1872 River House
Eight rooms in a riverside house on Rua do Infante D. Henrique, sixty metres from São Francisco.
Rua do Infante D. Henrique runs along the ridge above the Ribeira, past the Palácio da Bolsa and the church of São Francisco, and it was the commercial spine of Porto when the port trade was at its height. The merchants' houses along it are tall, narrow and deep. This is one of them, dated 1872.
Eight rooms, which puts it at the smallest end of anything on this site. The conversion is contemporary rather than period, each room individually furnished, with down bedding, soundproofing and modern bathrooms. Sizes are modest, around 17 square metres in the entry categories. The distinction that matters is the outlook: superior rooms face the Douro, the others look over the city, and the difference in price reflects it.
Downstairs there is a communal living room and not much else. Breakfast is served, there is a concierge and luggage storage, and the front desk keeps limited hours rather than running through the night. This is a guesthouse in the proper sense, and if you want a bar, a restaurant or a lift, this is not it.
What you get instead is the position. The church of São Francisco, with an interior so heavily gilded it took several hundred kilos of gold leaf, is sixty metres away. The Palácio da Bolsa is 130. Ribeira Square is three minutes downhill, the Dom Luís I bridge six, São Bento station ten, and the port lodges of Gaia are across the water. The Infante tram stop is at the door.
The house is now operated under the name 1872 River House by Olivia.
Couples who want a very small house in the Ribeira rather than a hotel with a lobby.
Eight rooms and a limited-hours front desk, so this runs like a guesthouse. Only the superior rooms have the river view.
Now trades as 1872 River House by Olivia. The old hotel domain has lapsed and resolves to an unrelated business, so book through the aggregator rather than searching for the original site.
Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Family rooms
Check the dates
This hotel has no direct booking page we can point you to, so the aggregator link is the only one. Rates and availability are whatever they show on the day — the site does not cache them.
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