BessaHotel Boavista ★★★★

Ideally located in the upmarket Boavista district, the BessaHotel lies within easy reach of attractions such as the Casa de la Música, Serravales Museum, Parque da Cidade and the Douro Estuary, as well as the historic centre of the city.

Sleek, polished, and modern is what Bessa Hotel is all about, quite the opposite to the charming historic centre of Porto. Step in from the cobbled streets, rambling candy-coloured buildings and baroque bell towers, into a world of glossy design, shiny surfaces and modern, trendy chandeliers.

The hotel’s B Restaurant is a light and inviting space with surrounding glass windows offering envy-inducing views of charming Porto. Headed up by Chef Vitor de Matos, the restaurant offers a selection of Iberian recipes and flavours. It also serves continental breakfasts, light lunches, and a range of late-afternoon tapas options. The restaurant, along with the vibrant and glossy red B Bar, also provides an intimate and stylish night-time ambience and a place to sample a range of cocktails and of course Porto’s most famous tipple – port.

When the weather is warm, guests can enjoy even more spectacular city views by heading out onto the terrace – sunny and relaxing by day or romantic and private by night. Here you can relax with a glass of the local Douro wine, or a flute of champagne to celebrate at this delightful spot.

To acquaint yourself with the city, start by walking around Praça da Ribera, a picturesque UNESCO World Heritage area down by the river, where narrow streets open out onto a grand plaza, fringed by elegant tiled mansions. From here you can look across the River Douro to see the port-wine lodges and also get a spectacular view of the imposing Ponte de Dom Luís I, Porto’s famous double-decker bridge. Completed in 1886, the bridge was designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel – he of his iconic, eponymous masterpiece in Paris. The top deck is where pedestrians can cross, along with one metro line, and the bottom deck is where regular traffic passes.

Returning to the hotel after a day of exploring the atmospheric streets of Porto, you’ll find nowhere better to relax than the B Corner, a quiet and cosy space filled with large bookshelves, stylish glass desks and computers. It’s the perfect place to catch up on some light reading, research about the city of Porto and where you want to visit next, or simply check your e-mails and respond to messages from loved ones.

Those more active guests will be pleased to find that the hotel also has a fully equipped gym with treadmills, exercise bikes, weights machines and cross trainers. There’s also a luxurious Turkish bath in which to soothe your muscles after your workout or to simply lie there and ease your worries away.

In fact that’s what the Bessa Hotel does best – making sure that everything about your stay is just ‘so’, meaning that you don’t have to worry about a thing.