Braga Portugal (Fall 2025)

Our flights came off as planned and we arrived in Porto at about 9:30am. We were all a little sleepy from the overnight flight but anxious to go for a new adventure.

Upon arrival we headed to pick up our rental vehicle from Movida, rented through Zest Rentals. We had rented a Nissan Qashqai but the rental we were given was a Dacia Duster. That was way too big to navigate narrow twisty roads and narrow parking places so we asked to switch and they then gave us a Volkswagen T-Roc. This vehicle was perfect for 4 people with carry on luggage.

We ventured out from the rental car place and hit the road to Braga, for a 5 night stay at the Villa Garden Braga Hotel. This hotel had a great location, a short walk from the center of the city and it had a Pingo Doce supermarket across the road. The hotel had free parking, which was important with our rental car and it also had a great breakfast to get us going each day. The hotel also had a pool, though we did not use it, a funky and interesting interior decor and some very nice surrounding grounds that made it peaceful, even though it was in the heart of the city.

Our plan for the 5 nights in Braga was to use it as a hub to take days trips to the nearby towns of Guimaraes, Viana do Castelo, Ponta da Lima and Barcelos, while exploring exploring Braga as well.

When we arrived at about mid-day we went about exploring Braga with a walkabout to and around the town center.

Although we knew we would be fighting jet lag, we had a special event in mind for the first evening, something that would be a first for us in Portugal, despite this being our seventh trip to the country. That was to try and get tickets and attend a local Portugal league football (soccer) game. The Portuguese are a football crazy nation. Portugal football is world class (think Cristiano Ronaldo!) and they have some teams that compete in the UEFA (European) Champions League. The top teams in the country are generally Benfica, Sporting Portugal, Porto and the Braga team. This night Braga was playing host to a game against Nacional, a lessor ranked team in the Portugal league that represents Madeira. We sought advice from the hotel receptionist as well as the tourist office in the city centre on how to purchase tickets and about the best seats and how to get to the stadium (it was about a 20min walk from our hotel), and so on. We bought the tickets online, had an early, light supper at the Pingo Doce and set off to see some football. We followed locals heading to the stadium and had a great time, despite the local fans being disappointed because Braga lost 1-0 to Nacional.

We had decided to allot day 3 as our full day of exploring Braga as this was a day most locations would be open for visitation.

On day 2, we drove to explore Viana do Castelo and Ponte de Lima. See day reports on another page.

On day 3 spent the whole day walking around and seeing what sites we could in Braga. The main highlights include a guided tour we took of the Braga Cathedral and associated buildings, the Praca Republica square and many beautiful looking streets, including a lovely pedestrian only commercial area with shops, restaurants and cafes.

Braga is Portugal’s third largest city, known for its many religious buildings and the nearby stunning religious site known as Bom Jesus do Monte (a Unesco World Heritage site). It is sometimes referred to as the Rome of Portugal, it is very walkable and has lots of shops, restaurants and cafes in its’ historic core in addition to other interesting sites. The city is also within a short distance for day trips to other interesting cities, Guimarães (known as the birthplace of Portugal), Viana do Castelo, a coastal port with sweeping beaches nearby and stunning views from the Sanctuary of Santa Luzia overlooking the town, Barcelos (with one of the largest weekly markets in Portugal) and Ponte da Lima (a beautiful riverside stop on the Camino walk into Spain). Braga and these other towns attract far fewer tourists than the well known areas of Portugal and this makes them more authentic and less crowded.

Here is a pic just before landing in Porto: