Ibis is of course a world name in hotel chains but as we did not want to stay in Porto centre we opted to stay about 3 miles out in Vila Nova de Gaia. The Ibis was cheap and surprisingly good. The hotel was also quieter than a normal Ibis and the restaurant there was very good for hotel standards. The hotel receptionists were slow but very happy to help. There is a lovely walk that we took down through the little village that took us down to the water and there are a few little bars and a couple of restaurant there too. A good stay and I would certainly stay here again.
Free car parking makes it a good choice. Room sizes were good and the bathrooms very clean and functional.
We stayed here for two mights on our tour of Northern Portugal, as we reached the outskirts of Porto we needed to find a hotel and the traffic was diabolical. We were coming in from the south and saw the Ibis advertising rooms for 40 euros a night so we gratefully drove into the car park (didn't fancy our chances of finding safe parking in the city) and booked the room for two nights. It was very comfortable though a bit small and everything you would expect from a respected chain. The bar was fine and reasonably priced, the food was OK but tended to arrive not quite hot.
Best of all we had a room from which you could see the mouth of the river Douro.
