Estádio do Dragão, is home of Primeira Liga giants FC Porto. The FC Porto Museum and Stadium Tour invites visitors to explore the legacy of one of Portugal’s most celebrated football clubs. With 27 areas showcasing trophies and memorabilia, alongside an engaging guided tour of the iconic Dragão Stadium, it promises an enriching experience for fans and families alike. The tour is expected to last between 1 and half to 2 hours. Audio guides can be rented for an additional cost.
Open daily, the museum showcases an impressive collection of artefacts, including UEFA Champions League trophies that symbolise the club’s triumphs.
Our apartment PortoSoul was a few stops away on the metro from Trindade station. There are a few lines which go to Estádio do Dragão, so we just chose the first one available once we had purchased our metro tickets from the station. It only took us around 15 minutes from leaving the apartment to arriving at the stadium.
We had purchased our tickets online for the stadium and museum tour, however we still had to queue up at the reception to exchange our mobile tickets for paper tickets. There were meant to be two separate lines at reception, one for pre-booked tickets and one to purchase tickets, however the other queue kept jumping in, so it did take a while to get the paper tickets. The museum tour is self guided however the stadium tour itself is not. We arrived at 10am and by the time we managed to exchange our tickets for paper versions, we had missed one of the tours that started and had to wait for the 10:30 am tour.
In the reception area, there is a screen which will show you when your tour is ready to start, by the lifts. We had a few minutes spare so we had a drink from the vending machines and a quick look in the club shop. The shop is next to the reception.
Once your tour is ready, the staff will scan your paper ticket and you can go into the lift, to be taken to the first part of the tour. The lady who was hosting our tour informed me that I couldn’t take Ted’s pram with me, as there are many steps. She organised for one of the staff to quickly help me take this to the storage area where I was given a ticket for his pram to collect later. I was then the last one to join in the lifts and quickly caught up with Chris and Ted.
The tour guide started by checking the languages within the group. Our group was half English speakers and half were Portuguese speakers so she repeated everything in both languages. There were around 30-40 people in our group.
You have two members of staff on the tour with you. One who leads the tour and explains everything to you. The second one walks at the back of the tour group, to make sure no one stays behind and joins a different group.
The tour gave us access to the tunnel, pitch side, media area, car park, changing rooms, VIP area and then later on the museum tour.
The stadium tour felt very rushed. We have done many stadium tours in the past. We personally prefer being able to go round at our own pace. The tours which are guided tours we have never found as enjoyable as self guided. The stadium is beautiful and we are glad to have seen it, however I would not repeat this tour. We spent longer standing in the car park, than we did at the pitch side, which is a disappointment.
After we had finished the tour of the stadium, you arrived back at the club shop. We have started to collect magnets from our adventures with Ted so we picked up a fridge magnet and also purchased a soft football for Ted to play with.
After the shop, we collected the pram as we wanted to give Ted a rest from walking and headed to the Museum. I was surprised by how big and beautiful it was. It was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award in 2016, the museum also won the Innovation and Creativity Award from the Portuguese Association of Museology in 2015, underscoring its significance in the region. You could easily spend a couple of hours here as there was so much to see.
For us, we didn’t enjoy the stadium tour, however the museum was one of the best we have seen. I would still recommend doing this tour if you are a football fan but if you want to take pictures, just be ready to take them. The tour cost 20 euros per adult and Ted was free.