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| Airport Parking | Airport Hotels & Parking | Airport Lounges | Car Hire | Cheap Travel Insurance |
 Car Hire & Driving in Porto, PortugalWelcome to Porto Car Hire, Portugal.Once a river community, Porto is now a great commercial city in the north of Portugal, but life still centres on and around the Rio Douro. The north bank offers culture, and the south port wine, so plenty to invite you to visit Porto in your hire car. Porto is the commercial centre of northern Portugal and the hub of the lucrative port wine trade. Like Lisbon, Porto is clustered on hills overlooking a river, but unlike Lisbon, with its pastel walls and soft light, Porto is a northern European city with granite church towers, stolid dark buildings, narrow streets and hidden baroque treasures, all of which you can explore in your hire car while in Porto. Posed majestically on the rocky cliffs overlooking the Rio Douro, Porto is linked by six bridges giving excellent access in your hire car to Vila Nova de Gaia, an industrial area where most of the port wine lodges are located. The climate in Porto is temperate and the Portuenses, as the inhabitants are called, are traditionally industrious. The population of Greater Porto is about 1.2 million. Porto prospered from the seafaring exploits of the golden epoch of discoveries. The shipyards of Porto produced caravels that sailed around the world. Prince Henry, who initiated and inspired exploration, was born in Porto. The heart of Porto is the Praca da Liberdale, with an equestrian statue of Pedro IV in the centre, which your you will find in your hire car on the south side of Avenida dos Aliados. You can follow the avenue uphill in your hire car to the Camara Municipal (Town Hall) and the modern statue of Almeida Garrett, liberal poet and novelist, and native son of Porto. To the southeast of Praca da Liberdale in your hire car lies the Praca da Almeida Garrett, where the railway station, the Estacao Sao Bento Porto, has a fine entrance hall decorated with traditional azulejos depicting historical scenes. Heading south in Porto in your hire car, you arrive at the Se (Cathedral), dating from the 12th century. It was here in Porto that King Joao I married the English Phillippa of Lancaster in 1387. Outside the cathedral in your hire car there are good views down over the Porto city rooftops and the river. Just below, in the Medieval Tower, is a tourist office, which can provide assistance with what to see and do while in Porto in your hire car. The Porto tourist office also has detail of river tours, as well as helicopter tours, so if you want to leave the hire car and explore Porto another way you can. Nearby in your hire car, on the Pena Ventosa, the site of an ancient citadel stands the impressive 18th century Palacio do Bispo, the Bishop’s Palace. Just beyond is the Casa Museu de Guerra Junqueiro, in the house of the highly regarded poet of that name, who died in 1923. Both places are well worth a visit in your hire car while in Porto. Across the avenue in your hire car stands the 15th century church of Igreja Santa Clara, next to one of the best preserved sections of the old Porto city wall which you can see in your hire car. Santa Cara has been rebuilt several times but is noted for its splendid gilded wood choir stalls and altars. To the west in your hire car, the Igreja Sao Lourenco, better known as Igreja dos Grilos (after the crickets that lodge there), was built in 1570 and is one of the earliest examples of Portuguese baroque. On the western side of Porto in your hire car you will find the Feitoria Inglesa (English Factory House), which lies at the end of Rua Infante Dom Henrique in your hire car and is the bastion of English life. Around the corner in your hire car, on Rua da Alfandega, stands the much restored Casa do Infante, where Prince Henry the Navigator of Porto was born in 1394 which is now a museum. Going by the Praca do Infante Dom Henrique in your hire car, you reach the Igreja Sao Francisco in Porto, founded by King Sancho II in 1233 and rebuilt in the 14th century. On the site of a convent in Porto, which burnt down in 1832, is the Palacio de Bolsa or Stock Exchange which you can visit in your hire car and is noted for its opulent neo-Moorish reception hall. Up the hill from here in your hire car is the Instituto do Vinho do Porto (Port Wine Institute), the government agency established in 1932 to control the quality of port. Following the Rua Belmonte in your hire car past old homes with balconies and tiled walls, you will arrive in your hire car at the church of Sao Joao Novo, built in 1592. Across the way stands the 18th century Palacio de Sao Joao Novo which you can also visit in your hire car while in Porto. This whitewashed granite building houses the Museu de Etnografia e Historia, which includes a collection of archaeological finds. If you follow the road here in your hire car it leads to the singular 18th century Torre dos Clerigos which is the tallest granite tower. Just north of the tower in your hire car lies the main university building, a handsome granite structure built in 1807 as the Polytechnical Academy of Porto. East of Sao Bento railway station in your hire car lies the busy Praca da Batalha, with a statue of Pedro V in the middle and the imposing 18th century church of Sao Idelfonso with a façade of bright blue and white tiles. The main shopping street in this part of Porto that you can explore in your hire car is Rua Santa Catarina, where bargains may be found in a variety of goods, from shoes to pottery. On the western side of Porto, in the old royal Palacio dos Carrancas, is the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis which you can visit in your hire car and is named after a 19th century sculptor. On the western side of the Jardim do Palacio de Cristal in your hire car is the Soldar do Vinho do Porto. This is the best place to go in Porto to taste a wide variety of port wines while touring Porto in your hire car. We also provide car hire in Lisbon, Lagos and Faro. For an idea of what you might expect to find on a trip from Porto to these places in your hire car, visit out Lisbon Car Hire, Lagos Car Hire and Faro Car Hire links.
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