2BR Apartment in Santa Catarina by LovelyStay

Good location on what becomes the main shopping street in Porto. Specious apartment that lacks some equipment and was a bit dusty when we arrived. A great price when you look upon what you get.

A nice and cozy apartment, ideally located on a quiet section of one of the top entertainment streets in Porto. The busy section of Santa Catarina is full of shops, restaurants and bars and is just about ten minutes away on foot. The secure parking garage is a bonus.

First the positive: it’s pretty close to Bolhao market area and good restaurants. It’s a very spacious apartment with good light and the hosts are very quick and responsive. We appreciated that our daughter had her own room and I had a desk to work on. And the heaters in each room meant we were able to stay cosy on rainy days. They also allowed a mid stay cleaning.The negative: we stayed here for almost 3 weeks and there were some challenges. One is that the listing said there was a bathtub which was a primary reason for our picking the place with a toddler - but there was no plug. Also I would say the hot water went out 3 times minimum meaning we had to forfeit showers and wait for a tech and spent time trouble shooting. Also there is only one set of keys. One day I needed to run home to grab my work bag so I had the keys, and then I had to leave a meeting to pass them to my wife - it’s very inconvenient. And then when she had to leave at 4 am I had to wake up to go down with her to open the door to the building. Also there is no trash can in the kitchen so we had it on the counter the whole time, even after asking. And there are only tiny water glasses that hold like 1/2 cup maybe. And for a place with a kitchen advertising a long stay they don’t have even salt and pepper or olive oil so you really need to bring everything. Lastly when we were checking out we were running about 10 minutes late and the host was incredibly unforgiving.