Venue & Travelling
The Faculty of Sport of the University of Porto displays modern and very well equipped facilities for sports and academic activities. It is located at the “Asprela pole” of the University, just in front of the new building of the prestigious Faculty of Medicine. Close at one of its sides can also be found the Faculty of Engineering, a fantastic new building with very strong and internationally recognised institutes. The IPATIMUP Institute (Institute of Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto), devoted to cancer research, and the Biotechnology Department of the Portuguese Catholic University, are other of the important institutions that surround physically the space of the Conference venue. Since the University of Porto is an open institution, participants in the IAPS Conference 2012 will be very welcome in any one of these locations.
The “Asprela pole” of the University is geographically located at the eastern border of the city. It’s a new focus of urban growth where the new university facilities and the magnificent “Dragon Stadium” of F. C. Porto football team can be visited. Moreover, it is well served of connections (metro, buses and taxis) to the city centre, the city historical and riverside centres, and the new social and business centre: Boavista. Here is located the new architectural hit of the city: the House of Music (Casa da Música), built to celebrate Porto as the European Capital of Culture 2001. Walking into the sunset direction through the Boavista Avenue you can reach the noticeable Modern Art Museum (Serralves Fundation) and admire both the fantastic “art nouveau” architecture and the modern inspiration of the wordily well known Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, and also beautiful gardens and noticeable art collections. Further to the west the magnificent City Park can be found, where you are invited to cycle, jogging or simply walking around, admiring different botanic and birds species, as well as the “Water Pavilion”. Over its sea border, you can visit the new Zoomarine aquarium (a fantastic opportunity to overview the different water environments that surround Porto, and the Portuguese overseas history and tradition), or experience the Portuguese sun at the seaside beach. The cost walkway extends to the Douro River with beautiful gardens, leisure, and commercial areas. It is possible to walk or to cycle always close to the water for more than 10 km, entering into the old Ribeira area, the riverside centre (UNESCO World Human Heritage), with the old buildings bordering the very narrow and old streets, a kind of “urban cascade” climbing the hill from the river to the medieval Cathedral and the Bishop Palace, just facing the well known Port Wine Cellars, located in Gaia.
During summer, the weather in Porto is quite attractive. It’s warm (between 20 to 30º C, sometimes a little bit fresher during the night), inviting for outdoor living, active leisure and friendship, once the sun shines and we have day light from 06.00 a.m. to 22.00 p.m. Light clothes are recommended. A pull-over or a sweater may be useful at night. Sporting clothes are needed for those delegates that want to perform at the sport facilities available at the conference venue (exercise room, tennis, squash, swimming pool, running circuit, or sauna). Participants are encouraged to dress more formally for the Opening Ceremony, Port of Honour, Closing Banquet and individual presentations.
Portuguese people are warm and friendly, very solicit, cooperative and peaceful. It’s a safe country with low criminality, compared with most of the other European countries. Porto is, indeed, a safe city.
TRAVELLING
Porto is a great city waiting for your visit!
It was recently elected by consumers as the Best European Travel Destination 2012, between the European top 10! Lisbon is in the 8th position, which makes Portugal a great place to know, being the only country with two cities on the European Top 10!
This is, certainly, the right time to know Portugal and Porto!
Travelling to Porto is easy, despite Portugal being the “farthest western” country of Europe. The city is well served with an International Airport (Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport), recently classified as one of the best in Europe. There are a number of international direct flights to Porto (Oporto). The airport is directly connected to the city (both the city centre - "ALIADOS" and the conference venue - “IPO” - areas) by surface metro (estimated €2,50). Taxis are also available (estimated €15,00 to €25,00, depending on the hour of the day).The Airport is located at 20km from the city centre.
An alternative is to fly to Lisbon, and then to Porto by train or bus. If you choose to come by train, we advice you to go to Oriente train station and travel to Porto-Campanhã. You'll have a trip time of 2h30' or 3h, depending on the hour - costing from €35,50 to €42 (see Portuguese trains schedules here). If you want to come by bus, you should go to Sete Rios bus station and travel to Porto-Batalha. You'll have a trip time of 3h30' and it will cost €19 (see Portuguese buses schedules here). Both final stations, "Porto-Campanhã" by train and "Porto-Batalha" by bus, have nice connections with Oporto surface metro. At "Porto-Campanhã" station this connection is direct. "Porto-Batalha" station is very close from "Aliados" metro station.
Metro traveling from Oporto airport
Metro works from 6 a. m. to 1 a. m.
If you arrive at the airport between 9 a. m. and 8.30 p. m. please go to the tourism office, that is a selling and information metro point. They will give you all the information that you need.
If you arrive between 6 to 9 a. m. or between 8.30 p. m. to 1 a. m., please go to a metro automatic selling machine. You can find one machine at the airport or you can go to Botica metro station and find another machine in there.
In the machine you must buy a travel card first (ANDANTE) – 0,50 €, one for each person.
Then you should charge your ticket (ANDANTE) with a Z4 – 1,50 €.
After that you must validate your ticket in a validation machine at the metro station. If you go to IPO (conference zone) you will have a trip time of approximately 37 min with one connection: you must leave the metro at TRINDADE station, validate again your travel ticket, go to the underground and get another metro to HOSPITAL DE S. JOÃO. IPO is the penultimate station.
Oporto Metro Map
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