Comments:
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The surroundings may have been a tad shabby, but the hotel itself was good, and the staff extremely friendly and helpful, and able to converse in English at the front desk.
We had one bad experience, on the first morning of our stay when 2 coach-loads of overnighters descended on the breakfast before we got there. When we arrived a lot of the food had run out, and many of the other hotel guests were involved in a scrum to grab what was left, even though it was being rapidly replaced by the staff. We complained at the front desk - all we were able to get hold of was some bread rolls, some cheese and some ham, we didn't even enter the affray around the coffee and tea. They were sympathetic, at first suggesting we waited a bit, to let the chimpanzee party (not their words) leave on their coaches, but while we waited in the room they sent up a room-service breakfast for free (so they were trying to please).
The following mornings were much better, with scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, and hot-dogs or bacon on offer, along with coffee/tea, and cereals, cheese, ham and fresh rolls, so the first morning's debacle was soon (almost) forgotten. Actually I blame the panicking chimpanzees, not the staff, for the debacle.
We went 50 yards down the road away from the centre to a restaurant called Aldo+ to eat in the evening, and had what I can only describe as a gourmet meal for 30 quid (50 euros) for two, including wine, or 20 quid (30 euros) on the last night of our 3-night trip. Our only complaint there was that on the first occasion the anchovies were missing from the salad nicoise, and they served a second thing with nibbles and bread that we scarcely touched (we tried a very small bit, and hated it - bits of squid which tasted a bit odd/off) and charged us 6 euros for the privilege as well as 4 euros for the other nibbles which we did polish off- but the second time they didn't do that - the first more expensive meal was salads plus steak and a fish dish, the less expensive second time was for two pasta dishes, which were also delicious. We only discovered this restaurant thanks to the hotel front desk and the fact that the hotel restaurant was packed out with the chimps' tea party that we met the following morning.
The public transport was excellent - we got a ticket each for 2.10 euros at the kiosk 100 yards on the right towards town just after the cross roads, and that got us in and out of central Porto on the 600 bus, and would have done it a second time if we had tried. The second day we got a ticket to Matosinhos beach for 3.80 euros each (we caught the 205 bus 400 yards out of town on the major crossroad, again on the front desks advice, but bought the ticket at a newsagents displaying the paypoint symbol near the cross roads), and that got us there and back, and the following day got us there, and onwards to the airport using the trams ("metro") (not sure if we should have topped up our tickets, but nobody checked or advised us otherwise). The buses and trams were clean, and it was easy to know when to get off because of electronic displays.
We found that buying cigarettes required a bit of hunting - a large tabacaria could charge 3euro a box, but a little newsagent/tabacaria down a side street in town was very happy to sell them for 2.75euros a box (this was bulk-buying L&M reds).
I would recommend this hotel unless you expect a graffiti-free road - it looked a bit run down, and there seemed to be a resident drunk in the street outside who always seemed to be there, but did nobody any harm (too busy arguing with himself). Everybody in the supermarket over the road, and the bigger one next door were extremely friendly and helpful, even if they couldn't speak english. The waiter at the Aldo+ ("aldo maas") for example spoke very good french, but not so good english. But the staff on the front desk mostly spoke very good english.
The taxi from the airport cost 13 euros, plus 2 euros for handling our tiny bags, though I was going to tip him 2 euros anyway. It only took 12 minutes from the airport, and his driving was the worst I have ever seen!! High speed, weaving in and out of traffic, etc. Glad to arrive in one piece. Next time I'd use the trams ("metro").
Matosinhos ("Matozin'osh") beach was very nice, with a few good places to eat, and plenty of space to walk - but in September when we went both times it had a sea-mist hanging over it until about 3 or 4 pm, but it was still pleasantly warm (but not good for sunbathing, perhaps!)
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