Porto nightlife – our essential guide to a night out in the city

Praça is a great bar to have a drink and a chat – it’s the perfect place to start your evening. It’s located in a central area of the city’s ‘movida’, at D. Filipa de Lencastre square. On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays they’ll play funk and soul music; Wednesday, though, is always reggae night. Try their mojitos, on which the bar’s reputation was built, and, if you’re hungry, go for the guacamole and black angus hamburger on black bread. During the summer, you can enjoy the terrace. You should also try Praça’s older brother, the Casa do Livro bar in the Galeria de Paris street (it’s a fine shelter for winter nights).

This bar/disco is located on the second floor of a stunning neo-Moorish building, designated as Municipal Heritage. Inside you’ll find stucco ceilings, a €10,000 Moroccan chandelier and a palatial balcony, which is perfect for chatting on with a drink in your hand. Baixaria has a dancefloor and puts on theme parties, but there’s also quieter areas where you can sit. On weekdays they also have live music, including samba acts and there’s another bar, Route 1999, in the same building.

The Rua Galeria de Paris is one of Porto’s most animated streets at night. Every other door leads to a bar, and Xico Queijo is right in the middle of it. Despite all the hubbub around it, it’s the kind of place where you can sit outside and have a gossip enhanced by good food and drink. Our recommendations are the Portuguese cheese and dried fruit board with food from the Azores, Alentejo and Trás-os-Montes regions, the Xico Shaker cocktail (orange and lemon juice, lime, ginger and vodka) and the sangria.

A place for fine music, great beer and excellent company. BOP has a collection of nearly two thousand vinyl records, from rock to Portuguese music, from soul to African sounds. Staff members are music buffs, and they’re happy to chat with you on the subject. As for beers, they serve Mexico’s Modelo, Jamaica’s Red Stripe, Japan’s Kirin Ichiban and Asahi Super Dry, among others. If you need something to snack on late at night, go for the wasabi green peas, the nachos, the hummus or their selection of homemade desserts.

One of Porto’s most iconic bars, it presents both gigs and movies (in its previous incarnation, it was a movie theatre with quite a bit of history). Most of the regulars are connected to the city’s cultural industries, and the bar has an LGBT-friendly environment. Passos Manuel is a place both for quiet evenings chatting with friends on the upper floor or in private rooms (those tiny rooms hidden behind the counter) and for going wild on the downstairs dancefloor.

This bar’s second floor used to be Porto’s old criminal court, where famous Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco was tried for adultery in 1861. Some inscriptions in Latin can still be read on the main room’s walls. In the early years of the twentieth century, this venue was the Clube Primavera cabaret, evoked by filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira in the movie ‘Porto of my Childhood’. There’s plenty of history but also a lot of fun to be had – mostly on the lower floor, where the disco heaves to the sounds of indie and EDM. If you need to get a bit of fresh air, head to the backyard garden.

The Rua Galeria de Paris has many bars and a lot of people. If you’re bemused by all the possibilities, go to Café au Lait. Their music is selected by good DJs, some of them talented young Portuguese producers. You might get there in the middle of an EDM, hip hop or funk party, and if the dancefloor is swinging, it might end up being your night’s only port of call.

Located in another of Porto’s major nightspots, the Rua Cândido dos Reis, Plano B a city landmark – and the kind of club that makes for great Instagramming. There’s three main rooms and several smaller spaces, each with its own decorations. There’s even a fountain statue on the ground floor. As for music, at Plano B you can experience two types of night in the same place: you can hop from the ‘stage’ room, with its poppier music, to the ‘cube’ room, which plays EDM and hosts international DJs. This venue usually brings locals and tourists together.

One of the city’s finest bars. It hosts a monthly program including parties we vividly recommend (Hard Ass Sessions, GrooveBall, Arena, CandyWaves), plus gigs by both Portuguese and foreign bands, film screenings, tango nights and art shows by local independent artists. There’s also a pizzeria named Vícios da Mesa, serving lunch, dinner and brunch (Sundays only, noon to 4pm). And it’s just across from another bar, the Passos Manuel – so try both of them.

Tendinha is among Porto’s legendary discos – it’s where a lot of people end up when they’re trying to extend their night all the way till dawn (don’t be surprised if you bump into tipsy folks along the way). It’s powered by danceable rock music. If you get there before the wee hours, you can also try HD Bar To Be Wild, a nearby biker bar at the Rua Galeria de Paris managed by the same owners as the Tendinha.