The best part of the stay, and the primary reason for my 5-star rating, was Maria's hospitality. She responded very quickly to my request, met me at my taxi when I arrived, and offered some recommendations for the area. She brought me a cake on Christmas day and when she learned that the coffee machine had broke, she gave me money to buy a coffee at a shop and offered to bring me a new coffee machine later that day. She also checked in to make sure my stay was going well. She was very sweet and I could tell she really cared about the quality of my stay.
The pros:
The apartment is extremely clean, stylish and cozy. The location is great, just a couple of blocks from the Ribeiro. It is well stocked, except for a few things in the kitchen that I found I needed such as a baking pan, scissors, and a decent pot holder. However, if you don't cook or bake a lot this would not be a problem and I was able to figure out how to cook what I wanted without them. There is a full refrigerator and freezer, an oven, a microwave, sandwich panini maker, toaster, coffee machine, and more. There is good quality soap and shampoo as well as nice fluffy towels and a hair dryer in the bathroom. The bed itself was comfortable with nice blankets and linens. There is a big T.V. for relaxing in the evenings with great cable and many English channels as well as Netflix if you have an account. There is only a space heater that I was afraid wouldn't heat the apartment enough, especially the bedroom on the far end of the apartment, but it actually worked really well and kept all parts of the apartment warm. There are many flyers with information about Porto.
The cons:
The biggest downfall to the apartment was the noise from the apartment above. You can hear every single step that the people above take and it makes the hanging lights in the dinning room/living room area shake and rattle a lot. It's quite disruptive. The apartment faces a small alley, away from the busy main street, which I'm sure is typically quiet but there happened to be construction going on while I was there so it was quite loud during the day. I'm assuming this is not typical though. The shower sprays water all over the bathroom and there is only 10-15 minutes of hot water. This was plenty of hot water for just me and I used extra towels to sop up the water all over the floor but it may take some planning for 2 or more people. While the bed itself is comfortable, the pillows were horrible, like half-full down pillows that offered no support. You are asked to dispose of your trash and recyclables before you leave and have to carry the bags up hill about a block and a half to the receptacles. The map left under the sink was a bit confusing and I ended up walking all around the area carrying a few bags with me while weaving through people on the sidewalk. The only other potential downfall is that you are required to state your arrival time 48 hours before check-in. There were also some confusing emails in the beginning about needing to state exactly how I was going to arrive in Porto and about sending my personal information to immigration services, which I have never heard of. However, it all worked out fine and was easy after I arrived at the apartment and met Maria.
Bottom line:
As I mentioned, the 5-star rating is due to Maria's wonderful hospitality and for that reason, as well as the wonderful location and the fact that it is overall a beautiful and very clean apartment, I would consider staying there again if I found myself back in Porto.