Porto

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Porto
<map lat='41.13574463182004' lng='-8.598175048828125' zoom='11' view='3' float='right' />
Information
Country:
Flag of Portugal
Portugal
State: Norte Region
Population: 1,700,000
Licence plate: -
Major roads: A4, A29
More info: Hitchbase
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Porto is the second biggest city of Portugal.

For the airport of Porto, check out the Francisco de Sá Carneiro article.

Hitchhiking out

South towards Aveiro, Lisbon, Algarve

Going South can be hard, even when you start from within the nearby city of Gaia, which is just across the Douro River. The best spot in Gaia is probably a roundabout, just after the last metro stop (and ironically, just past the main street that leads to the motorway). Keep walking straight along this main street, stay to the right as it drops down and becomes the motorway. You'll see a bridge connecting the two sides of the road that don't become motorway, and just past this: a roundabout, which also has a part leading to the motorway. This is an okay spot to stand, even at night, with plenty of room for cars and trucks to pull over.


If you dont wanna stand at the roundabout where the road is momentarily experiencing roadworks and the lanes have been reduced we just found out that you can walk onto the first gas station from the roundabout. Its just a bit more than 2km and you can start hitching right on a gas station on the motorway. Just walk down the hill for 2km as indicated on the map, then you cross the motorway through a tunnel. Walk up a smaller hill for 200m until on your left there is a spring and a smaller sandroad. On both sides of the sandroad there are two wild gardens. On the end of the road (heading to the motorway) up comes a house on your left and a door on your right. The door leads to the gasstation framed by a 1,80 high fence on top with barb wire. The fence has already been repaired quite a bit. After 50m you come to another metal door which leads you onto the gas station. It can be opened with a little rusty wire on the right - just pull very hard. Otherwise you can always shout for somebody to open the door. (august 2011)


Rua da Palmeira, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

North towards Braga and Spain (Vigo, Santiago de Compostella)

Option 1 Take the Tram/Train to São Frutuoso‎ (less than 2 Euro). Walk the Rua Prof. Antonio Marques until the end and you'll arrive at a gas station right next to the motorway to Vigo/Spain after appx 800m. Note: There is a fence around the whole gas station, almost impossible to climb. To ring the bell and ask for entrance is a bad idea. Walk along the fence until the bridge where it's easy to climb over (January 2012). Try to be unwatched climbing the fence, the gas station is privatisized. I got kicked out in January 2012...In February 2012 i got dropped off on the other side direction Lisbon and had no problem at all staying at the gas station. Just make sure they don't see you enter the gas station "illegally".

Option 2 You may hitch from the petrol station close to metro station "Estadio do mar". At the roundabout, take Av. Calouste Gulbenkian, pass the School of design and you will see an entrance to coastal motorway A28 going North. People might also be going North using other motorways from there since there is a junction heading East close by.

There are probably many other ways of leaving Porto in that direction, yet to be discovered and shared.

Me and my travel-buddy tried the petrol station close to the metro station "Estadio do mar", but couldn't get a ride after trying for one hour. Some people at the petrol station told us about a FREE shuttle bus going north to IKEA (located close to the motorway A28) where a lot of spanish people go for shopping. The best way to get to the bus-station for the free shuttle-bus is to take the metro to "Senhora da Hora" (one stop before "Estadio do mar"), walk back (if you took the metro from the city) on the street along the metro-line, take a right into the street called "Avenida de António Domingues dos Santos / Rua da Barranha" and find a bus-station on the right side. This is how it looks like:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=senhora+da+hora,+4460+Matosinhos,+Oporto,+Portugal&hl=en&ll=41.186549,-8.654994&spn=0.000793,0.001161&sll=41.253032,-8.602295&sspn=1.497015,2.37854&vpsrc=0&t=h&layer=c&cbll=41.186549,-8.654994&panoid=gGtOnq9c4EOLBmuF6RQZqQ&cbp=12,299.34,,0,6.98&z=20

Take the red bus to "Mar Shopping" and get off there. We were standing at the exit of the parking-lot of IKEA and got a ride to "Viana do Castelo" after 15 minutes. This is how the mall and the bus look like:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=ikea+mar+shopping,+4460+Matosinhos,+Oporto,+Portugal&hl=en&ll=41.208864,-8.689574&spn=0.006094,0.009291&sll=41.209914,-8.657227&sspn=0.093627,0.148659&vpsrc=6&z=17&layer=c&cbll=41.20876,-8.689572&panoid=xx4h3tQhwqqamcgEh1_2aQ&cbp=12,22.54,,0,11.78

The free shuttle-bus runs every 1,5 hours. The IKEA is open Monday to Saturday 10h-23h and Sunday/Holidays 10h-20h. I assume those times the shuttle bus runs aswell. Should it not run you can walk down "Avenida de António Domingues dos Santos / Rua da Barranha" from the bus-station to the metro station "Estadio do mar" in a few minutes and follow the descriptions above.


trash:Porto