Pestana Palácio do Freixo

All the 5* reviews are true. A beautiful hotel overlooking the Douro. A little bit out of the centre of Porto but taxis and Ubers are plentiful.|We were fortunate enough to be upgraded to a junior suite which was HUGE…but only views over car parks. Not complaining…we still enjoyed it. |The reception rooms are fabulous and the views are superb. We ate in the restaurant one night. The food was delicious but the service a bit slow…not a problem if you’re not in a hurry. |All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

My loving partner and I stayed at Pestana Palácio do Freixo, Porto, and it was nothing short of magical. The palace is absolutely stunning — full of history, elegance, and charm — and everywhere you look feels picture-perfect. Our room was luxurious and comfortable, with views that took our breath away, especially over the Douro River. The atmosphere was serene and romantic, making it the perfect place for us to relax and enjoy time together. The staff were so attentive and welcoming, adding to the feeling of being truly cared for. This beautiful hotel gave us memories we’ll treasure forever, and we cannot wait to return.

Absolutely fantastic hotel situated on the edge of the Douro river. Beautiful views up and down the river from a palatial building which was a former palace. Rooms have been tastefully renovated and are very spacious with superb views out over the river. Two swimming pools although we only used the outdoor one which has full sun all day in the summer. Decent size but not big by any means. Indoor pool looked lovely and attached to impressive spa. Breakfast was amazing with lots of choice along with eggs cooked to order delivered by very friendly staff. All the staff were great during our week at the hotel. Location is a bit out of town although you can walk it along the river the whole way which takes about 40 minutes. There was a shuttle van but this strangely only operates twice a day at 1100 and 1800. It's only a five minute drive and the van stands outside the hotel all day seemingly going nowhere with bell staff not that busy. It's something the hotel should look at as this was the only negative of our wonderful stay. Good job Ubers are so cheap! Would certainly stay again and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a truly luxurious staff in the amazing city of Porto.

Very blessed to have an opportunity to stay at this hotel. Amazing restoration work to bring this wonderful building back to some of its former glory. There are photos of the restoration work in the rooms section. Glad to do my bit to support the restoration of these beautiful works of art and hard work and dedication by the artisans. The service was fantastic even though I'm sure that they were stressed during this busy wedding season. By the way if you like fireworks. During the summer many of the weddings will have fireworks along the Douro river so you can hang out from 10pm onwards and might be lucky enough to watch one. Great place if you like places with a (hi)story.

The hotel is beautiful, rooms are nice and the palace and pool are truly stunning. Check-in was flawless. Sadly the restaurants below expectations ( no lemon, no brown sugar, long waits for food, mistaken orders , overtoasted bread , a hard as rock tiny waffle after 25 min wait), really a shame as the setting is lovely and staff kind. |Also a cash point machine while useful should not really be considered decoration.

Perfect.|Beautiful building and grounds. Comfortable, luxurious, quiet room (all bedrooms are in the converted, historic grain warehouse) Lovely staff. Amazing breakfast - everything you could possibly want to eat, so I did! Fantastic pool and the best mojito I have ever had. Loved it so much I want to go back with everyone I know!

Such a beautiful building and fabulous and serene location after the bustle of Porto town. Rooms a little dowdy in colour but very comfortable and spacious. Ours had a wonderful view over the river which was delightful. |Reception staff a little unfriendly and lacking in helpfulness. However Ines from guest relations made up for it with her wonderful smile, helpful restaurant recommendations and the final flourish - a surprise bottle of bubbly and some little sweet treats to celebrate our wedding anniversary when we came back from dinner. The food was excellent and the pool bar / bar /restaurant staff were delightful. |The spa changing rooms which reception direct you to if you arrive early or departing late are very small and very hot so not conducive to showering before/ after a travelling day. |Also we were told on booking that there was a regular shuttle between the hotel and the city centre, reception advised it only ran at 10 am and 6 pm and the hotel info in our room said it was only available by pre booking. However Ubers are frequent and cheap so it didn’t cause a problem but may be the hotel need to clarify their information. |All said we had an amazing 3 day break and loved coming back to the soothing peace of the Palácio after a hot and busy day amongst the crowds of Porto.

It is our last day here tomorrow and it has been amazing in every way. The hotel is presented for exactly what it is, a Palace and we were treated like royalty. The location is beautiful and peaceful but 10 minutes from Porto centre, the service throughout including the staff looking after your rooms is beyond 5 star, dealing with any request you make. We ate in the restaurant this evening and every course was delicious and again the service was second to none, we are Muslim and have to check details of the food and nothing was any trouble at all. I really could go on and on and 5 stars is not enough to rate the quality of this hotel but it is the people that work here that have made this holiday magical.

I love this hotel so much! This is a refurbished palace and it felt like a dream staying here. When we arrived, we were invited to a decadent breakfast filled with meats and cheeses. There is also an indoor pool, suana and steam room that made the perfect day in for a rainy day in Porto. In the music room, they also had someone play the guitar and sing which made it feel so magical! They also have an expansive garden which makes staying in the hotel even more pleasent The staff was so kind, they gave us some port wine and dessert within our room. I have nothing but good things to say and would recommend to everyone traveling to Porto.

Our Tour Group stayed here 2 nights. I like this place. The lobby where we met up our group, is a mini-version of the Versailles. Fresh Anthurium flowers on dining tables, and lobby. I took a shower, in the tub so deep, but there are no handrails and can slip & slide when wet! When turning off the faucet, if not careful, the shower gets your hair wet! I was still feeling sick, from raw roasted chestnut bought from a street vendor, so I didn't enjoy much of the meals served at the hotel. I did enjoyed the tomato-orange soup and bruschetta. It is part of the Paradore Group, so it's on a palace, and I was feeling very rich! Beautiful view of the river, bridge, and the full moon over that smoke stack, just divine! Very romantic!

Awww Pestana Palacio! I wanted to love you, I wanted to adore you but really things fell a bit short of 5 STARS if I'm being completely honest. The grounds are beautiful the palace is lovely, yes but my gosh my room just felt pretty bare bones and the electrical outlets were pretty random too. I was trying to find somewhere to plug my flat iron into and it was a whole thing, then once I maneuvered up a solution it was an entire situation even with my adapter (but no wattage converter) their outlet blew out my flat iron - honestly, the cost of my flat iron was probably the cost of my evening stay here. So.. I was bummed by that, anyone that knows how much hair I have and how curly it is combined with the rainy weather day 1 on my visit will understand a girl just wanted to touch her hair up a bit not damn near start a fire and burn down the place. Luckily once the smoke started I unplugged and no fire alarms went off but god forbid I'd been a fool enough to attempt to use that flat iron on my hair my hair would have burned right off. Later a friend Googled this incident for me and told me it was more than likely a wattage issue, regardless that didn't save my flat iron.. Now, all hair issues aside here you aren't really staying in the palace per se, you are walking through and staying in a side building. The room was spacious but so dimly lit (and I love bright light) and didn't feel warm cozy or welcoming rather just dark and bare, along with being oddly situated in a rectangular shape that was not aesthetically pleasing. When I flew in and arrived at 10A my room was not ready for the day so I took their very handy shuttle (drops off at the Cathedral) into town and ended up spending my entire first day out of the hotel until after dark. I had a dinner reservation but really just wanted to get back to the hotel to get cleaned up after a long wet rainy day of exploring so I decided I'd uber back when I realized you need to let them know you want a pick up, the shuttle does not automatically appear back at 4p and 6p so I ubered back and had dinner there. The restaurant was very quiet but my meal was to my liking. I started with a lovely red Portuguese wine - not a port, another item of Portugal I'm not the biggest fan of since I don't care for sweet wine. My soup was delish as was my fresh caught seabass with veggies. I was going to skip on dessert and after a few minutes decided I'd order the cheese plate which was also really good. To my surprise the next morning the breakfast was massive and I could have saved my cheese consumption for this very moment where there was so many different options, all included in my stay. I didn't want to over indulge first thing in the morning and lose my energy to explore since it was such a nice bright and sunny day but I did my fair share of feasting on all of the yummy options. Pastries, meats, cheeses, fruits, juices, coffee, yogurts, hot food (skipped all of this), jams, honeycomb, really you name it. The breakfast was probably one of the best parts of my stay. The staff are all very nice and very helpful as well. While I enjoyed my stay I'm not certain I'd select this Pestana option in the future as I spotted another in town. The shuttling in and out of the main areas, combined with the room would cause me to reconsider. All in all, besides the wattage issue and cost of a new flat iron now my stay was nice.

This place is filled with incompetence, our bathroom was flooded so they made us use a bathroom next door for that morning. Told us they would have a room ready by 3pm but after I packed up everything was told they still do not have a room available. Completely ridiculous, ruined our stay in Porto. No where near 5 star, at least not in the US.

A luxurious night worth the money with a lot of charm and romance. Rooms are a bit small but the overall layout and ambience was quite charming. A nice honeymoon spot.

We stayed at the Pousada de Porto, Palacio de Freixo for 2 nights and dined in the restaurant, Palatium, once. Both the hotel and restaurant were excellent. The main building which houses the reception area, restaurant and several decorated rooms, is a former palace and now a historic site. The hotel is in an adjacent, and now attached, former flour factory. The room was large and comfortable. The grounds featuring a garden, indoor/outdoor pools are beautiful. The staff are helpful and speak English very well. Breakfast buffet was quite good with many healthy (and unhealthy but delicious) items available. The food in the restaurant was outstanding with the octopus and other seafood items standing out. The Pousada is a short distance from the historic section of Porto and their is a shuttle that runs a few times a day. We walked one day along the Douro river into the city in about 35 minutes and it is picturesque. Taxi will be under 10 euros. Coming from NYC, I appreciated the serenity of the Pousada compared to inner Porto (which is a great city). Staying in a Pousada is a one of a kind experience that should not be missed!