Porto Airport (OPO) to the City by Metro

Porto’s airport has its own metro station beside the terminal, and line E runs from it to Trindade, the city’s central interchange, in about 25 minutes; five minutes short of that, Casa da Música station is a short bus ride from Serralves, a park in western Porto with a pink Art Deco villa and a white contemporary art museum by Álvaro Siza.

Metro line E reaches Trindade in about 25 minutes

Aeroporto station sits under a curved glass roof beside the terminal, and line E, the violet line, runs from it to Trindade, Porto’s central interchange station, in about 25 minutes. Trains leave every 15 minutes from 7am to 8pm, every 20 minutes until 11pm, and every half hour from 6am to 7am and 11pm to 1am. The airport is in fare zone 4: buy a Z4 ticket, 2.30 euros, from the machines on the platform, loaded onto an Andante card, Porto’s rechargeable transit card, which costs 0.60 euros once and can be topped up for the ride back. From Trindade, the main Porto guide walks downhill past São Bento station to the Ribeira waterfront, and the Matosinhos guide covers the beach town by the port, the closest stretch of coast to the airport.

Casa de Serralves, a pink Art Deco villa in western Porto

Serralves is an 18-hectare park in western Porto, near the Foz do Douro seafront, about 15 minutes by city bus 201, 203 or 502 from Casa da Música station, the line E stop named after the city’s concert hall, roughly 20 minutes from the airport. At its centre stands Casa de Serralves, a villa designed by the architect José Marques da Silva and built between 1925 and 1944, its pink walls and tall strips of window looking down over terraced lawns, clipped hedges and a long water garden.

The park runs on past the formal gardens into woods, a farm and a lake, and a raised treetop walk, a wooden walkway among the branches, crosses part of it. A park and treetop walk ticket is 15 euros, or 24 for all access including the villa and the museum. From April to September, Serralves opens at 10am and closes at 7pm on weekdays and 8pm at weekends, with shorter hours from October to March. The Foz do Douro guide picks up the seafront a short walk south.

Álvaro Siza’s Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art

The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art stands in the same park, a low, white building by Álvaro Siza, the Porto-born architect, opened in 1999. Its plain walls step across the lawn in long wings, with windows cut to frame the trees outside, and its galleries hold changing exhibitions of contemporary art. The all-access ticket covers it alongside the villa and the park.

Luggage lockers at Porto Airport

Porto Airport has 104 self-service lockers on level -1 of the terminal, in the underground walkway, before security and open 24 hours. Third-party listings put them at around 3.60 euros for three hours in a small locker and 9.60 to 14.40 euros for the larger sizes. The bus from Casa da Música and Serralves’ gravel paths are easier without a suitcase, and in the city a luggage storage point near Trindade sits on the way back to the line E platform.

Collect the bag on the way back to the metro, and allow about 25 minutes from Trindade, or 40 from Serralves with the bus, plus the time to check in and clear security.