Getting Around Porto
Porto's historic centre and many of its hotels sit around Ribeira on the Douro. The business district has moved west to Boavista. The Alfândega Porto Congress Centre, a converted customs house on the river, is inside the historic centre, with a 1,200-seat auditorium and 25 rooms. Exponor, the fair venue, is out in Leça da Palmeira in Matosinhos, on the same side of the city as the airport. A fair visit and a meeting in Ribeira are two different drives.
Alfa Pendular and Intercidades trains from Lisbon and Faro arrive at Porto-Campanhã, on the eastern side of the city. São Bento, in the centre, is served by regional trains only. Add the train and its arrival time to the booking, and the car is scheduled for that arrival.
A fair at Exponor, meetings in Boavista and a dinner in Ribeira are separate journeys, and each can be booked as its own transfer; for a full day of meetings, hourly service reserves one chauffeur and one vehicle for the hours you choose.
The city requires an authorisation for vehicles with more than nine seats on occasional passenger services to enter the Baixa and the historic centre during the day on weekdays. Send the full address with your booking, and support will say how close to it a car can get.
Airport Transfers in Porto
Porto Airport is 15 km from the centre, on the Matosinhos side of the city. The drive usually takes 30–40 minutes. The fastest route runs on the VRI and the A28; the A3 and A4 are a slightly longer alternative. Exponor and the Leixões cruise terminal are both on the airport side, so a transfer from a flight to either of them does not cross the city.
For the city centre, the VCI inner ring road decides the time. It is one of the most congested routes in the Porto area, especially in the weekday rush hours, and a delay there spreads to every road into the centre. Traffic and weather both affect the journey time.
For arrivals, your chauffeur checks the flight status and times the pickup to when you actually land, and your booking confirmation shows where to meet the chauffeur. For a departure from Porto, what counts is the length of the drive, not the time on the clock: 30–40 minutes from the centre to the airport, longer in heavy traffic. You set the pickup time yourself, and the confirmation shows it.
Long-Distance & Cross-Border Travel from Porto
Porto is a base for the north of Portugal. Guimarães and Braga are both about 55 km away, Aveiro 75 km south, Coimbra 119 km on the A1. Lisbon is 313 km away: when a week in Porto ends with meetings in the capital, a single booking covers the drive from hotel to hotel, and the luggage travels in the same car.
Galicia starts less than 150 km north. Vigo is 152 km from the centre, and Santiago de Compostela 229 km, on the A3 to the bridge between Valença and Tui and then on the Spanish AP-9. On either route you get the same chauffeur and car from start to finish, with no change of vehicle at the border.
The Portugal–Spain border is an internal Schengen border. Bring the travel documents required for your nationality and your route.
Groups & Congress Travel in Porto
Porto's congress calendar has grown quickly. In ICCA's 2025 ranking the city placed 25th in the world, with 84 association meetings against 59 the year before. Cruise groups arrive too: the Leixões terminal, about 10 km from the airport, received 152 cruise calls and about 196,000 passengers in 2024. When, for example, a ship's passengers spend a day in the city, give the ship's arrival and departure times when you book.
When you book for other people, all their transfers can be kept in one account, each with its own booking and confirmation; when a delegation arrives on several flights, every arrival gets a transfer of its own. A Sprinter van takes up to 12 people with their bags; larger groups travel by coach, with up to 56 seats, chosen to fit the group and its luggage. For a group in the Baixa, the drop-off point depends on the city's rule for vehicles over nine seats.
Book early when your dates coincide with a large congress or a cruise call: local vehicles and drivers are booked up early. If your plans go beyond a standard booking, write to support with the dates, addresses, number of passengers, flights and luggage, and the team will arrange it.
