Foz do Douro

Foz is where the Douro River meets the Atlantic Ocean, and where Porto remembers that it's a coastal city, not just a river town. The neighbourhood at the mouth of the river is a world away from the medieval intensity of the Ribeira — tree-lined avenues, Art Deco houses, a seafront promenade, and a lighthouse that marks the point where brown river water and blue ocean collide.

The walk along the coast from Foz to Matosinhos follows a granite-paved promenade past rocky beaches, tidal pools, and the Pérgola da Foz — an elegant 1930s concrete pergola on the waterfront that's become an Instagram landmark. The beaches here aren't the Algarve — the Atlantic is cold and the waves are serious — but surfers and bodyboarders brave the conditions year-round, and on hot summer days the beaches fill with families, sunbathers, and teenagers performing the ancient ritual of pretending the water isn't freezing.

The Farol de Felgueiras — a lighthouse on a rocky spur at the river mouth — is the classic Foz photograph, especially during winter storms when Atlantic waves crash over the breakwater and spray reaches the promenade. The seafood restaurants along the Foz waterfront are some of the best and least touristy in Porto. Locals come here on weekend afternoons for grilled fish, vinho verde, and the particular pleasure of watching the sun set into the ocean from a city that's usually too busy looking at its river to notice it has a coastline.