Porto Taipas was in a great location with super helpful and responsive host(s) Andre and his brother Patricio. We are small family - two adults and a two year old toddler - and the apartment worked well for us. Andre has a crib available if needed and offered to set it up for us upon booking. He also sent a ton of suggestions for restaurants in the area. This is in the older part of town with the cobble streets and hills and is close to most of tourist attractions, along with the riverbank area and a mix of everyday restaurants and high end restaurants. We ate a several places throughout the city but my favorites were Petiscaria Santo António (excellent salad, chicken of the day, beans & rice, etc) on Rua da Assunção and BoomBare Bistrô on Rua das Taipas (excellent service, loved the salmon, chicken ceasar salad, and chicken croquettes) . There are some views from the apartment of the city including lights at night. There are lots of windows, light and they open for fresh air as well. The apartment had great wifi connection and a newer washer/dryer that was easy to operate and a nice added touch for us to wash a few things before we flew back home. There were also plenty of extra towels, pillows and bed linens available.
Check in was easy and pretty flexible with timing and Andre was great with detailed information when I had questions about Porto including public transport options. The apartment is on the top floor - something that Andre checked in with us on before confirming the booking. For us this was fine but it may be more difficult for some given how steep the stairs are. The only hiccup we had was at check-out. We should have confirmed where to drop the keys beforehand, since we didn't we decided to leave them in the apartment (vs in the mail box). We figured that was the safest option since the door locks from the outside automatically. Unfortunately we were leaving at 3:30 am to catch a bus to the airport and the outside door was locked so we were stuck in the hallway unable to leave the apartment. We messaged Andre and Patricio immediately and Patricio came, let us out and even drove us to the airport (luckily he was up since he has an 8 month old at home). This was such a relief to us as we were a bit worried about missing our plane, and really above and beyond of the hosts to make sure we got to the airport. Thank you Andre and Patricio!