Discover boutique city hotels for urban escapes in Porto, Portugal

First stop on your Porto holiday: the Unesco-favoured Ribeira district, a picturesque patch of winding streets and steep staircases, where azulejo-tiled buildings abound. Along the river, tree-lined boulevards shadow grand houses and, to the south, Vila de Gaia is where to head with a hearty appetite for port, the city’s namesake drink, proudly produced here for centuries. Today, Porto has spread past its original confines to seaside suburbs, such as Foz do Douro. But architecture fans will also gawp in admiration at the Casa da Música and the Museu de Arte Contemporânea, two striking visions in white.