ibis Porto Gaia — Hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia

Superficially clean rooms, upon spilling some water on the floor, wiped it up with the bath floor mat only to find the mat extremely dirty, not sure when the floor was mopped last, a bit off putting since no telling what folks pick up on their walk through Porto. |English speaking and helpful front desk staff. Rooms are nicer than the Budget Ibis. Room does not have a refrigerator, nor safe but apparently the front desk has a safe (please use it). |Elevator to upper floors is available.||If unfortunate to have a room facing the rear parking lot no problem waking up since sunrise shines directly into the room. Not quite sure whether the A/C worked (may just be my unfamiliarity with the controls), attempted to get the room temp. down to 69-70 F without success, finally opened the window a bit but road noise all night was terrible.||Good breakfast selection of breads, jams, cheese, cold cuts, juice, fresh fruit, but..... the scrambled eggs taste and smelled fishy, not exactly the first thing I want to smell in the morning (could be wrong but apparently chickens are fed fish meal ?). ||Easy enough to get to the hotel from the Gaia train station via the Bus 903 Arcos stop and getting off at Chas but the location of the hotel is terrible without having a car. Unless one is in extremely good health and willing to walk an hour to downtown Porto, taking the bus or a taxis is the only option. 903 continues on to the Musica round about. Unfortunately, if paying by cash, you'll need to pay each time you take a different bus which can quickly add up at 2.50 Euro pp.|There is a mall with a food court very close to the hotel, getting there by foot is doable but not easy. The walking route that Google maps gives you is wrong in that it requires you to walk on the highway. One has to cross the bridge in front of the hotel and pass through several neighborhoods to get to the mall.||Unless one wants to partake of the many wineries which would take some time, Porto has sufficient sights to see for a day tour, probably 2 days max. The Santa Clara church is impressive (4 Euro pp entry). Lots of restaurants and pastellerias...

It was a mistake booking this hotel. The only good part was the location and breakfast but this hotel is NOT safe for women or people with pets! I prebooked in perso for 3 weeks with myself, my son and 2 cats. They knew we had pets, as they requested I tell the staff, daily, if I needed room service. This was to ensure the pets would be in their cages. I also kept the Do Not Disturb visible.||One day, as I am in the room alone with the cats, 3 men (1 staff) without prior notice opened my door room without giving me a chance to answer it to "check the fire alarm". I could have been naked or the pet could have ran out. THIS WAS NEGLIGENCE. But it did not stop there. ||That same day, they decided to test their alarm. They did not warn me so I could take the animals out of the hotel while the extremely high pitch alarm ran. They did not mention it either when they barged into my room!||When it went off, I had to run around after scared cats. I got scratched. It took me a while to get them in cages and walk down the stairs. I reached the bottom and asked if there was any emergency, but there was not!||They did not care about causing harm to me or the animals.||I came back down to complain but the disrespectful staff tried to gaslight me that it was only on for a few seconds! It was not!! The scratches proved it. It walked down the stair after chasing them and the alarm was still on. They knew we were there!||I reached out to their corporate office and demanded a refund for the rest of the nights after my early check out because THEY broke the agreement of privacy or proper notification and they willfully harmed my pets and me with their negligence. They ignored me for a week, and upon a second email they simply denied me a refund. I was given back the difference for the prepaid breakfast and pet fees. But not for having to leave their UNSAFE hotel.||Also, there room smelled like B.O. when we 1st checked in.||DO NOT STAY HERE!! Especially if you are a woman...

My wife and I really enjoyed our 5 day stay here, and as the title says, for what you get it's outstanding value.|Decent sized room with large and very comfortable double bed, shower a good size and nice and quiet.|Breakfast very good quality, even had fresh fruit salad and crush your own orange juice. Staff all friendly.|Nice grassy surroundings to the hotel which is one of the reasons we chose it.|Porto itself is lovely, but very busy so glad we stayed here and got bus or cabs into town. Cabs are very good value, around 7€ will get you anywhere, even to Dom Luis bridge, and when you factor in value of hotel and local eating prices, still good value. You can get a bus, but it doesn't drop right in the centre.|Don't worry about the location, a downhill walk into Afurada with a cab back up hill will treat you to many super local restaurants that cook fresh fish over charcoal ! at astounding value. Whole fresh seabass for 15 € and bottle of good quality vinho Verdi for 6€ in one restaurant !||There are 2 posher restaurants, A Margam and Marrudeiras Mercada, but even those are good value and quality.|You will more than save the cost of staying and eating in Porto itself, just go there during the day by cab or also use the 2 day yellow bus for a river cruise and port cellar visit.|To summarise, loved our stay here, we will return and no hesitation to recommend unless you prefer being slap in the middle of hustle and bustle.||Edward and...