Casa da Guitarra: how to book

What the ticket covers

The GetYourGuide ticket is for a live fado concert in the concert room of Casa da Guitarra – Sé, at Avenida Vímara Peres 49 in Porto. The stated length is around one hour, and the calendar shows the time against each date. The ticket includes the concert, one glass of port wine or water and an illustrated postcard with information about fado. It does not include food or additional drinks. The hosts are listed in English, Portuguese, Spanish and French, so choose the language that suits you on the booking page before you pay for the date. No seat categories are listed, so the choices are the date and the language.

• Included: the fado concert, one glass of port wine or water, an illustrated postcard
• Not included: food and additional drinks
• Money back if you cancel a day ahead; pay later if you prefer

A concert room inside a guitar shop

Porto's municipal events portal says Casa da Guitarra was founded in 2012 by Alfredo Teixeira to promote the making and appreciation of traditional Portuguese stringed instruments. It lists a shop, a permanent exhibition of those instruments, workshops and concerts as parts of the same house. The venue's own pitch goes further: it calls the concert Porto's first fado show staged as a concert, and says the Portuguese guitar played in it was handcrafted by the city's last luthier. Treat those two lines as the venue's marketing; the shop, the exhibition and the concerts are what the municipal source documents. The same portal says the house began as a dream to preserve stringed instruments and traditional Portuguese music such as fado.

What the hour is like

There is no published running order, so this is what the ticket and traveller reports agree on. You sit in a small room with limited places, close to a singer and guitar players who perform local fado on traditional instruments. Many guests single out the room's sound. Some report that the singer explains the history and style of fado between songs, while others would have liked more of that, so treat commentary as a bonus. Guests also mention a short interval, and a glass of port is part of the hour. The visit also takes in an exhibition on string instruments, with video explanations of fado's history and of the Portuguese guitar.

How it compares with other fado hours in Porto

A listening hour is a different evening from a fado dinner. In a casa de fado the meal is served around a fixed line-up of songs and pauses while the singers perform, so the booking is for an evening and not an hour. A concert like this one is the shorter format. Two other one-hour concerts are bookable beside it: a tavern in Miragaia where two ensembles play Coimbra fado and traditional fado without microphones, and a Casa do Fado concert with a glass of port in one of three historic rooms. Pick on setting and music, since all three run about an hour. The Casa do Fado rooms are a nineteenth-century cellar in the Ribeira, a former guitar luthier's workshop and the old pantries of a convent church.

Read next: What is fado? A short guide

Which date and time to choose

The calendar shows a time against each date, and your confirmation repeats it. Because the room is small and places are limited, popular dates fill, and payment can wait. That lets you hold a date before the rest of your Porto days are fixed and change your plans a day ahead without paying a cent. If a particular date matters, such as a birthday or a last night in the city, book it as soon as your trip dates are settled, then plan meals around the start time. Reserving without paying at once suits a trip whose other plans are not final.

Finding the shop and the room

The address is Avenida Vímara Peres 49, in the Sé area of Porto's historic centre, and the venue describes the concert room as next to the cathedral. São Bento station, the main terminus of Porto's suburban rail lines, also sits in the historic centre, so arriving by train puts you in the right part of the city. Wear shoes you can walk in. Look up the route on a map before setting out, because the cathedral square is a landmark you can aim for, and give yourself time to find the shop front. Once you reach the avenue, look for the shop front of Casa da Guitarra at number 49 and follow your confirmation for the entrance to the concert room.

Etiquette and rules in the room

Fado is traditionally heard in silence, and a casa de fado audience is usually quiet and attentive while a song is sung. Keep your phone silent and wait for the end of a song before you speak. On this ticket smoking, flash photography and food or drinks of your own are not allowed, and unaccompanied minors cannot attend. Follow whatever the host says on the day about photographs. A fadista will not start singing until the atmosphere is right, in Lonely Planet's account, and the cue to stop talking is the moment the room darkens and the guitarists start to play.

Who this isn't for

Children under 6, people with mobility impairments and wheelchair users should look elsewhere. It is not a dinner, so travellers who want a meal with fado should choose a casa de fado instead. If you want to hear Coimbra fado specifically, the tavern concert is built around it. And if you want a long evening of music, remember that this is an hour. Anyone who wants an amplified stage show will also find the format quiet, because the point is a few metres of distance between you and the voice. Finally, if you cannot book a date that suits you, a different fado hour on another evening is a better choice than a rushed dinner followed by a late arrival.

Fado in a few lines

Fado means fate or destiny, and it is traced to 1820s Lisbon, though its roots are probably older. Its singers are called fadistas, and its songs are linked to saudade, a longing for something lost. UNESCO added fado to its lists of intangible cultural heritage on 27 November 2011. Amália Rodrigues, born in 1920 and known as the Queen of Fado, did most to carry it abroad. The guitar that answers the singer in Lisbon-style fado is the Portuguese guitar, with twelve steel strings in six courses of two. A short guide to the music and one to the instrument go further than these few lines.

What travellers say about it

The booking page rates the concert 4.8 out of 5 from 3,144 reviews, with a guide score of 4.7 and a value-for-money score of 4.8. Travellers praise the skilled musicians and expressive singers, and many highlight the intimate room, its acoustics and the glass of port. The most common request is for a little more explanation of fado and of the meaning of songs. Typical comments call the singing moving, the guitarists skilled and the place easy to find. Read together, they describe a small, focused hour and not a grand show.

How to book

Open the booking page, choose the language and the date, and check the start time in the calendar. You can pay at once or reserve and settle later, and cancelling a day ahead returns the full amount. The confirmation carries the time and the address of the concert room. If the date you want is full, look at the neighbouring evenings, or at the tavern and Casa do Fado concerts in the comparison above, which run to a similar length. Save the confirmation on your phone, since it holds the details for the day.