I spent a month living and working in Porto, a delightfully vibrant and lively city in northern Portugal. I work full-time, but since it's all done remotely, I'm really taking advantage of being able to do my job from anywhere, hence my choice to spend some time away.
While my AirBnB has great wifi, it's no fun always sitting in the same little room all day when there's a fantastic city out there waiting to be explored. So I made an effort a few times a week to head into town and find a cute café to work from for the day. Having worked from my fair share of cafes around the world as I travel, I know what I'm after when it comes to picking a good one!
Criteria for a good café to work from:
- Outlets
- Good and fast wifi connection
- Comfy enough seats to sit in for hours
- Not too loud, but a good ambience
- Natural lighting, if possible
- Vegan food/snacks are a huge plus, but also not mandatory so long as they offer non-dairy milks for my chai lattes!
Unfortunately, none of the cafes I tried really blew me away for various reasons, but all good spots to spend an afternoon or two getting some stuff done while you're in Porto:
C'ALMA
This place is a specialty coffee roaster so while they've got an impressive array of very well-made coffees, for the non-coffee drinkers out there (me), the only alternative is tea. However, they did have a yummy vegan chia pudding on offer as well as other sweet treats and the wifi was great and the vibes really lovely. I sat here for 6 hours and got tons done.
Location: R. de Passos Manuel 44
FÁBRICA COFFEE ROASTERS
What really sells this place is the aesthetically pleasing industrial-style interior - the cafe is huge on the indoors, stretching all the way back with plenty of seating and often lots of people plugging away on their laptops. There aren't a lot of outlets and while on the pricier side for smaller drinks than normal, the soy chai latte was great.
Location: R. de José Falcão 122
MESA 325
This place has large tables and tons of outlets along the walls, which makes it an ideal spot to hang out for a few hours and get some work done. There's a food menu but most people come in here just for a drink. They did a decent oat milk chai latte and I enjoyed sitting with a bunch of other laptop goers for an afternoon.
Location: Av. de Camilo 325
Negra Café Baixa
What really sells this one is the beautifully designed interior - think plush velvet seating and fun artwork on the walls. The menu is a little on the pricier side, and sadly no chai lattes, but a fun spot to spend an afternoon working nonetheless.
Location: R. Guedes de Azevedo 117
Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.