I'm planning a trip to Porto in July and would love recommendations on the best part of Porto to stay.
We'd love to be along the river in an area that provides walking distance to nightlife and the best access to sight seeing...such as wine tasting and Douro Valley River Cruise. Any suggestions?

Though I wasn't able to stay there because it was full, the Pestana Porto meets your description -- right on the river, near historic center (Cathedral, stock exchange, etc.), close to the bridge across to the Port lodges. I think prices run around 150E a night. http://www.pestana.com/hotels/en/hot...ls/Porto/Home/

I stayed a few blocks away in the Hotel da Bolsa, with its kind of faded charm. Very nice staff, rooms were fine. It's not as expensive as the Pestana, but I assume the Pestana is much nicer.

Porto is a very nice place to visit! I think you'll love it.

Thank you for the recommendation! I checked out the hotel website and it looks wonderful...I'm going to try and book a room now.

Did you do anything in Porto that was a "must do?" We will have 2.5 days there to explore before we head up north to Arcos de Valdevez for a wedding. I've heard a Douro Valley cruise (along the river?) is a must. Thoughts?

Thanks!

I don't know much about Porto as we only spent one day there, really not enough time.

But we drove through the Douro Valley and visited a quinta.

We thought it was a wonderful area.

It sounds like you are already booking there but I second the motion regarding the Pestana Porto. The river view rooms are amazing. We did not do any non-port-wine related sightseeing so I don't have any "normal" tourist advice.

There is a "Solar do Vinho Porto" in the Crystal Palace Gardens that is basically a big port wine bar. They have a lovely little garden looking over the river and if you like port you can taste some very fine bottlings. (Or if like me you don't, have a "Port Tonic" which is white port, tonic and lemon.)

Having lunch on the patio of the restaurant at the Taylor port house in Vila Nova da Gaia is really nice--fabulous view of the bridge and the waterfront buildings of Porto.

I highly recommend the Ramos Pinto port house tour--be sure to wait for an English one! When we went, the next tour was in Portuguese and rather than wait longer, we tagged along, figuring we had heard "and adding the brandy stops the fermentation process from sugar to alcohol so that is why Port is sweet" so many times already that we could do the tour ourselves. Well, the Ramos Pinto house is FULL of antiques and the tour is about the family and the company, and how it was focused on the South American market and the advertising reflects that. We enjoyed looking at everything but wish we understood the commentary!

At 10E, the hop-on-hop-off bus tour is a pretty good deal compared to other cities; we did not ride the whole "regular" route (out to Foz, etc.) but we did ride the "bridges" route and enjoyed it. A river cruise (also 10E IIRC) was a very nice way to spend an hour in the evening.

There is a restaurant on the waterfront in Vila Nova da Gaia called "Tromba Rija" that is a lot of fun. It is buffet-style, probably whatever the chefs feel like making that night, with several courses including dessert, cheeses, coffee, port & nuts, fruit plate, frozen almond liqueur (served with a squeeze of lemon), "firewater" and actually my memory of the later parts of the evening is hazy because of the red wine that is also included. Best story of our trip (you might be able to find my longer Portugal trip report here if you search on my posts). Have fun!!

The Pestana is a really great hotel with a good location--we stayed in the riverfront suite last May and it was nice.

I'd focus on the port house tours--they are free for the most part. I liked the Taylor's property with the garden of peacocks and cats.

The port is sold dirt cheap at the port houses--make sure you pick up a bottle or more and try the Taylor's Chip Dry Port.

Don Tonho is along the riverfront and was the best restaurant we went to in Portugal--we ended up going twice.

Not sure your age, but there is a large concentration of nightlife around the Pestana hotel. Saturday is a big night to go out as much is closed on Sunday, Friday is not as busy.

Those river cruises start really early if that makes a difference, unless you just want to take the riverboat 45minute thing which goes out hourly. (I cannot comment as to either of these experiences as we did not do them.)

Hi-I just saw your post and got on to suggest the Bolsa, and see someone else already did. I couldn't tell from the map how far "away" from the river it was, but when we got there, it was handy as could be. We walked to the port houses in 20 minutes (stopping a lot);restaurants that jam the waterfront area were 10; uphill from there are the market, the cafes,the Sao Bento train station (you must go in and take in the tiles!), the Clerigos tower (and the Lello bookstore across the street). The Se and the Sao Francisco church are,oh, 3 or 4 blocks away.
The Bolsa itself is indeed faded, but you couldn't find a more solicitous staff (English, French,German spoken well)--they'll give you a map, let you check your email at no charge on the computer in Reception, they'd probably rub your sore feet if you asked them to!
The included breakfast is very ordinary. There is an old fruit market down the street which functions now as a convention/exhibition center of sorts. While we were there two weeks ago, the movement to legalize marijuana in Europe (or some such) was there both nights, and there was much bad reggae and amplified exhortations blasting through our closed windows, but sure enough, at 10:30 or so, they shut down. You have amazing views from the big old windows (it once was an office building) over the Ribeira, the river, and Vila Nova de Gaia. Our room was 80 E. a night.
The Pestana was 199 E per night, for a normal room. They were supposedly "booked" the weekend of May 19 for us too, but when I contacted Arteh Hotels directly, there were actually rooms available. But not at discounted rates by that route. Our friends were there in August and thought the experience was worth it.
The 4 of us traveling together were glad we were at the Bolsa, and would stay there again despite the bare wood floor and office chair; our room was pretty big, and there was a TV with the Global Edition(!) of John Stewart to watch for 10 minutes before we fell asleep.

The 4 of us hired private guides for a)tour of Guimaraes/Braga for the whole day (206 E), b)half day walking tour of Porto (110 or so); Irene Pinto was our first guide; she's based in Porto and can hook you up with other local guides as well:
Irene Pinto Lucas
[email protected]
We learned so much and enjoyed meeting local people--that's what we got, I guess, with the money we didn't spend on a more expensive hotel.

Also vote for lunch at Barao Taylor- you can reserve it online. Penny