# Is Bonfim a Good Area to Stay in Porto? Map & Verdict

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

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

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.

Facts: 18 min walk to Avenida dos Aliados; 40 min to the airport; 35 min to the beach; price €€; best for budget, longer stays, solo travellers; lines A, B, C, E, F.

Bonfim starts where the Baixa stops being pretty. It is the plateau east of Santa Catarina, it is where people who work in Porto actually live, and it is where the rate for a three-star room drops by about a third for the same distance from the centre. The walk in is flat, which in this city is worth more than it sounds, and Campo 24 de Agosto and Heroísmo put five metro lines one or two stops from Bolhão.

What you give up is everything a visitor came for. There is no sight in Bonfim. Rua da Alegria and the streets running down towards Campanhã are visibly worn - Wikivoyage's own listing for a hotel on Rua da Alegria calls the area a bit run down - and the district goes quiet by 22:00 on a weeknight. The eastern end shades into the station district without any clear line where one stops.

Book here on a second visit, on a long stay, or when the budget matters more than the address. Stay west of Rua de São Victor and you are a flat quarter of an hour from Aliados.

What works:
- About a third cheaper than the Baixa for the same star rating
- Five metro lines at Campo 24 de Agosto, one stop from Bolhão
- One of the few flat walks into the centre in Porto
- Restaurants still priced for the people who live there

What does not:
- Stretches of Rua da Alegria and the streets east of it are visibly run down
- Not one thing a visitor came to Porto to see is inside the district
- Quiet to the point of shut by 22:00 on weeknights
- The eastern end runs into the Campanhã station district

Hotels in Bonfim: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D1275%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.
- [Boavista & Massarelos](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-porto/boavista-massarelos): Mixed. 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.
- [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.