One of the great things about Portugal is how easily accessible it can be. It’s a geographically small country meaning you can do a ton of day trips to points of interest. An easy day trip if you’re staying in the northern part of the country, i.e. Porto is Braga.

Braga is a city in the northern part of Portugal most famous for its religious events and history. The famous Bom de Jesus church sits atop the hill overlooking the city. With its famous sites, beautiful walkable city center area, Braga is the perfect location to spend a free day outside of the big city of Porto.

Getting there:

You can pick up a train from the Sao Bento train station in Porto. I paid approximately 30 Euro round trip. Train time is only about 40 minutes.

(For those not wanting to plan a day trip yourself, here are a few links to group trips that offer something similar: Get your guide, Tour Scanner, and Viator though I rarely recommend 3rd party platforms).

Things to Do:

As always, I like to start my trip planning with a pinpoint map. You can find my Braga points of interest map here. If you’re new here, I use these as a starting point for creating my specific itineraries.

Bom de Jesus Transportation:

Once you arrive at the train station, I recommend heading straight for the Bom Jesus do Monte church, as it’s a bit outside of the city and is the most popular site. There are 2 ways to get to the base of the church: taxi/uber and bus. A taxi or uber ride will run you about 10 euro and takes about 10 minutes. Right outside the train station, you’ll find the bus stop which will run you 2 euro and take about 20 minutes. You’ll want to take the #2 bus and stay on to the last stop which will drop you at the base of the Bom de Jesus church’s famous stairway.

*A quick shout that when I was trying to get back to the downtown part of the town, the bus never showed up. After sitting for almost 2 hours, I gave up and called an uber. Thankfully the uber arrived within 5 minutes and was only 7 Euro.

Bom de Jesus:

You have 2 ways to get to the church itself, you can either walk up the famous stairway or you can take the funicular. I recommend taking the funicular up and walking down the stairs.

Operating hours tend to vary, especially in a post COVID world but hours when I visited were 10-6pm.
Cost is 1.5 Euro one way, 2.5 Euro round trip

Once you’re at the top of the hill, you'll find yourself surrounded by amazing views, buildings, and of course, the famous church! You can easily spend a few hours exploring the grounds. The church itself is free to enter and walk around.

After a quick uber ride back into the main center of Braga, I grabbed some lunch at a cute cafe. From there I spent the afternoon wandering around the quaint little town. A few spots I recommend:

Jadim de Santa Barbara:

Alongside the Palace of Braga, sits a gorgeous garden full of all kinds of different flowers. Great area for photos with parts of the castle as the backdrop.

Free, open 24 hours

Arco da Porta Nova:

Decorating the western entrance to the city is the Arch of the New Gate. This arch sits along a quaint street with lots of cafes and next to a park where you can spend some outdoor time.

Free, open 24 hours

Braga Cathedral & Igreja Misericórdia:

Built in 1509 (prior to Portugal even becoming an official country), the Braga Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in the country of Portugal and is the current seat of the Archdiocese of Braga and of the Primate Archbishop of Portugal and Spain. The Igreja Misericórdia sits just behind the cathedral making it easy to bundle these 2 spots together.

2 euro, open 9:30-12:30pm, 2:30-5:30pm

At the end of your exploring, just hop back on the train to Porto; you’ll be back in under an hour!