offer breathtaking views of the landscape that has been transformed solely for the production of wine. The terraced hillsides and the color of the grapevines provided a unique combination of light, texture and color. Deemed a UNESCO World Heritage site, I can’t recommend the experience of the Douro Valley enough, and if capable, I would look into staying a day or two there to fully soak it in.

Maybe it was the wine, but it’s hard to top the scenery of the Douro Valley.

I can’t say enough good things about the food in Portugal. Everything we tried was delicious, and more importantly, didn’t leave you with the saturated feeling like many American restaurants. It may sound weird, but trust me. There is something to be said about food quality, and there is plenty of it in Porto. Thankfully, we had some good pointers from our extended family that had been living there, but I doubt you will find a bad meal unless you deliberately set out to do so.

A couple of restaurants I can recommend:

Sabores D’ Fininha – This restaurant has fantastic seafood. It is located along the Avenue de Diego leite. Sitting outside gives you a great view of the historic Ribeira buildings across the river.
Empanadas Malvón – This was our favorite place to stop and get a quick bite to eat. In fact, we went there at least 3-4 times while walking around the city. The staff was very friendly and spoke English as well. I recommend trying as many of the different empanadas as you can. My personal favorites were the spicy chicken and pork.

The Ribeira district at night. Taken with the Leica SL2-S and 50mm Summicron.

Porto is an experience that I hope to never forget. I would happily return again, preferably in the summer months to experience a different season than our first visit. For a midwestern American who has never been to Europe, I don’t think I chose poorly on my first destination. Knowing that this would be a near once in a lifetime trip, I made sure to bring along my Leica SL2-S and Summicron R 50mm lens to document the trip. This was my first trip with this camera system as well, and I can say I was not disappointed with the results. I made sure to take this opportunity to work on my current photography project, or personal challenge, which is to commit myself to one camera/one lens for an entire year. This project was inspired by reading Ralph Gibson’s Refractions 2, amongst other voices I admire in the photographic community, to commit to limiting yourself to grow as a photographer. I will delve into this project in more detail at a future date.

One of the best lessons Porto taught me though was this: Don’t be afraid to travel. In fact, I think it stirred something up inside of me. Despite my general travel anxiety, the experience of going to a new and beautiful destination and fully immersing yourself in it is an exhilarating experience when it all goes well, and truly feeds the creative spirit. Don’t hesitate, do it.