Transportation in Porto

Porto's transport is built around the Metro do Porto light-rail network, clean, frequent, and cheap enough that locals treat it like a city-wide elevator. Grab the Andante card at any station. One tap covers metro, buses, and even some suburban trains, sparing you the daily queue at the machines. The system is zone-based, so a single card works for short hops across the historic center or longer rides to the coast. For the airport run, the violet Metro line E is the insider choice: direct, air-conditioned, and a fraction of a taxi fare. It stops running around 1 a.m.; miss it and the official taxi rank outside arrivals is your fallback, insist on the meter and skip the touts inside baggage claim. Once downtown, trams 1 and 18 are scenic but slow. Use them for sightseeing, not for getting anywhere on time.