Teleférico de Gaia

The Gaia cable car opened in 2011 and runs about six hundred metres between the Cais de Gaia on the riverbank and the Jardim do Morro at the top, beside the upper deck of the Dom Luís I bridge, in glass gondolas taking around five minutes. What it buys is height over the right things: the roofs of the port lodges - Sandeman, Graham's, Taylor's and the rest, whose cellars fill the slope - the rabelo boats moored below, the Ribeira opposite stacked up the far bank, and the double-deck bridge itself. It is not transport in any serious sense, since the bridge's upper deck can be walked and the metro crosses it, but it is short, cheap enough and genuinely well-sited. Combining it with the Serra do Pilar terrace at the top and a lodge visit on the way down makes a coherent afternoon.

What you actually see

• The lodge roofs - the port houses' cellars covering the Gaia slope below.
• The bridge - the Dom Luís double deck seen from level with its upper span.
• The Ribeira - Porto's houses stacked on the far bank across the river.
• The rabelos - the branded port boats moored on the quay beneath.

When to go

Year-round. Fifteen to thirty minutes. Late afternoon for light on the Ribeira. It closes in high wind and has seasonal hours.

Honest expectations

Short - about five minutes each way - and priced well above what that suggests. The bridge's upper deck walks the same route free. Closes in wind. Queues in season at the lower station.

Nearby

The Serra do Pilar terrace is at the top; the port lodges are on the slope below.