Using an eSIM in Porto

What Porto is like on a phone

Porto is usually a three- or four-night stop, often followed by a Douro river trip or an afternoon of port tasting on the opposite bank. The city sits on cliffs either side of the river at markedly different heights, so crossing sometimes means a lift or the upper deck of a double-level bridge. Coverage is broadly good, but the drop in height means some riverside corners sit in the shadow of the cliff and hold less than the streets above them.

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Francisco Sá Carneiro (OPO) connects on the violet metro line, which runs mostly at surface level before diving underground in town, so it keeps a connection better than many airport links. Long-distance trains arrive at Campanhã and connect through to São Bento in the centre. Turn the eSIM on in the terminal, because you will be buying a ticket and checking the interchange on screen. Once in town, finding hillside accommodation usually needs the map, since the walking route and the driving route rarely agree.

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Up on the cliff, around the cathedral and along the main streets, it is good. Down in Ribeira at the water's edge, under the cliff with tall buildings behind, the speed is noticeably lower than above. The upper deck of the double bridge, open high over the river, is both well connected and the favourite place to photograph from. Many of the port lodges on the far bank are thick-walled cellars with almost nothing usable inside. On a river boat, passing beneath the bridges gives short interruptions.

What a day here costs in data

A Porto day is spent moving between the city's two levels, which means reopening the map often and recalculating when a staircase or a wall gets in the way, on top of booking a tasting, checking river-boat departures and photographing the bridges at dusk. That comes to about a gigabyte a day. A day out on the river or up in the vineyards behaves differently, alternating between stretches with nothing and stretches where it returns.

Districts travellers ask about

• Ribeira — The waterfront under the cliff, with coloured houses pressed together; slower than the streets above, and the pin drifts because there is tall building behind you the whole way.
• Vila Nova de Gaia — The far bank, its port lodges terraced up the slope; the quayside walk and the cable car are fine, while the cellars themselves have almost nothing.
• Cedofeita and Rua Miguel Bombarda — Galleries and independent shops on streets wider than the old core; steady coverage, and a favourite with people who sit and work through the day.
• Foz do Douro — Where the river opens to the Atlantic; the seafront walk is exposed and well served, though the wind and the spray are good reasons to keep the phone tucked away.

Day trips out of the city

• The Douro Valley — The riverside railway runs deep in a valley with high slopes on both sides, so service drops for long stretches and returns at the villages; going by boat, download everything before you leave.
• Guimarães and Braga — The train passes a string of small towns so the connection is fairly continuous, but inside the stone castle and the thick-walled hilltop churches the speed falls right off.
• Aveiro — A canal town on flat, open ground with good coverage nearly everywhere; the difference comes when a boat heads out across the wide lagoon, where there is nothing built and it weakens.