A Porto Family Holiday That Ticked Every Box

Planning a family holiday in our house is a negotiation.

Stephen is a foodie. Not a casual one, either. A bad meal can genuinely take the shine off a holiday for him, so wherever we go, the food has to be brilliant. My daughter is a teenager, which means she also loves good food, but she needs things to do. Lying still is not her idea of a holiday. And me? Give me a beach, a book and a coffee/wine, and I’m happy for hours.

Three people, three very different lists. So when I started researching, I was looking for somewhere that could keep all of us happy at once.

Porto did it.

It has a great energy about it, brilliant cafés and restaurants, so much to explore, and (the clincher) a beach where Stephen and my daughter could go surfing while I read. This is our Porto family holiday, what we loved, and a surprising Lake District connection I found along the way.

Why Porto for a family holiday?

Food came first, and Stephen already had Porto on his radar thanks to Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain filmed in Porto twice. If you have no idea what I’m on about, take a look at Porto’s own write-up of the episode he filmed over there.

Stephen is currently reading Bourdain’s memoir, Kitchen Confidential, (affiliate link) and I’m desperate to get my hands on it next. (I’m told it’s a warts-and-all look at life in restaurant kitchens, which sounds very much like my kind of book.)

So, great food, plenty for a teenager to do, and a beach for me.
Porto ticked every box.

Where did we stay in Porto?

We booked flights and accommodation separately and it was so much more cost effective than the package deals, so it’s what I’d deffo recommend. We booked a taxi to and from the airport prior to going as I’m a bit of a worrier, but there were loads of taxis there waiting when we arrived. In fact, we got Ubers and public transport everywhere with no problem. Obviously, this is at the time of writing (October, 2026) but it was really easy to travel all over the city.

We stayed at Casa das Taipas, in the historic centre just up from the Ribeira, and I’d recommend it to anyone.

The area is gorgeous. Cobbled streets, those tall, narrow, tiled buildings Porto is famous for, and little bistros and cafés tucked down side streets and round corners. It’s the kind of neighbourhood where you turn a corner and find somewhere wonderful and interesting that you’d never have spotted on a map.

The apartment itself was spotless (really important for me), with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, which (as anyone travelling with a teenager will know) is worth its weight in gold. Everyone had their own space. There were two little balconies for morning coffee, a lovely lounge and dining area, and a TV, which mattered more than I expected. After long days of walking, we’d come back exhausted, put Netflix on and just flop. It was the perfect base.

What is a francesinha (and why is it so good)?

Right at the bottom of our street was a little restaurant, Tasquinha do Be and it was so good we went back two nights running. They had these lovely little benches outside, perfect for people watching. And both times, my daughter ordered the francesinha.

If you haven’t come across one, the francesinha is Porto’s signature sandwich, and on paper it sounds like it should be all wrong. Layers of bread, cured ham, sausage and steak, smothered in melted cheese, then drowned in a hot, spicy tomato and beer sauce. Often there’s a fried egg on top and a pile of chips on the side.

The story goes that it was created in the 1950s by Daniel David da Silva, a Portuguese man who’d lived in France and Belgium and came home wanting to make his own, heartier version of the croque-monsieur. The name means ‘Frenchie’. The Guardian has a good piece on it if you want to know more before you’re brave enough to order one.

Is it a sandwich? Is it a stew? Honestly, who cares. It’s delicious.

Is Livraria Lello worth visiting?

Yes. A thousand times yes.

Livraria Lello is often called the most beautiful bookshop in the world, and the queues outside prove how many people agree. You have to buy a ticket to get in, but the ticket price comes off a book, so for a book lover it doesn’t feel like paying to enter a shop at all.

My daughter and I booked the 5:15 slot on a weekday evening, and it was perfect. Much quieter than the daytime crush. The excitement between the two of us was off the charts. We were grinning so hard that one of the staff came over and offered to take our photo because, she said, we were so cute getting that excited over books.

And that’s a real holiday moment that will stay with me. Sharing my love of books with my daughter, in the most beautiful bookshop I’ve ever seen, feels like something I’ll remember for a very long time. It was just THE BEST! I was a bit worried it wasn’t going to be up to the hype, but it really was.

We took ages choosing. She came away with Alice in Wonderland, and I chose a classic: 1984 by George Orwell.

Top Tip: book online in advance, and go late in the afternoon. And choose your book before you leave, because the voucher is only valid during your visit, and it has to be one of their special editions.

Where can you surf, read and watch the sunset in Porto?

This was the bit of the holiday where everyone got exactly what they wanted.

While Stephen and my daughter went surfing, (they took lessons with Flower Power surf school and then hired the boards and wet suits from them the next day) I headed to Praia da Luz, a beach bar looking straight out over the crashing waves. I had a coffee, read my book, and didn’t move for a very long time.

Later, I walked along the coast to another beach bar and restaurant, Praia Homem do Leme, where there are beanbags right on the sand. I sank into one, watched the waves, and waited for the surfers to find me. It was heaven.

Then we all watched the sunset together. And I can’t overstate how beautiful the sunsets are there. We went back more than once just for that.

What was the best meal we had in Porto?

The best meal of the whole trip was at Vapor Restaurant, a seafood restaurant across the river in Vila Nova de Gaia, recommended to us by a local. (Always ask a local.)

They grill the fish and seafood outside, right beside you, so you watch your dinner being cooked. We had sea bass, tiger prawns, and more prawns, with a bottle of wine, and it was phenomenal. Even better, it was brilliant value. Stephen is still talking about it. We’re ALL still talking about it.

Is the port tasting worth it with a teenager?

You can’t go to Porto without trying port, and we did ours at Taylor’s, one of the old port houses in Vila Nova de Gaia.

We did our tasting outside in their garden, where peacocks roam between the tables. It was such a lovely, relaxed afternoon. My daughter had small, tiny, sips of the port and instantly declared the most expensive was the best. We had bigger, longer sips and agreed, then all laughed at our very expensive taste!
They also serve cheese and pastéis de nata (those gorgeous Portuguese custard tarts), and the guy telling us about the port was brilliant.

What’s the Lake District connection to Porto?

This is the bit that surprised me most.

I spend a lot of time digging into Lake District history. Beautiful places that hide terrible things is pretty much my strapline. So, out of curiosity, I searched for any link between the Lakes and Porto. And there is one. I KNOW! I didn’t believe it either but listen to this.

Dora Wordsworth, William Wordsworth’s daughter, married Edward Quillinan, a poet who was born in Porto, where his father had been a wine merchant. Her father was very much against the match.

In 1845 the couple sailed to Porto, partly in the hope that the warmer climate would help Dora’s fragile health. She spent several months living in Foz, near the church of São João da Foz, walking, sketching and writing. Her diary was published in 1847 as Journal of a Few Months’ Residence in Portugal, and the Wordsworth Trust has a lovely interactive map of her journal. You can read more about her in The Public Domain Review.

Here’s the part that stopped me. Dora died in 1847, the same year her journal came out, and she’s buried at St Oswald’s in Grasmere, just up the road from us.

Foz was exactly where my family had been surfing and where I’d sat reading by the waves. Without realising it, I’d been walking in Dora’s footsteps. A little thread of the Lake District, all the way out on the Atlantic coast.

Practical tips for a Porto family holiday

• Wear good shoes. Porto is seriously hilly, with steps everywhere. My step count was off the charts. Living in the Lake District, we’re used to hills, and even we noticed it.
• Use Uber. At the time of writing, Ubers were really cheap, so we used them to get to and from the beach and across to Vila Nova de Gaia. Things may have changed, so do check before you go.
• Pack more jumpers than you think. In late October (we went for half term) it was T-shirt and jeans weather during the day, but it got really chilly in the evenings. We only took a couple of jumpers each and I wished I’d packed more.
• Book Livraria Lello ahead. A late-afternoon slot is far quieter.
• Ask locals where to eat. Our best meal came from a local tip.

Would I recommend Porto for a family holiday?

Without hesitation. If your family has a long list of boxes to tick, Porto ticks them. Brilliant food for the foodie, surfing and exploring for the teenager, and a beach bar and a book for me. We’ll definitely be going back.
We flew from Manchester and at the time of writing the flights, accommodation and transfer came just under £2k in half term.

Love a place with a hidden story? Read the first chapter of my next Lake District thriller free, and I’ll send you my Windermere map too, with my favourite spots pinned (and a few darker stories along the way).

If you liked this, you might enjoy A Darker History Walk Through Bowness-on-Windermere or my local’s guide to things to do in Windermere.