Baixa & Aliados

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

1/5

Where it sits

The circle is Baixa & Aliados and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• Igreja do Carmo & the tiled churches6 min walk515 m
• Porto Cathedral (the Sé)7 min walk591 m
• The Ribeira & the riverfront10 min walk811 m
• Palácio da Bolsa10 min walk823 m
• A Douro river cruise10 min walk826 m
• The Dom Luís I Bridge11 min walk878 m
• A port-wine cellar tour14 min walk1.2 km
• Foz do Douro & the coast15 min taxi5.0 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 4.Livraria Lello — One of the most beautiful bookshops on earth — a neo-Gothic jewel box with a curling crimson staircase and a stained-glass ceiling, said to have stirred a young Porto resident named J.K. Rowling. Buy a timed ticket online and go at opening to beat the crush.
• 5.The Clérigos Tower — The slender baroque bell tower that spikes the skyline — 240 steps up the granite spiral for a 360° view over the tiled rooftops to the river and the sea. The classic way to get your bearings on the whole city.
• 6.São Bento station — Quite possibly the world's most beautiful railway station — an ordinary working terminus whose entrance hall is lined with 20,000 blue-and-white azulejo tiles telling the history of Portugal. Free, five minutes, and unforgettable.
• 8.Mercado do Bolhão — The city's grand old food market, back in its restored two-storey iron hall — fishmongers, flower sellers, cured hams and little counters to eat at. The place to feel Porto's everyday life and pick up lunch on the go.
• 9.A francesinha — Porto's gloriously excessive signature dish — a sandwich of steak, ham and sausage under a blanket of melted cheese, drowned in a spiced beer-and-tomato sauce, usually with a fried egg and chips. Not for the faint-hearted; find a café that locals swear by.