My inner child loves zoos. Whenever I travel, whether it's to cold England or to frying Portugal, I tend to end up in the local zoo. Not surprising then, when a trip to Porto came along, Zoo da Maia was on my itinerary.
It's not so easy to get to, if you believe the local tourist office. For some mysterious reason, the travel people completely fail to market this pleasant and interesting zoo, focusing instead on innumerable Douro cruises and wine cellars.
I may understand a retired German tourist feeling otherwise, but from my point of view - why on Earth would I want to visit a wine cellar? BO-RING! Now a zoo, that's entirely different matter...
Lady behind the desk in Porto's main tourist office gave me a strange look when I asked about the zoo. She went on to explain how it's impossible to get there without a car and how it's nothing special anyway. Rubbish, all the way! A short metro ride gets you almost to the gates of the zoo, and as to the entertainment potential - I loved it. I described it in detail here, but if you don't feel like reading a proper review, let me just tell you that the place was full of shade-giving trees, the animals were presented in a very approachable way, seal show was delightful and the whole thing was reasonably priced.
It remains unknown why the tourist office clerks want to strip your stay in Porto from all the fun (although I do have my suspicions).
