Livraria Lello

Beautiful place. However the ticket booking process was very difficult. Booked 6 tickets for a week later. An hour after paying and receiving confirmation I received another email that one of my tickets had been moved to the next day (4th March 2024). I emailed back straight away asking why this had been done and that I we wouldn’t be able to attend then, and it just simply wasn’t the day I booked and paid for. I received an email on the 4th in the afternoon saying I would have to request a refund for that ticket and book it another day. I said that this was impossible as by the time they had replied, the slot they had moved me to had passed. I received no further reply. We went today (9th March) and when we scanned our tickets at the door they said they weren’t for that day. I explain the situation and showed them the emails and they said there was nothing they could do and if I wanted to go in, I would have to forfeit the €8 voucher which the ticket was valid for. I let it go as we were a group of 6 and we really wanted to see the place.

The next issue was the severe overcrowding, and this is no exaggeration. I understand this is a very popular place to visit in Porto, however the people issuing the tickets are surely aware that the library is not very big and should absolutely limit the amount of tickets available for each time slot. There was hardly any room to move, let alone look at the books. This made it very overwhelming and took away from the whole experience. Trying to go up the famous stairs was such a struggle and took a very long time due to the sheer amount of people, and the overcrowding was the same, if not worse on the upper floor. We decided to leave after a short amount of time due to this issue so I would recommend trying to go very early in the morning to avoid the crowds. I just wish there was more care for the visitors rather than just trying to cram as people in as possible in order to sell tickets. And for this reason we left without purchasing any books as we had no peace to browse and choose. Books were falling on the floor and we were being pushed around the whole time due to the crowding. Also a member of staff had to try and intervene due to a certain group being so loud and obnoxious on the staircase, which was also not pleasant. Would definitely not recommend for people who are not good with big crowds and want a peaceful experience at a library.