Hotel Internacional Porto - Porto, Portugal     

We would recommend anyone to visit Porto. A really interesting and very different city. Not a holiday for small children though. We stayed at the Hotel Internacional and it was very conveniently situated. We were on the third floor and yes, the staircase with its beautiful old tiling is lovely. The room was small and brown and the bed very hard with a dip in the middle. I felt the need for physiotherapy each morning! The pillows were strange square bags full of lumpy bits of some filling or other. The bathroom worked but best not looked at too closely. The first night was very noisy from the street and the main square so we used the air conditioning and closed the windows for the remaining three nights. We were very unsure of any fire escape possibilities but happily the need did not arise! We were up early each morning because of the discomfort and banging and crashing from building work nearby. The breakfast was poor, the orange juice not worthy of that name, horrid! We didn't eat in but walked down to the riverside each evening, The staff on reception were mostly grumpy.

We stayed two nights in May but did not eat in the hotel restaurant other than breakfast. The location is very convenient for all the tourist sights in Porto. First impression on arriving in front of the hotel on Rua Almada is that it is in a quite narrow dark commercial street, but once into the reception area this changed - the hotel interior has a lot of character, particularly on the stair landings. Our room on the third floor was quite adequate, though the bed was very hard by our tastes. As others have reported, walls are thin so there is possibility of being disturbed by late night arrivals. However, there was no street noise. Breakfast was pretty basic - the 'orange' juice was disgusting - and choice was limited. Take your own toiletries - only soap is provided. Best metro coming from airport is Trindade (walk downhill) and best for departing is Sao Bento (downhill). The hotel restaurant is closed on Sunday, but the receptionist recommended a place called Papagino about five minutes walk away - simple, but food good and very reasonable prices. Overall, we would recommend this hotel to anyone wanting to avoid the big-chain anonymous places that have no character. We will remember our stay here very positively.