# Staying in Gaia Riverside (Santa Marinha), Porto: Map & Verdict

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

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

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.

Facts: 25 min walk to Avenida dos Aliados; 45 min to the airport; 25 min to the beach; price €€€; best for couples, food, sights; lines D.

Vila Nova de Gaia is a separate city, and the strip of it along the Douro is where every port house keeps its cellars. Taylor's, Sandeman, Graham's and a dozen more are within ten minutes of the quay, the cable car runs up to the Sérra do Pilar terrace, and that terrace has the best view of Porto there is. Hotels here sell that view, and for the same money they sell a bigger room than the Ribeira can fit.

The problem is geography. Everything on your list - the cathedral, Lello, Bolhão, São Bento, the restaurants - is on the Porto side. Crossing is easy in the direction you are looking: 15 minutes on foot across the upper deck of the Luís I bridge, or four minutes on the yellow line D. Coming back at midnight means the same crossing plus a climb of about 60 metres from the quay to the metro, because the lodges are at river level and the town is not.

Book here if port is the reason for the trip, or if the view is worth a daily commute. Do not book here expecting to walk out of the door into Porto.

What works:
- Every major port lodge is within ten minutes of the quay
- The Serra do Pilar terrace has the best view of Porto and costs nothing
- Yellow line D reaches São Bento in about four minutes
- Riverside rooms are larger than the Ribeira for the same rate

What does not:
- Everything you came to Porto for is on the other bank
- About 60 vertical metres from the quay up to the metro at Jardim do Morro
- The quay empties once the lodges shut around 18:00
- Dinner options thin out fast once you leave the waterfront

Hotels in Gaia Riverside (Santa Marinha): https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DVila%2520Nova%2520de%2520Gaia%252C%2520Porto%26latitude%3D41.13214741369862%26longitude%3D-8.623772936986303%26nflt%3Ddistance%253D1368%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.
- [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.
- [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.