Unfortunately, this was the Airbnb stay that has once and for all turned us toward a preference for hotels. It makes me sad to write this review, because we were SO excited for this particular stay on our 11-day Portugal trip, and the view is spectacular, but alas. I think this is more of a party spot.
Most notably, the apartment is dirty. The comforter on the bed had a blood stain on it. The couch has white spots and caked in gunk all over it. The rug in the living room had a massive stain. There was dried food on the stovetop. The bottoms of our socks turned brown when we walked around. We found hairs all over the place. I'm surprised other reviewers called this place clean.
It is so loud. A street performer plays music for at least 12 hours a day, going until 2 in the morning. You will hear fireworks going off in the middle of the night, people shouting, music, loud neighbors, etc. There is little insulation, as it is an old building; the apartment is nearly empty, so sound reverberates off the walls. Luckily we had earplugs to sleep.
The shower has a large window in it with no privacy. You are showering on display for all of the neighbors to see.
As other reviewers mentioned, the elevator is sketchy. Most likely, you will be walking up five flights of stairs. In an old, historic building, this is to be expected. It's not a huge issue, unless you are carrying heavy luggage.
The main bridge connecting Gaia to Porto is closed to cars, and has been since last year, which makes getting across the river tricky. You can walk, but it's a long walk depending on where you're going. You can also take water taxis or other touristy forms of transportation, but they get tedious and expensive. We had booked a Douro Valley wine tour, and the bus driver could not pick us up in Gaia because of the bridge closure, so we had to take a 20-minute Uber detour to meet him across the river. I believe the Airbnb hosts should have informed us of this bridge closure at booking.
You get the absolute bare minimum. We were each provided with one pillow, one shower towel, one hand towel, one facecloth. No extras just in case. There were zero amenities, not milk in the fridge for coffee, or even a water bottle. In the past we have stayed at lovely Airbnbs that provided these kinds of sweet yet basic amenities, extra towels or extra pillows, which have always made our stays more comfortable. A little bit goes a long way.
The apartment felt empty, cold, uninviting. Since we had told the hosts ahead of time we were celebrating our honeymoon (and somehow they missed this and booked it as only one guest, later charging us a fee when they realized there were two of us), this felt extra unfortunate.
For a city like Porto, where hotels are not super expensive, I do not think there's much of a point to staying in this Airbnb. If we were to do it again, we would have either stayed at one of the nice hotels, or at a house in a more residential area, like Foz.