Is Aveiro Worth Visiting?
Aveiro’s a nice, smallish, almost coastal town south of Porto that’s easily accessible by train. There are no specific must-see sights to look at, in my opinion. So the question arises: Is Aveiro worth visiting?
A day trip to Aveiro is great if you want to experience a different vibe but you’re not too keen on sightseeing. You can just enjoy the flair of the city while strolling through the historic centre of the town. It’s a great day trip for the last day of a 3 day Porto itinerary.
After taking in the town you can take a bus to Costa Nova and admire the colourful houses next to the coast and chill at the beach. As I said, a perfect day trip 😉.
Getting there
It’s quite easy to get to Aveiro from Porto but it does take some time, between 1 and 1.5 hours depending on what train you take, and it can get very crowded on the train.
You can get a slow urban train (U) for €3.55 one way or a faster Alfa Pendular train (AP) for €15.10 one way. The urban train sets off at São Bento station – a popular site in Porto known for its tile works. The urban train also stops at Campanhã station, where the fast train sets off. You can check the timetable on the Portuguese railway homepage.
I went for the urban train since it’s cheaper and it sets off at São Bento train station. As soon as I walked into that stunning train station on my first day in Porto, I thought how cool would it be to actually catch a train from there. By the time the train stops at Campanhã, it was already full and some people had to stand for the whole journey. So I definitely would recommend getting on at São Bento!
Taking in the city
When you arrive at the train station have a look at the amazing tile work on the building just outside the train station and then head towards the city centre on the big avenue. Walk around the small side streets and enjoy the atmosphere.
The best part of Aveiro is just walking around the town and taking in the sights of the colourful houses and the canals. Because of the many canals, Aveiro is often called the “Venice of Portugal”.
You can also go on a gondola-looking motorised boat ride, there are a lot of companies offering them and I think all of them do the same route in 45 min for 13€. You can see the city from the Canals and learn about Aveiro in a lot of different languages from your guide. I especially enjoyed that by chance we went past a marching band with our boat. Check out the video below to hear some Portuguese music and see the vibes of the city.
At the beginning of the tour, they might ask if you want your picture taken. They only asked us in Portuguese and since we were surprised by the question we said yes. Turns out you have to pay €5 at the end of the tour for the printed picture in a cardboard frame. Keep that in mind.
Costa Nova
Just 7km from the city centre in Aveiro is the beautiful beach area of Costa Nova. You can take the bus there, which is €2.45 for one way, it can take quite some time though because of traffic. The bus took about 45 min when we used it. Note that the bus did not show up on Google maps! The bus stop is easy to find though. It’s on the opposite canal side where all the tourist boats set off.
Get off at the final stop and you immediately see the beautiful, colourful, striped houses. They’re so many of them and they’re just gorgeous. It’s definitely worth visiting Costa Nova if you’re in Aveiro for the day.
The beach in Costa Nova is really pretty as well with fine sand and big enough so you can easily find a quiet spot. Perfect to lie down and relax a bit. Time flies by when you’re at the beach (at least it does for me) so make sure to get back to Aveiro early enough for the train back to Porto. Otherwise, your day trip to Aveiro is gonna become an overnight drip to Aveiro.
Food
It’s not worth visiting Aveiro for the vegan food there. When you’re spoiled with the many vegan restaurants in Porto, you might be a bit disappointed with the limited options in Aveiro. We went there on a Sunday and only realised there that none of the vegan and vegetarian restaurants are open on Sundays. So we had lunch at Green Point, which had so many vegetarian/vegan options, that it almost felt like a vegetarian restaurant anyway. The food was delicious, especially their vegan tuna. It is a bit out of the way from the centre though, closer to the train station.
Is Aveiro Worth Visiting?
Aveiro is not your typical tourist town where you run from one site to the next. But it’s great for taking a nice stroll through the city. You can enjoy the nice. scenery from a boat and relax at the beach afterwards. If that sounds like your thing, Aveiro is worth visiting. To get a better feel for the city, you can also watch my YouTube video about it:
If you’d prefer a more sightseeing-packed day trip from Porto you could consider Coimbra or Guimarães instead.
