Porto A.S. 1829 Hotel

Araújo & Sobrinho opened as a stationer and printing house in 1829, which makes it one of the oldest surviving businesses of its kind in Europe. It is still trading, still owned by the same family in its fifth generation, and it is still on the ground floor. The hotel was built around it, and takes both its initials and its date from the shop downstairs.

That is the whole idea, and it has been carried through properly. The print trade supplies the decorative language throughout: old typewriters, wooden printers' type cabinets, photographs of the shop across two centuries, paper and ink as recurring motifs. Furniture is largely vintage. It avoids feeling like a themed hotel because the theme is not invented, it is the building's actual occupant.

There are 31 rooms across categories from Standard up to duplex family suites. Be realistic about size: standard rooms run around 15 square metres and superiors around 20, which is small even by the standards of converted buildings in old Porto. Rooms are soundproofed with blackout curtains, and the better categories look over the city or towards the river. There are family rooms and duplexes sleeping four, which is useful in this part of town.

There is a restaurant, a café and a lounge bar. Breakfast is charged as an extra rather than included.

Largo de São Domingos sits between Rua das Flores and the Ribeira, which is about as central as Porto gets. The cathedral is three minutes, Ribeira Square three, the Dom Luís I bridge five, São Bento station six, and the Clérigos tower five. The hotel is part of the PortoBay group and is classified four-star.