Portugal has a huge open market culture, be it permanent or periodical markets like the Christmas markets in Porto, antique or food markets – there’s a huge variety all over the country.
And there are literally dozens of markets in Porto. They are great places to kick start your vacation in Porto, or simply to look for an original and affordable souvenir to take back home. I invite you to explore the markets of Porto with me. Let’s go!
These are the best markets in Porto
Bolhão market
Rua Formosa, 322 | Porto
Bolhão is by far THE most famous market in Porto, and also its oldest one. Opened since 1914, Bolhão market has been a constant in the lives of people from porto and, in recent years, in the lives of tourists as well. If you want to learn more about the best things to do in Bolhão market, make sure to read this article I wrote 🙂
Bolhão market has 2 floors: on the lower floor there are fruit and vegetable vendors, cafes and pastry shops, cheese, meat, fish and bread vendors. There are also a couple of more unusual vendors, like a wild mushroom grower and an amazing spice vendor.
On the upper floor there are several restaurants, with a view of what goes on on the lower floor.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 8h to 20h. Saturdays from 8h to 18h. On Sundays and holidays Bolhão is closed.
How to get there: the subway station Bolhão has an exit directly inside Bolhão market. It’s great! 🙂
Porto Belo
Praça de Carlos Alberto | Porto
Porto Belo is probably the most popular market in Porto. No wonder! It has a superb location, between the romantic neighbourhood of Cedofeita and the nightlife district of Porto, and close enough to main city attractions such as the Lello bookshop and the famous Clérigos tower. It’s also close to some of the best boutique hotels in Porto.
You can find pretty much anything at this Saturday afternoon market, from vinyl records, vintage clothing and accessories, antique cameras and film material, stamps and coins, illustrations.
But if you’re not so much into antique stuff do not worry, as Porto Belo is also a great place to find design pieces and organic products like olive oil, teas and jams.
If you’ve just been dragged by your better half into this market, worry not: there’s good music, an inviting puff and plenty of sun to enjoy while you wait!
Opening hours: Saturdays from 10h to 19h.
How to get there: São Bento train station, which also has a subway connection, is a 10 minutes walking distance.
Clérigos market
Rua de Cândido dos Reis | Porto
Clérigos market is pure street temptation for a gal like me. As you know I am very found of antiques, so it’s very hard to walk down this particular street without emptying my pockets with old chandeliers, comic books, scratched wood boxes, cork souvenirs… and an old white and red bag from a flight attendant that I tried to bargain for hours without succeeding (it happens, once and a while, that I don’t get my way in bargaining :P). Clérigos market is, thus, the best market in Porto for antique lovers.
Opening hours: every second and fourth Saturday of every month, from 10h to 19h.
How to get there: São Bento train station, which also has a subway connection, is a 10 minutes walking distance.
Mercado da Alegria
Jardim do Passeio Alegre | Porto
For those who don’t quite know what they’re looking for, the best market in Porto is the Alegria market. In this market you will find a very eclectic mix, from Portuguese sausages and cheese, second-hand clothes, spices, textiles and wooden handicrafts… the difficult thing is to choose! It also has two food vendors – one of them is Farina, which sells sourdough bread.
Mercado da Alegria is located in Foz, one of the best areas to stay in Porto. As it is right in front of the sea, I avoid going to this market on windy days.
Opening hours: every second and fourth Saturday of every month, from 10h to 19h.
How to get there: take the iconic tram no. 1 and get out at the last station.
Urban Market
Praça das Cardosas OR Hard Club | Porto
Another market I avoid going when I need to save money is the Urban Market because everything is so pretty over there.
Everything screams urban design at this particular market: the jewellery, the clothing, the home & decor objects. You can even take the time to enjoy a quick shiatsu massage or get a funky hair cut – yes, these are services that have been provided in previous Urban Markets! 🙂
Therefore, this is a great market to find modern souvenirs and stuff to wear / decorate your home, but not the place to find typical souvenirs from Portugal.
Usually the Urban Market takes place either at Praça das Cardosas (first picture) or at the Hard Club (second picture).
How to get there: It depends, as the Urban Market takes place in different locations. If it is located at Praça das Cardosas, you just need to cross the street from São Bento train station. If it takes place at the Hard Club, you must also get to São Bento and then walk down Rua Mouzinho da Silveira.
Feira da Vandoma
Avenida 25 de Abril | Porto
Feira da Vandoma is one of the oldest markets in Porto as it started many decades years ago by the hands of students who used to sell their old books.
There, you can only find second hand objects such as clothes, dishes, furniture and decorative items, discs, books, electrical and/or electronics (I cannot promise they are in good shape! :P), household and working utensils.
Opening Hours: this traditional market of Porto is held every week on Saturdays, from 8h to 13h.
How to get there: It is a 10 minutes walking distance from the subway station Estádio do Dragão.
Mercado da Foz
Rua de Diu, 365 | Porto
Mercado da Foz is a small, covered neighborhood market, where you will find some fruit, vegetable and flower vendors but, essentially, small cafes and very friendly restaurants. It also has a fantastic bakery, called PAO, where you can have a decent coffee while eating some toast. It’s a covered market (that is, it doesn’t rain inside), but it’s not heated, so I avoid going there in winter.
Since this market is in Foz neighborhood and it takes around 20 minutes to get there from the city centre, I’d recommend that you take the opportunity to do one of the best activities to do in Foz, to optimise your journey.
Opening Hours: Mercado da Foz has a veeery strange schedule! It is open from 7h onwards, but the closing time depends on the day of the week. On Monday it closes at 17h, from Tuesday to Thursday it closes at 22h and on Friday and Saturday it closes at midnight. It is closed on Sunday.
How to get there: unfortunately there is no subway station nearby, but the buses 203 and 207 stop nearby, at Praça do Império.
The Birds Market
Alameda das Fontaínhas | Porto
If you are looking for something rather unusual and very typical from Porto, I suggest you to try the Birds Market, which takes place every Sunday from 7am to 1pm.
The name of this market in Porto says it all: it’s literally an open air fair where you can find all kinds of birds that are there for sale.
There are parakeets, canaries, ducks, roosters from Japan, mandarins … all kinds of winged animals, and some without them, for there are also rabbits, fish and even crickets. There are also cages and accessories, vegetables, and bags of food for sale.
Moreover, the view from this market is simply breath taking, as you are staring from the best viewpoint in Bonfim neighborhood!
Note: if you are very sensitive to animals’ conditions you might not want to go to this market. Don’t get me wrong – the animals are all well taken care of and you can see that the people that go there really care about them. But it’s still dozens and dozens of birds inside the same cage!
Opening Hours: every Sunday, from 7h to 13h.
How to get there: It is a 10 minutes walking distance from the subway station Campo 24 Agosto.
Flea Market
Several locations | Porto
I have held the flea market of Porto very close to my heart ever since during my student days I spent my Saturday afternoons there selling my old stuff. I would spend hours in my parents’ garage, digging some saleable objects, that I would clean up, load in the car and then cheerfully sell on the flea market.
Nowadays, I like to go to the flea market as it is one of the best markets in Porto to find antiques, vintage clothing, vinyls and tons of homemade sweets (true story!).
How to get there: It depends, as the flea market takes place in different locations every time!
Numismatics, Philately and Collections’ Fair
Praça de Dom João I | Porto
My father used to collect old stamps, and now that I am growing older I can see the magic beyond those beautiful pieces of illustrated paper that can capture so much of the essence of a country, a region or a particular product.
Therefore, once and a while I visit the numismatic, philately and collecting fair of Porto, where you can find mostly stamps, old coins and ancient medals, all in excellent conditions.
People over there, both vendors, buyers and voyeurs are truly passionate about what they are doing, which makes this one of the most engaging markets of Porto.
Opening Hours: every Sunday, from 7h to 13h.
How to get there: The subway stations Bolhão, Aliados and São Bento are all 5 / 10 minutes walking distance.
Local tip: There are two very touristic markets that take place in Ribeira, in Porto, as well as in Cais de Gaia, in front of where most Port wine cellars are.
I don’t particularly like those markets in Porto as they mostly sell the so called “traditional Portuguese souvenirs”, such as printed tiles’ napkins (!), fado shawls (seriously people, no one wears those anymore!), and cloth sardines (aaaaargh, the tourists’ obsession with sardines!).
The only good thing about these markets is that they sell lots of little things in cork, which are cheap, light and work perfectly as a souvenir.
What about food markets in Porto?
In Porto we don’t have those mouth watering food markets like you see in Madrid and in Barcelona. Nonetheless, we do have two places that used to be real markets that were renovated – now they both have many little food stores where you can have a meal.
To be completely honest I don’t usually go to any of these food markets as I find them a bit too touristic, and are both off-track from my daily routines. However, I thought you might want to know about them, so here they are:
Mercado do Bom Sucesso
Praça Bom Sucesso 74-90 | Porto
This huge market is by far the most beautiful one, as it has a beautiful natural light and plenty of space.
It has many different food stores, so it’s perfect if you’re traveling with a group of friends and you cannot agree about where to have dinner! At Mercado do Bom Sucesso you have pizzas, sushi, suckling pig, risottos, vegetarian and tapas like, just to name a few.
There are also plenty of places to get a cocktail or a decent cup of wine, so it might be also a good option to have a drink after dinner.
This food market is very close to both Casa da Música and the synagogue of Porto, so it might be a strategic place to have lunch if you’re planning to visit these monuments.
Opening hour: every day, from 8h to 23h.
How to get there: the subway station Casa da Música is a 10 minutes walking distance.
Mercado Beira Rio
Avenida de Ramos Pinto, 148 | Gaia
This food market in Gaia is a bit small and dark, so I don’t go there very often.
On the other hand it has some really nice restaurants, such as Barriga Negra (amazing traditional petiscos!).
Another great advantage of this market is that it’s very close to some of the best Port wine lodges, so it’s a great place to have a bite after you’ve paid a visit to the lodges.
Opening hour: every single day, from 10h to 22h.
How to get there: the subway stations Jardim do Morro and General Torres are both 15 minutes walking distance, always going down – which means that it’s 15 minutes always going up, when you decide to go back home! 😀
Farmers’ markets in Porto
Bio Market in Porto City Park
Beco Carreiras, 67 | Porto
Thank God the answer is YES! And these markets make me a really happy person since I decided to only eat organic vegetables and fruits 🙂 My favourite farmer market in Porto takes place at Parque da Cidade, the largest city park in Portugal.
There you can find around a dozen of certified organic producers that sell the most fantastic seasonal products – from vegetables to fruits, eggs and dairy, cheeses and sausages, and even aromatic herbs, lentils and grains. Naturally, the products you find there are more expensive than the ones at the supermarket, but they are worth it.
After visiting this farmer market in Porto, take the time to go for a walk in Parque da Cidade. It is wonderful 🙂
Opening hours: Saturday mornings, from 9h30 to 13h.
How to get there: as far as I know there are no public transports there so simply take an Uber – type in Soundwich. The bio market is just behind it.
O Berdinho
Centro Comercial Bombarda
Berdinho is a small farmers market taking place in a tiny shopping mall in Cedofeita neighborhood. It has a few fruits and vegetable vendors, plus some selling organic honey, compotes, cakes etc. This market is quite small and I find it quite expensive, so I usually just go there to buy olives because there is a particular vendor, at the very end of the market, that sells the most AMAZING olives in Porto.
If I were you, I would get to Centro Comercial Bombarda (it’s the name of the shopping mall where this farmers market in Porto takes place) and get lunch, check the fantastic concept stores inside and THEN do some groceries shopping 🙂
Opening hours: technically it’s every Saturday mornings from 10h30 to 15h, but I’ve never seen any vendors there before lunch time 😀
How to get there: Aliados subway station is a 10 minutes walking distance.
Matosinhos market
Rua França Júnior | Matosinhos
The Matosinhos market is not exactly one of the best markets in Porto as it is not located in Porto, but in Matosinhos, a city 10km to the north. But it is a large market that is definitely worth a visit.
On the lower floor are the fishmongers, with their wonderful fresh fish, as well as a number of restaurants.
On the top floor, there are not only fruit and vegetable vendors but also live poultry vendors. So if you are a vegetarian or vegan it might be better to avoid this market.
As it takes a good 45 minutes to get from Porto to Matosinhos (by public transport), I highly recommend combining a visit to this market with one of the best activities to do in Matosinhos, or with lunch in one of its fantastic restaurants.
Opening hours: Tuesdays to Saturdays, from 6h30 to 18h. It is closed on Sundays, and it opens only on Monday mornings.
How to get there: Mercado subway station is literally in front of the market.
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