Beyond the Barrel: From Decadent to Down-home in the Heart of Porto

Porto is a picture-perfect city, its beauty easily captured in a single frame — monumental churches dressed in blue tiles line a steep street opening up onto a view over the Douro River to Vila Nova de Gaia on the other side of the river, where the city’s famed Port wine lodges and their iconic billboards dot the hill. Dig deeper into the backstreets and we find the complexities of city life and the culinary diversity that comes with it. On this full-day food tour, with at least ten tasting stops, we’ll start with the city’s favorite pastry, the éclair, and strong coffee before visiting a 3rd generation chocolate-maker. We’ll stop into a tavern for a quick petisco of smoked meat and whatever’s fresh and then visit a traditional cheese shop for a tasting. We’ll sample one of Porto’s famed sandwiches at a lunch counter crowded with locals and head to a neighborhood restaurant to taste the freshest fish and finish with a tasting Port wine and gooey cakes created in a Portuguese convent.