Two Years Old in Porto, Portugal

+ my take on the city

May 20, 2025

It was 10:00 p.m. on our first night in Porto.

Exhausted from flying and waiting in line for a table, I braced for the usual indifference families tend to receive when dining out as I inquired about how long the wait would be.

Instead of fulfilling my expectations, the waiter surprised us. He turned to the party ahead of us in line and, kindly but firmly, told them we would be seated first — because we had a child.

I was caught off guard in the best way. Then, everything I had read and heard came back to me…

Portugal really is as family-friendly as everyone says it is.

Below: returning to a destination post-baby, what we did in town, my hot take on Porto and and thoughts on city trips with toddlers in the 1-2.5 year old age range.

The Trip

When: Three nights in June 2024
Where: Porto, Portugal at this Airbnb. We paid $400/night including all fees.
Why: Summer family vacation
How: 2.5 hour flight from London

The Kid

Toddler: 2 years, 1 month old (25 months) | diapers | eats solids | one nap per day

The decidedly *not* toddler-friendly stairs sans railing at our Porto Airbnb

The Arrival / The Return

The revelation of Portugal’s family-friendliness actually began as we approached the customs desk at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport.

“You should have cut to the front of the line. You are a family!” the customs officer advised, and then went on to encourage us to use our family status to skip to the front of all public service lines during the duration of our stay.

Our arrival marked not only the end of a long journey from LA to London to Porto, but, also, the beginning of a return.

I had been to Portugal before, on the type of trips where lodging was booked based on volume of natural light and proximity to cafes. In 2019, it was two weeks doing yoga in Alentejo, beaching in Lagos, and solo tripping in Lisbon. A year and a half later, it was Lisbon for the weekend with girlfriends; wine on rooftops, long lunches, open itinerary. The latter trip took place mere weeks before I became pregnant with my first child.

Now, I was back. Same country, different tempo.

Unlike past trips to Portugal, this time I had *gasp* checked a bag, having graduated from the carry on life that so many non-parents (and some parents, bless them) tout as a badge of honor. Instead of stretching myself into inversions in a forest yoga shala, I was stuffing a snack-dusted toddler into a taxi headed for the city center. Just as relaxing, no?

Still, within hours of arriving, we had been exposed to the epitome of Portuguese family-friendliness.

Some Things We Did in Porto

Bought a six pack of pasteis de nata for breakfast on the daily. Mila’s aunt fed her which allowed us a very nice few minutes to eat in peace.

Walked across Dom Luís I Bridge, simultaneously dodging the tram that runs inches away from pedestrians while trying to show it to our toddler from her seat in the stroller, because toddlers <3 trains.

Joined the crowd to watch soccer in Jardim do Morro and, once our bag of small toys ran its course, watched our toddler play at the adjacent parque infantil (playground).

Trekked up the big hill in town to Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, where chickens and peacocks roamed free and where we found an idyllic little playground to break up the morning.

Walked around town to the extent we could, including the pedestrian shopping street Rua de Santa Catarina, while managing our toddler’s need to get out of the stroller. For a break, we stopped to watch boats in the Douro River.

Ate wherever was convenient, except for our reservation at Brasão Aliados which not only had incredible food, but also, particularly helpful staff. We accidentally dropped our beloved doodle board behind a bench and, panicking at the thought of not having this form of entertainment for the 11 hour flight back to LA, the staff helped us try to fish it out for a solid twenty minutes.

My Take on Porto

First, a caveat: I am endlessly thrilled to be able to travel with my family. There is no such thing as a bad destination in my book; anywhere that gets us out in the world, engaging in foreign places and different cultures, is a gift.

Nevertheless, at the risk of embodying Pico Iyer’s tourist vs. traveler trope, Porto reminded me of Lisbon — hills, river views, cobblestones — but in a smaller, more tourist-saturated footprint with less ideal weather.

I found myself, as I often do these days, evaluating the place through a new lens — that of a parent with finite time and greater effort to travel. I hold our trips to a higher standard than I did pre-kids, when I had the flexibility to travel more frequently and move at my own pace.

So, if you are choosing between Porto and Lisbon, and you are traveling with a young child, I would nudge you toward Lisbon for more activities, higher chance of sun and better dispersed crowds. Especially considering you’ll be navigating hills regardless of which of the two you choose.

My angel sister-in-law carrying our toddler

City Trips with a 1 - 2.5 Year Old

I am a walker by nature, though more flâneur than fitness. I have always lived for the quiet thrill of wandering. I have stomped entire cities into the soles of my shoes.

Then I had a baby. Then she became a toddler. Like legions of toddlers before her, there was a period in which she regarded any contraption with straps (a stroller, a car seat, even a carrier) as a personal injustice. Walking was no longer intuitive, it was strategic. It was timed around snacks and naps and carried with it the possibility of complete refusal.

In Porto, the cobblestones and stairs meant stroller use varied between acceptable, impractical, and impossible. Back-carrying our two year old up and down hills was only sustainable for short distances and out of the question for me entirely, as I was newly pregnant.

The copious restaurant options of a city like Porto are great in theory — but finding one, getting there, and dining out multiple times a day with a two year old is work.

Meals were a rotation of toys packed in advance. We do not use screens (in hopes the repeated experience of our toddler being present at the table pays off in the future), but I envied the iPad dinners of families around us as I lifted toys off the floor while balancing a toddler on my lap in many a cramped Portuguese restaurant.

For us, city-heavy travel is not the best match for a toddler in the 1 - 2.5 year old age range, which, as I have written before, is an especially tricky period to be on the road. While I love myself a city, the vision of peace I am seeking on vacation is not wholly congruent with the demands of big city leisure travel within this specific age range.

We do have several city trips of varying sizes coming up (New York City, Richmond, Boston, San Sebastián) and I have a hunch these spots will be more tenable with the combination of a three year old and an immobile baby than Porto was with a single just-turned two year old.

My stance remains that travel with kids is not just about where to go. It’s more about what age to go.

In Conclusion

I might not have fallen in love with Porto, but I did fall deeper in love with the imperfect attempts at piecing together the me before kids — who wandered city streets around the world — with the me after kids — who is simply happy to be on a street in a foreign city.

Two things can be true: I can appreciate how family-friendly Porto was and, also, I will adjust for a different type of experience with our next trip.

Our toddler was two years old in Porto. I was thirty-two, pregnant, fatigued, grateful, and learning how to walk through city trips in foreign countries as a parent.

Even when a destination isn’t perfect for this season, I find myself glad we keep going.