What to Buy in Portugal (and What to Skip)

Quick answer: The Portuguese souvenirs actually worth carrying home are azulejo tiles bought legally by the piece, tinned fish, soap from a house that has made it since 1887, wool from native Portuguese sheep breeds, and Azores-grown tea — the only tea grown commercially in Europe. Skip the cork postcards and the rooster figurines.

Tiles: the one where it matters where you buy

Azulejos are the souvenir everyone wants and the one most likely to go wrong. Tiles chiselled off building facades are a genuine and ongoing problem in Lisbon. If a seller cannot tell you where a tile came from, assume the worst and walk away.

There are two clean answers.

Cortiço & Netos exists because of an inheritance: four brothers run the shop on the strength of their grandfather’s decades of buying up discontinued stock from Portugal’s tile factories as they closed. Wall-to-wall drawers hold thousands of patterns, and you buy by the single tile rather than the box — which is exactly the difference between a souvenir and stripping a building. Note the shop has moved to Rua Maria Andrade in Anjos, so check the address before you set out.

Fábrica Sant’Ana in Chiado has been hand-painting azulejos by the same methods since 1741. You can watch the work happening. Buying new hand-painted tiles here is the direct alternative to the salvage trade.

What to look for: a shop that can name the factory or the painter. What to avoid: “antique” tiles sold loose from a street stall with no provenance.

Tinned fish — unironically

Portugal’s canned fish is a genuine heritage industry, not a hipster joke. Loja das Conservas in Cais do Sodré is a gallery-like shop celebrating the country’s artisanal canneries, tin by tin, and it is about as affordable as heritage shopping gets.

Practical: tins are heavy but indestructible and travel in hold luggage without complaint. Buy the ones with the packaging you like — that is genuinely half the point — but read the label for the cannery name.

Soap and scent

Claus Porto was founded in Porto in 1887 and is Portugal’s oldest soap and fragrance house. The flagship on Rua das Flores is an art-deco jewel box, and the staff will talk you through the ranges properly.

You will also find Claus Porto, alongside hand-milled soaps and a great deal else, at A Vida Portuguesa in Chiado — set, appropriately, in a former warehouse of the Viúva Lamego tile factory just off Rua Garrett. Its shelves hold the nostalgic national brands: soaps, tinned sardines in vintage packaging, ceramics, notebooks, woollen blankets. It has done more than any single shop to revive interest in heritage Portuguese products. There is a Porto branch in the Galeria de Paris.

Wool, and a genuinely endangered supply chain

Retrosaria Rosa Pomar in Baixa champions wools from native Portuguese sheep breeds. That is a rarer thing than it sounds — heritage breeds disappear when nobody buys their fleece — and it is why knitters make a pilgrimage here.

If you knit, this is the best shop in the country. If you don’t, a blanket from A Vida Portuguesa does the same job.

Tea from the Azores

Companhia Portugueza do Chá in Cais do Sodré is a jewel-box tea house blending teas including Portugal’s own Azores harvest — the only tea grown commercially in Europe. Beautifully packaged, light to carry, and a genuinely unusual thing to give someone.

Design, if you want something contemporary

Embaixada in Príncipe Real is a neo-Moorish palace turned concept mall of independent Portuguese designers and makers. Worth going for the tiled arches even if you buy nothing.

Porto is arguably stronger for this. CRU Creative Hub in Cedofeita gathers around fifty Portuguese brands under one roof — jewellery, ceramics, locally designed clothing and shoes. The Feeting Room on Largo dos Loios is built around footwear and fashion made in Portugal. Circus Network in the Art District sells affordable urban art, illustration and design by local and emerging artists — prints travel flat, which makes them the most practical art purchase in the city.

Coração Alecrim, also in Cedofeita, gathers sustainable, ethically made and vintage pieces — handmade jewellery, natural cosmetics, reworked clothing.

Sintra: pastries with a date on them

Sintra’s two famous pastry houses are older than most countries’ institutions. Casa Piriquita has baked on Rua das Padarias since 1862. Queijadas da Sapa has hand-made Sintra’s cheese-and-cinnamon queijadas since 1756, near the station.

Queijadas keep for a few days, which is just long enough to get them home. Travesseiros do not — eat those there.

If you are in Sintra on the second or fourth Sunday of the month, the Feira de São Pedro is the long-running local market south of the historic centre. The Cooperativa Agrícola de Sintra has supported farmers across the municipality since 1952 and its supply shops are a real window into the region.

Markets and rummaging

Feira da Ladra is Lisbon’s centuries-old flea market at Campo de Santa Clara, every Tuesday and Saturday — bric-a-brac, vinyl and vintage, and it rewards patience rather than a quick pass.

Mercado do Bolhão, Porto’s grand nineteenth-century food market, reopened in 2022 after a careful restoration; its two tiers sell fish, flowers, smoked meats and produce again. Mercado 48 in the Baixa is a small, eclectic concept store and art space run by two friends with magpie taste.

For everyday Lisbon, Mercado de Campo de Ourique is where residents shop, and lunch costs a fraction of the Time Out Market.

What to skip

Cork everything. Cork is genuinely Portuguese and genuinely sustainable. Cork postcards, cork hats and cork phone cases are genuinely landfill.

Galo de Barcelos figurines in the tourist shops. The rooster is a real folk motif; the mass-produced resin version is not a craft object.

“Antique” loose azulejos without provenance — see above.

Port bought at the airport if you are going to Porto anyway. Buy it at a lodge or a proper shop and you will get better advice and better bottles.

Frequently asked questions

What should I buy in Portugal?

Azulejo tiles bought legally by the piece, tinned fish from an artisanal cannery, soap from Claus Porto, wool from native Portuguese sheep breeds at Retrosaria Rosa Pomar, and Azores-grown tea from Companhia Portugueza do Chá. Sintra’s queijadas travel for a few days if you want something edible.

Where can I buy real Portuguese tiles without supporting theft?

Cortiço & Netos in Anjos sells discontinued factory stock one tile at a time, from a collection built by the owners’ grandfather as Portugal’s tile factories closed. Fábrica Sant’Ana in Chiado has hand-painted azulejos by the same methods since 1741. Both are alternatives to tiles stripped from building facades, which is an ongoing problem in Lisbon.

Is Portuguese tinned fish actually good?

Yes — canning is a genuine Portuguese heritage industry rather than a novelty. Loja das Conservas in Cais do Sodré stocks tins from artisanal canneries across the country. Tins travel well in hold luggage.

Where is the best shopping in Porto?

CRU Creative Hub in Cedofeita gathers around fifty Portuguese brands under one roof. The Feeting Room focuses on footwear and fashion made in Portugal, Circus Network sells affordable work by local artists, and Claus Porto’s flagship on Rua das Flores dates to 1887.

What Portuguese souvenirs should I avoid?

Cork novelty items such as postcards and phone cases, mass-produced resin Galo de Barcelos figurines, and loose “antique” azulejos with no stated provenance. If a tile seller cannot say where a tile came from, do not buy it.

More Portugal reading: Responsible Lisbon · Lisbon markets like a local · Where to eat in Lisbon. Or browse our full Lisbon guide, Porto guide and Sintra guide.