Porto

For me, a downside of traveling alone is trying to enjoy fine dinners solo. And that’s one of the joys of taking a tour: You have company! And thanks to our “no grumps” policy, when you travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours, you’ll have fun company.

I just wrapped up 12 wonderful days in Portugal — laughing, learning, and exploring with a great group of 25 new friends. Here are a few highlights from our time together:

 

Dinner — and Lots of Wine — in Porto

 

The wine is so good in Portugal, it can be tough to stop at a couple of glasses. During one round of toasts on our Heart of Portugal tour, I realized the words on my T-shirt summed up what I wanted to say. So, startling my group, I stood up, unbuttoned my shirt, and (almost) bared my chest, declaring “Keep on travelin’!”

 

Rambling Around a Family-Run Cork Farm

 

 

Midway through each Rick Steves tour, our guides give everyone in the group a chance to evaluate the experience so far. Everyone fills out a little sheet with suggestions on how we can make the tour better — and tour members often share their highlights. On this tour, the highlights included doing hands-on activities and meeting families at local farms — farms that produce grapes for port wine and grow cork trees so that the port will stay in the bottle until it’s ready to be enjoyed.

Deep in Portugal’s interior, the wonderful Rovisco Garcia family harvests the bark off a vast forest of cork trees. Their farm has become a popular stop on our Portugal tours. They are so eager to show us around, they built a special trailer for their tractor so that whole groups can ramble around the farm together while the sons talk about their work and the cork industry. Eventually, the trailer ends up at the big farmhouse where the family — under grandma’s direction — serves the group an amazing meal featuring local produce, traditional dishes, and more of that great local wine.

 

 

Comic Relief at a Cloister

 

 

Most of us enjoy a break from American politics when we’re on vacation. But at one venerable cloister, I noticed our group was pointing and laughing at something carved into a fine old relief. It was a character, chiseled 500 years ago, that was the spitting image of our president. I’ve been visiting this monastery for 20 years…and suddenly it has an unforgettable new stop.

 

 

DIY Souvenirs

 

 

Throughout Europe, Rick Steves guides find lots of ways to help our groups roll up their sleeves and have literal hands-on experiences. For example, on my Heart of Portugal tour, we visited a tile factory and learned about the tiles that are so integral to Portuguese cityscapes — and we each got a chance to paint our own tile as a souvenir of the trip. Our personal tiles were then fired and waiting for us at our hotel the next day. I was impressed by the fun designs, the hidden artistic talent in our group, and the joy this project brought each member of the tour.

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Want to join the fun? Travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours on a Heart of Portugal in 12 Days Tour.

Porto, Portugal’s second city, is a bit stressed out. Its beloved Bolhão Market had gotten really dilapidated and, earlier this year, it was closed for a much-needed renovation. The vendors — with a firm promise that they’d be back home in July of 2020, and with the reassuring presence of their Virgin of the Immaculate Conception — are carrying on in the basement of a nearby department store…and so are those shopper-merchant relationships that literally go back generations. Follow me for a peek at Porto’s temporary Bolhão Market.

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I spend nearly every evening in Europe hunting…hunting for places like Porto’s Taberna Santo António. This impromptu clip gives a sense of the neighborhood energy of a great little eatery, with a local friend giving me what we agreed is a little bit of “heaven on a spo­on.”

Looking for great new restaurants to recommend in the next edition of one of my guidebooks is also a lot like fishing: Sometimes you go home empty-handed, and sometimes you score. In Porto, I was a happy guidebook writer, having found several great new restaurants — some characteristic and rough like this one, others more romantic and elegant.

Here’s the write-up for the Rick Steves Portugal guidebook:

[$$] Taberna Santo António is a convivial, hole-in-the-wall place — the quintessence of a family-run, neighborhood favorite. There’s a tight dining room and a few prime seats at the bar where eaters are choosing from six traditional stews, marveling at the homemade desserts, and having fun with the waitstaff (Rua das Virtudes 32, tel. 222-055-306).

 

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It’s Day 60 of my 100-day trip to Europe, and I’m in Porto — Portugal’s “second city.”

Porto is real. Its economy isn’t driven by tourism, but by hard work, good governance, and a great urban vision. Walk with me (past a couple using my Rick Steves Portugal guidebook — always a happy sight) through what used to be a parking lot and is now a romantic olive grove in the middle of Portugal’s second city.

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