Porto for a first weekend alone

If you’ve never travelled alone and you’d like to try it without making it a big deal, a weekend in Porto is a really good start. It’s small enough to figure out in a day and cheap enough that a mistake only costs you pocket change, and it’s so pretty that when people ask how it went, you can just show them your photos.

Why it’s easy the first time

Everything’s within walking distance, and it’s really hard to get lost because the river’s always downhill. If you’re not sure where you are, just keep going down and you’ll end up at the Ribeira, looking at the bridge, with loads of places to sit.

People in Portugal are warm without hovering over you, and a table for one gets treated exactly like a table for six.

How to do the two days

On day one, get there and head down to the river around six, when the light goes gold and the day trippers start to leave. Have dinner early, somewhere with a counter.

Day two is for the bridge. Walk across the top deck of the Dom Luís in the morning before it gets busy, and come back along the lower deck at sunset. In between there are the tiled churches and the bookshop everyone queues for, which I’d skip if the line goes round the corner, because the tiles outside are the best part anyway. Then have a long, slow lunch, which costs about the same as your coffee at the airport.

The tram nobody takes

Everyone queues for an hour for the famous number 1 along the river, while line 18 is short, rattly and nearly always empty. Take the 18. It has the same wooden inside and the same clattering, and it loops through streets you’d never find otherwise, all for the price of a sandwich. Sit by the back window if you can.

What it costs

A weekend here doesn’t cost much:

• a room in a good spot, 70 to 90 euros a night
• lunch, under 12 euros
• the francesinha, which you should try once, around 14
• tram and metro, a few euros a ride
• port tasting across the river, 15 to 25 euros

The port tasting is really nice to do on your own, because whoever’s pouring usually has stories and is happy to tell them to one person.

By the time you get home, you’ve done your first trip alone.