Five Rooms After Dark, Ten to Twelve Petiscos

Three hours in the evening, five traditional places, and ten to twelve petiscos that come to a full meal. Beer and wine are included at every stop, which is the part that usually costs extra elsewhere.

You meet at the Great War memorial on Praça de Carlos Alberto, a square west of the Aliados that most visitors cross without stopping, and the route stays deliberately off the stretch between the station and the river where every other tour goes. These are the bars and restaurants that fill up with people who live here, at the hour they fill up.

Each stop has its own specialty and its own wine to go with it. Portuguese sausages, salt cod in one of the many forms the country insists are different dishes, and the rest changes with the kitchen. Along the way the guide explains how port is actually made and why the same grapes produce something so unlike the table wine from the next terrace.

It is a food tour, a wine tasting, a walk through the parts of the old city that are still lived in, and a night out, and the operator does not pretend to separate them.

Up to ten travellers, guided in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish. Bottled water is not included. Not recommended for pregnant travellers. Begins and ends in the same square.