This apartment is in a nicely restored older building, right by the Jardin da Cordoaria, in a great neighborhood, which is not as hectic as Ribeira or along some of the busy shopping streets, such as Rua das Flores. The space is very compact but also is very well deigned and thoughtfully decorated, including plenty of built-in places to store things and a kitchen with locally designed pottery, rather than the usual white Ikea dishes that are so common. The back balcony is next to a busy road, and there is loud amplified live music drifting up from the river every afternoon through evening, so it’s generally not very quiet – none-the-less, how can you complain about a balcony in the city and a view of the river! The apartment itself is very quiet – the windows do a great job at blocking all the noise.
A note for anyone with a car: we booked garage parking at a reduced rate, as advised by the hosts, at the Saba Palacio de Justica parking lot. However, it took us forever (30 minutes) to figure out how to enter the lot - you must enter below (toward the river) headed downhill on the Rua de Azevedo de Albuquerque (rather than going straight toward the park on Rua de Restauracao). Head down the hill and around the bend, and then take the first left – and the entrance to the parking garage will be on the right side. Once we arrived and dropped off our suitcases, there is an excellent little sidewalk café just below the apartment with a good wine and beer selection that helped us to regain our equilibrium after driving around in circles!