Porto's Roasted Chestnut Carts Return: Metro Pitches From €250 a Month and a €3 Tourist Tax
Mid-October in northern Portugal means smoke. The castanha carts come out, the little steam-engine roasters start puffing, and the smell of burnt shells drifts down the quays. Castanhas assadas, quentes e boas. Hot and good.
The cart in the picture sits on the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the Douro, across from Porto's Ribeira. Behind it the river, a rabelo boat moored with its red sail, the old town stacked up the hill on the far bank. It's a cheap snack with one of the best views in Europe thrown in.
A pitch is a business
Selling chestnuts on the street looks like a seasonal side job. It's priced like real estate. Metro do Porto put its station pitches out to tender this month for the season running October 15 to May 15, with vendors allowed to sell from 6am to 10pm. The minimum bids are per month: €750 at Trindade, the busiest interchange, €350 at Senhora da Hora and €250 at Casa da Música. Those are floors. The winning bids can be higher.
Do the arithmetic. At a few euros a dozen, a Trindade vendor needs to sell a couple of hundred dozen a month just to cover the pitch, before chestnuts, gas and the cold hours. In Lisbon last season the going rate was €3 to €3.50 a dozen at spots like Cais do Sodré. Porto's prices for this season aren't posted yet, but expect something close. Nobody's getting rich. The good spots still get bid up because the foot traffic is there.
The tax that comes with the view
If you're staying the night to see the riverfront lit up, add the tourist tax. Porto charges €3 per person per night, up from €2 since December 1 2024, capped at seven nights, so the most you'll pay is €21 a stay. Children 12 and under are exempt. Stay on the Gaia side, where the port lodges are, and the rate is €2.50 a night for a tourist stay, also capped at seven nights, with under-16s exempt.
Porto collected about €15 million from the tax in 2022, and expected to pass €20 million the year after, before the rate went up. Lisbon charges €4. Gaia stays a little cheaper.
Buy a dozen, walk down to the water, and eat them before they cool.