Castelo Santa Catarina, Porto

Excellent place to stay in Porto. Beautiful property with great staff and great breakfast service. Will be returning when in Porto.

We stayed in the castle part of the hotel so there was no elevator to the floor our room was on. Staff volunteered to assist with luggage and helpful with directions around town. Comfortable room - great bedding and bathroom. Close to shopping and restaurants (walking distance). Plenty of parking. They were renovating some of the exterior and credited us money for the stay because the workers started around 8:30 am. Breakfast was very good, too. Wi-fi was intermittent in room but strong signal in breakfast room and common areas.

Hoped for an amazing stay. They are re-tiling the entire outside so it looks somewhat like the demilitarized zone. There are signs posted "No Pictures ". Candles in the candelabra, while dusted, were not straightened. Sort of stuffy. Not sure what effect they are trying to achieve but I think they just miss it altogether. The mattress is like a rock! It was a disappointing stay.

This hotel consists of two separate buildings, the old "castle" and a new modern addition. We stayed in the old building. The staff was very nice and helpful and we recommend this hotel. Here is what you need to know. The hotel is located not very far from downtown Porto near a top of a hill. It takes about 15 mins to get to downtown, but on the way back you have to climb fairly steep hill. There is a metro station about 5 min from the hotel a little bit further up the hill. The next important thing to know is that the old building does not have an elevator and the stairs are steep and narrow. If you are on the 4th floor as we were it could be a problem if you have difficulty climbing stairs and have a lot of luggage. We were in the Suite Grande, which was very nice but we did have a problem with the stairs. The hotel was full and we could not be given a room in a lower floor until the next day. The new room for the 2nd night was still in the old building 2nd floor and was not as nice but was cheaper. The information about missing elevator was not available on the hotels.com site but it was not the hotel's fault since they have not only requested that this information be posted but also have sent us an email (after we made the reservation) warning about the lack of an elevator, which for whatever reason we never received. The last thing that matters is that the old building does not have air-conditioning.

It was the absolute best day/night in Portugal!