On the DouroPorto.

Porto's cathedral (Sé do Porto) is the oldest building in the city — a Romanesque fortress-church begun in the 12th century, with the characteristic rose window and twin towers of the Romanesque basilica type. The cloister (14th–18th century) has panels of blue-and-white azulejos (18th century, depicting scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses) covering the walls — the most unusual subject matter for church tiles in Portugal. The terrace outside the cathedral gives the best elevated view of the Ribeira and Dom Luís bridge. The iron column in the square in front was the city's pillory — the site of public punishment and justice in medieval Porto.

Porto's gallery and design district — a single street and its surrounding blocks in the Cedofeita neighbourhood that has accumulated 20+ independent contemporary art galleries, design studios, vintage shops, and the best independent cafés in Porto. On the first Saturday of each month a gallery night (Art Night) runs from 22:00 to midnight with all galleries open, new shows launching simultaneously, and the street animated by the Porto creative community. The street art covering building facades in the adjacent streets is the most concentrated in Porto. No significant tourist infrastructure exists here — this is Porto's cultural district for Porto people.

The mouth of the Douro where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean — a neighbourhood of neo-classical villas, wide promenade, sea-battered rocks, and the specific quality of Porto light at the ocean. The 19th-century tram (Line 1, the original Porto tram, one of the few remaining) runs from the city centre along the Douro waterfront to Foz — a 25-minute ride that is one of the most enjoyable public transport journeys in Portugal. The lighthouse, the Castelo do Queijo (Cheese Castle, so named for the shape of its rock foundation), and the esplanada cafés looking west over the Atlantic are the components of the Porto sunset ritual.

The tallest tower in Portugal when built — 76 metres of Baroque granite designed by Nicolau Nasoni (1763), visible from almost everywhere in Porto and from the Douro and Gaia across the river. The tower is an integral part of the Church of the Clérigos, Nasoni's masterpiece of Portuguese Baroque — the church interior has a single oval nave of considerable spatial elegance. The 225 steps to the top give the best 360° aerial view of Porto: the city descending to the Douro, the ocean visible in the west on clear days, the orange roof of the railway station below, and the Dom Luís bridge at the river bend. The tower is open until 23:00 in summer — the sunset view is one of the finest in Portugal.

The Douro Valley wine region is one of the most dramatically beautiful agricultural landscapes in Europe — steep schist terraces cut into the valley walls above the Douro river, planted with the indigenous grape varieties (Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz) that produce both port wine and the increasingly celebrated Douro table wines. UNESCO designated the Upper Douro Valley a World Heritage Site in 2001 for its "outstanding example of a traditional European wine-producing region." The train journey from Porto to Pinhão (2 hours) along the river is one of the finest train rides in Europe; the Pinhão station has azulejo panels depicting the wine harvest. Quinta visits are free or very cheap; the wines are excellent.

Porto fado is distinct from Lisbon fado — rawer, less polished, more working-class in its origins, with a guitar tuning and vocal style that reflect the Atlantic coast rather than the capital. The concept of saudade — the Portuguese longing for something absent, beautiful and irretrievable, which may be a person, a place, or a time that never existed — is the emotional core of fado. Porto fado emerged from the same tradition of working-class melancholy but was less institutionalised and less commercially developed than Lisbon's version, which means it is harder to find but more emotionally direct when you do. The Maus Hábitos cultural space and Rua Galeria de Paris have occasional fado nights.