The Vintage House Hotel, Douro

We came to this hotel after spending a few days in Porto, so the quiet seclusion was perfect for us. It was so relaxing to be able to easily park our rental car and have the staff take complete care of us - from booking our Quinta visit, to a welcome port reception with cheese and meats, as well as additional welcome drinks, they had everything under control for us. Telmo at the library bar was such a delight to talk with, we didn’t even realize we kept him past closing time! During our stay, we hardly saw other people. It was just what we needed to recharge before we head back to the busy city of Porto. It started getting busier on our check out day as they are doing renovations to some of the rooms. But I loved our stay here. The art was a really really nice touch. We spent hours looking at all of it.

It is a vintage, classic, traditional hotel not a modern one. The rooms and spaces are beautifully decorated respecting the hotel's name, the bathrooms have adorable tile decorations, the terrace has lovely vibes with their bushes, vines and paths. Views from the rooms and restaurants are stunning and the location is perfect for a morning stroll by the river. It is so quiet and peaceful! It is a pity we went in winter and would not dare use the pool. All the team members were polite and helpful. The breakfast was perfect! I have only three points for improvement. First, for dinner we had some steak and potatoes. While half of the group had very salty potatoes, the other half had theirs "flavourless". We think it was just a matter of bad luck and salting twice but it did surprise us and we had to remove the potato skins to be able to eat. Second, although there weren't couples in our group we all got double beds instead of twins so we had to share the beds. I don't know if twins weren't available at the moment or not at all, and if the person making the reservation knew in advance that we were getting doubles. Third, I always take my own shampoo and conditioner when I travel. However, I didn't this time and the hotel only offered shampoo and body wash. This was a bit strange as I've never seen this missing among hotel toiletries.