Porto Stock Exchange, Winery and Boat Tours Question

I have no idea why you can't book tickets for the Bolsa, stock exchange. You are required to go on a tour which isn't very long.. Yes, the boat ride is worth it.

I see the difficulty with getting on-line tour for the Stock Exchange palace From their website it states:

“ The guided tour lasts 30 minutes and the language is booked according to the order of arrival.Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, French, English” I interpret this sentence to say that they cannot sell tickets for a particular language tour until you show up. It could be that they don’t know from day to day if they will have a person who knows a particular language available.

my experience in October: There was a line outside the door and around the corner at 11:30 in the morning so I dismissed the idea and headed to Gaia. Later in the afternoon, I was able to ask a receptionist about the English language tours and she said it was already full for the day. I didn’t ask about whether I could book a tour for the next day because I was leaving Porto. It was disappointing. My takeaway is, get in line at palace early in the morning for the tour.

Port houses in Gaia. Again, if you don’t book a particular language tour ahead of time, arrive earlier in the day to book a tour. I wanted to tour Calem port house, but the English language tour was fully booked for the day when I checked around 1:30 pm. Again, I was disappointed. If there is a port house you are interested in, I would recommend booking the tour online ahead of time.

Can’t help with a one hour cruise out of Porto cause I stayed in the Douro valley at a Quinta and had a boat trip out of Pinhao.

Have fun planning your trip.

When I was in Porto in 2019, there were no online reservations for the Palacio da Bolsa and from what I read previously on this forum, there were no online reservations as of summer 2023. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/portugal/porto-palacio-da-bolsa-stock-exchange-palace-tickets-in-august

Some people visit several port lodges in Gaia; I only went to Calem so I can't compare to Sandeman or others. You can find reviews online of the different tours.

I did a boatride in Pinhao. If I remember correctly, the Rabelo boats have been refitted for tourists and didn't seem unusual or especially interesting.

We had port tastings at both Calem and Adriano Ramos Pinto and enjoyed the Pinto one more. With one exception we didn’t care for the Calem offerings we tried. We skipped Bolsa Palace, but there was no line at all when we went in to check out the price for tickets. My wife wanted to take the 1 hour boat ride, so we took it. They are definitely something only tourists do. We visited in September 2023.

Same thing with us in Sept, 2023. We had to buy Bolsa Palace tickets at the door and come back about an hour later for the start of the tour.

We just booked boat cruise tickets directly at the docks in Ribeira. The boat looked like a giant rabelo like this: Example of Six Bridges Cruise

There were smaller ones in Porto but I recall the rabelo boats in Pinhao were even smaller and looked more traditional.

Definitely do the boat tour. It 's interesting and provides a unique perspective. I think the one I did a couple years ago focused on bridges. I saw a sign posted as I walked along the street, went in, and bought a ticket. That was fine, but if I had to do it again, I'd purchase a ticket at the river because I had to take the voucher I purchased and exchange it for a ticket at a place along the river. I unknowingly went through a middleman (actually, woman). There are lots of cruises that leave on a regular basis.

Go to the Stock Exchange early, if you can. I was lucky enough to get there before a long line formed. If I recall correctly, the line moved slowly.

For the winery, I went to Taylor's. I still recall the wonderful aroma of the cask room. The audio guide was informative and the tasting was pleasant. It's in a garden area.