Douro Destilaria Residence by Porto City Hosts

The view was perfect. Walking distance to everything.

No AC.

The location was stunning. Porto is a gorgeous city and to sit right on the river was wonderful. the bedrooms were very clean annd the kitchen was very nice.

The ONLY negative I would have is that the place was very hot. This is likely due to much warmer than average temps while we were there but it was VERY hot in the apartment.

We really enjoyed staying on the Gaia side of the river. It was not as frenetic, and it was perfectly situated to watch the Invictus performance and the St John the baptist festival. The kitchen was well equipped, but you need to buy everything except salt if you plan on self-catering. The beds were superb and the pillows were wonderful.

These are minor issues that would not stop us from booking there again, but they bear saying. Every part of the apartment was on a different level. So, if you are self catering everything needs to be carried up and down a flight of stairs. There are no bannisters. So, it is not ideal for someone who struggles with stairs. The light switches were unlike any we've ever encountered. Each switch turned serviced multiple lights. We eventually worked out that top left, right and bottom left right turned off different lights. The main issue was that 3 different switches turned the upstairs bedroom light on or off. One of these also serviced the bathroom. The person sleeping in the top floor had their bedroom light switched on multiple times during the night before we connected the dots. The roads were closed for the festival the day we arrived, and there were multiple roadworks. We drove around for hours, Google maps didn't help. Eventually the roads were reopened, and a friendly local drove ahead of us to show us how to get to the apartment. Unfortunately, this made checking in difficult.

Super location with wonderful views of the Douro river and able to walk to nearby restaurants. Very comfortable beds, nicely decorated, clean and with everything you could need. Excellent to have offroad, garaged parking.

A handrail on the stairs to the upper bedroom would be safer and a chest of drawers for the same room would be a nice extra but not completely necessary.