# Staying in Boavista & Massarelos, Porto: Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/boavista-massarelos
Every Porto district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto.md

Porto's business address: the big Avenida da Boavista hotels, Serralves and its park, and a river bank with nobody on it. Quiet, well built, and no metro station inside the district.

Facts: 35 min walk to Avenida dos Aliados; 30 min to the airport; 20 min to the beach; price €€€; best for business trips, quiet, longer stays; lines 1, 18.

This parish runs from the Boavista roundabout down to the Douro, and it is where Porto put the things that needed space. The Serralves foundation and its park are here, so is the Ipanema Park, so are the four-star conference hotels along Avenida da Boavista with rooms twice the size of anything the old town can fit. The river bank between Massarelos and the bridge is one of the few stretches of Porto waterfront with no tourists on it.

The catch is that nothing is close. There is no metro station inside the parish at all - Casa da Música, the nearest, sits just over the boundary in Cedofeita - and Aliados is a 35-minute walk, uphill on the way back. Tram 1 runs along the river towards Foz and the Ribeira, which is charming and slow and stops in the evening. The hotels here are built around conference schedules, so a Saturday can feel like a business park with the lights off.

Book here for work, for a car, or for quiet. Do not book here for a three-night sightseeing trip.

What works:
- Serralves and its park are inside the district, not a bus ride away
- Large four-star rooms that the old town physically cannot fit
- Tram 1 runs the river bank to the Ribeira in about 20 minutes
- Quiet enough to sleep with the window open

What does not:
- No metro station inside the district - Casa da Música is over the boundary
- A 35-minute walk to Aliados, uphill coming home
- Hotels built for conferences, so weekends feel deserted
- Nothing within walking distance stays open late

Hotels in Boavista & Massarelos: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D1278%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Porto

- [Baixa, Sé & Ribeira](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/baixa-se-ribeira): Recommended. The whole UNESCO centre in one parish: Aliados, the cathedral, the Ribeira quay and Cedofeita's shopping streets. Everything you came for is inside a 20-minute walk, and so is everybody else.
- [Gaia Riverside (Santa Marinha)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/gaia-riverside): Mixed. The port lodges, the cable car and the postcard view of Porto - which is the catch, because the postcard is of the opposite bank. You sleep 15 minutes and one bridge from what you came to see.
- [Bonfim](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/bonfim): Mixed. The cheap side of the centre: 15 minutes east of Aliados on a rare flat walk, five metro lines at Campo 24 de Agosto, and streets that the renovation money has not reached yet.
- [Foz do Douro & Nevogilde](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/foz-do-douro): Mixed. Where Porto meets the Atlantic: beaches, the promenade and the most expensive rooms in the city. It is also 7 km from the cathedral, with no metro station and one slow tram.
- [Paranhos](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/paranhos): Avoid. The university, the teaching hospital and forty thousand students. Good metro, the cheapest rooms in the city, and no other reason for a visitor to be here.
- [Campanhã](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/campanha): Avoid. The long-distance station and very little else. The cheapest rooms in Porto, 3 km east of São Bento, in a district being rebuilt around a bus terminal and a car park.