Pestana Vintage Porto Hotel

My wife and I stayed in Room 206 (Vintage Grand View Balcony) for 3 nights in June. The hotel is in a great location, centrally located on the riverfront, and within walking distance of several of the points of interest we wanted to see: Luís I Bridge & Gaia, meeting point for a Douro Valley tour, Barrica restaurant, the Santa Catarina shopping district, and a stop on the hop-on / hop-off bus tour. The room was mostly nice. I was initially concerned about noise, being on the second floor, but very little noise could be heard with the windows closed, with the exception of a river boat cruise that docks nearby around 10pm each night with very loud music blaring as it approached and then people disembarked. Being on the second floor enabled us to see the pedestrians and boats without having to go to the windows, which was nice. We didn't hear any noise from adjacent rooms (we typically prefer top floors so that we don't have noise from above). The bathroom lighting was rather dim, making it challenging to shave or apply makeup. The problem we found with closing the windows in the room is that the HVAC system does not work very well. No matter how I set the thermostat in the room, the temperature would not go below 74 F when the windows were closed (I'm not even sure the thermostat worked). It was not hot out, so leaving the windows open helped cool down the room (a riverfront room facing south, so it heated up during the day), but being on the 2nd floor, we were asked to close the windows at night - and when we were away - due to security risk. When we left the windows open one night - since the HVAC system wasn't doing a good job of cooling the room - we got a phone call from the front desk asking us to close them. When I went down to the front desk, they clarified that we were not actually required to close the windows, but it was recommended. We found the best solution to cooling the room at night was to open the window in the bathroom and one of the windows in the front. Aside from the loud riverboat docking each night, it was generally pretty quiet outside after 10:15pm, so things worked out with open windows. There was nightly musical entertainment on the riverfront, just east of the hotel, which we could listen to from our room. The music stopped each night by 10pm (maybe 9pm), so it was not intrusive to our sleep. The same performers seemed to play at the same time each night. We had a good dinner at the Rib Porto restaurant the first night, with an outdoor table from which we could watch the pedestrians strolling the riverfront and boats returning from sunset river cruise. The breakfast buffet was also good, though it was a bit confusing how to order coffee and eggs. One of the interesting twists I hadn't seen elsewhere was separate containers containing the different ingredients often found in granola, enabling guests to assemble a granola bowl with only the ingredients they like. I was surprised to see a 10% gratuity automatically added to the Rib bill (which I could have crossed out). When I ate at Barrica restaurant the next night, there was also gentle, explicit encouragement to leave a tip, and there was a tip added to the bill in the hotel we stayed in Lisbon the following night. I had heard that - unlike in the US - tipping was optional, and never expected, in Portugal and Spain (since they pay servers a living wage), but perhaps that's changing. The hotel extends across several buildings along the waterfront, and while there are some features in common across some rooms, there are some features unique to each building (e.g., the window frames). I was having a hard time making sense of some of the photos posted by others on TripAdvisors until I arrived and saw all the buildings.

This beautiful hotel was located in the center of all the action. It was right on the water and the property was a UNESCO world Heritage site because it was so old. The rooms were charming and I thought they were well kept clean. The staff was excellent and very friendly. We met a nice young man by the name of Hugo and he was our go to guy when we needed anything. Getting around town is easy if you are up for a walk. Lots of things to see and do in this hotel was beautiful and wonderful place to stay and relax after our adventures.

BUYER BEWARE!! DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL!!! The beds are so uncomfortable that I threw out my back and when I spoke to the manager, Marzia, she won’t allow us to leave even though we purchased refundable rooms. I asked to speak to her general manager, Joao, but he refused to speak to me because he was “in a meeting.” When I asked if he’d be available later, they said he did not know when he would be available. It feels like they just do not want to help or work with us. They said the only way that they would refund me is if I was hospitalized and was in the hospital for the next two days because of my back issues. This is just one of many issues. The other issues include urine on the bathroom floors that was never cleaned up, and general uncleanliness in the rooms. This hotel is not very well kept. Not worth the price point. They also have a restaurant downstairs where they play the games very loud and everyone is screaming so none of us can sleep either. My friend and her daughter were tossing and turning all night. We also purchased a room with a view, and the view is of a dilapidated building across the street.

Wonderful to be back for the Festival of St John - Fantastic location & excellent service - thank you Oliveira for looking after us and for the delicious breakfast

Excellent hotel, perfectly positioned next to the river. Very comfortable rooms with excellent facilities. All of the staff are extremely professional and friendly - Olivera has been particularly helpful in the restaurant.