Vila do Conde is a town of around 74,000 people on the Atlantic coast north of Porto, at the mouth of the River Ave. It was one of Portugal's most important shipbuilding centres during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, and that history is still visible in the town's architecture — particularly the great Monastery of Santa Clara and the long aqueduct that once supplied it.
Today Vila do Conde is a pleasant, unpretentious coastal town with a good beach, a lively historic centre, and the best lace museum in Portugal. The town is famous throughout the country for its rendas de bilros — the traditional bobbin lace that women still make and sell here. The weekly market and the craft workshops around Rua de São Bento are good places to watch the process and buy the finished work.
The town is easily reached from Porto by metro or train, making it a natural half-day or full-day excursion from the city. That said, Vila do Conde rewards staying overnight: the evening crowds thin out, the restaurants fill with locals rather than day-trippers, and the walk along the beach at dusk is genuinely pleasant.