We started our last day in Porto with an aimless walk. Our goal was simple: find a nice breakfast place, then head to the supermarket to pick up some groceries. We would still be staying in Porto, but we had booked all-day excursions outside the town for the following two days, so we needed to stock the apartment and load up on snacks for the road. Dining out every meal can get expensive, which is why renting an apartment with a kitchen is always a bonus.
We were walking through an unfamiliar part of town when we stumbled upon the busy Rua de Santa Catarina, an upscale, pedestrian-only street lined with trendy shops and cafes, including the Café Majestic, one of the most beautiful Belle Époque cafés in Europe, and very much worth a visit when you’re visiting Porto! It remains to this day a rare example of timeless grace and refined class. The decor is Gilded Age splendor. But it isn’t pretentious or unfriendly to those of us who were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. When Inna walked inside from our table out front, the tuxedoed maître d’ took her under his wing and showed her around before offering to take her picture by the grand piano. Such refined graciousness is a thing of the past but lives on at the Café Majestic in Porto. And the food wasn’t half bad, either, though a tad pricy.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that prices for goods and services (other than gas) in Portugal were comparable to what we pay in the States. Actually, it was far less, if not for the various taxes.
Here’s an example. We ate dinner outdoors in Évora at an upscale establishment called Aroma Do Campo. We were treated like royalty. Inna had the delicious duck, and I had the veal-and-shrimp-on-a-skewer dinner with potatoes. We both had a glass of local red wine. In Annapolis, where we live, that meal would have cost us about $85. With taxes and tips, well over $100. Our bill that night was $70. And that included the standard 23% IVA (VAT) tax.
The IVA (VAT) is a core revenue source for the Portuguese state, acting as a general consumption tax used to fund public services and government operations. It is the largest component of Portugal’s indirect taxes, which are projected to raise approximately €38.5 billion in 2026.
As of 2026, Portugal’s national debt is approximately €276 billion, which represents roughly 87.8% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This reflects a significant downward trend from 2020, when debt peaked at over 134% of GDP.
Meanwhile, back in MAGA America, the U.S. debt in April 2026 exceeded 100% of our GDP for the first time in our peacetime history.
Americans bitch about high taxes all the time, but in relation to the rest of the world, we pay substantially less. In return for paying higher taxes, the Portuguese enjoy:
Universal Healthcare: Most European countries provide government-funded or heavily subsidized healthcare. Citizens do not worry about high deductibles or complex private health insurance.
Mandatory Paid Time Off: European Union laws guarantee workers at least 4 weeks of paid annual leave. Many countries offer 5 to 6 weeks, which is far more than the standard PTO offered to most American workers.
Generous Parental Leave: Most European countries provide months of paid maternity and paternity leave, whereas the US only guarantees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for eligible employees under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
USA! USA! USA!
After walking around most of Porto’s extensive downtown, we were struck my its cleanliness. There is very little trash, and street sweepers dressed in their yellow and blue Porto jumsuits are always on the prowl. A city that makes cleanliness a priority is a city on the rise. It doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a commitment by government to hire the people to clean, and a citizenry that takes pride in their town’s appearance. Litter is usually the first indicator of a city in decline.
Porto is a fun place to walk. It’s safe and pedestrian-friendly. GPS works well, but we rarely used our phones to navigate because we didn’t mind it when we didn’t know where we were, because we found the whole scene endlessly amusing. It was like cruising around a really old amusement park. The visual hits just keep on coming. The history. The architecture. The shops. The cafes. The people. The culture. Porto has it all!
