As I alluded to in my Portugal itinerary overview, I must have booked a half dozen places in Porto before I finally settled on one. Deciding on where to stay in Porto with kids took a lot of brainpower from me, but in reality it truly didn’t need to.
For the most part I was changing my mind in an attempt to minimize our out-of-pocket cost. But thankfully what I realized after being in Porto is that the city is just so compact compared to Lisbon that your specific location matters a lot less.
In this article, I’ll share what areas of Porto I’d recommend staying in with kids and one I’d avoid. I’ll also give you my curated list of the best places to stay in Porto with kids, and tell you which reservation we ended up keeping.
Choosing where to stay in Porto with kids
There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind as you dive into family-friendly Porto accommodations.
First, it’s important to know that most hotels in Porto (and Lisbon) have a maximum occupancy of two people per standard room, though sometimes you can find three person rooms. There are family rooms available at some hotels but they’re generally much more expensive than standard rooms – sometimes more than double. Thankfully hotel rates in Porto are more affordable than elsewhere in Europe, but we still found an apartment to be more economical for our family of four than getting two rooms.
For my fellow points travelers, the value proposition of booking two rooms on points isn’t great compared with booking an apartment. This is a great opportunity to book a vacation rental using the Capital One Travel portal to use the $300 annual credit on your Venture X card and then you can wipe away the rest of the balance with points if you don’t want to spend any cash.
Second, Porto is (for the most part) an incredibly walkable city if you’re staying in or around the historic center. We stayed in the Baixa neighborhood, which covers a lot of ground but you could also stay in Sé (near the Cathedral), Vitória or some of the closer areas of Cedofeita. These areas have a lot of the sites you’ll want to see plus tons of cafes, restaurants and lovely architecture. All of the places I recommend below will put you in great proximity to the best things to do in Porto with kids.
You may see some recommendations to stay in Ribera, the riverfront, but it wouldn’t be my pick when visiting Porto with kids. While the immediate riverfront area is lovely for a stroll, there are two things I didn’t care for. Most obviously, it’s packed with tourists, tourist-oriented restaurants and uninspiring souvenir shops.
Beyond that, it’s a very steep walk up to the rest of the city. Where the rest of the city has rolling hills the walk from Ribera up to Baixa is like going on a hike. That’s fine when you’re young adults but less fun if you’re pushing a stroller or you have a cranky toddler in tow.
Third, in normal circumstances it can be extremely convenient to stay near the historic (and still in use) São Bento train station at the bottom of Avenida do Aliados/Praça da Liberdade. But I wouldn’t opt to stay there any time in 2026… and early 2027 looks questionable at this point too. There’s a huge construction project to built out Porto’s metro system and the resulting disruption in the area is massive. Even one of the fanciest hotels in the city currently has a barricade all around the front. Personally I would have been pretty upset if I found that out when we arrived! A few of the places I reserved and canceled were near this construction so I’m glad I didn’t keep them.
Best places to stay in Porto with kids
Líbere Porto Laranjais
Líbere Porto Laranjais was the winner in our search and I was very happy with our choice! The location was ideal – it put us less than 10 minutes walk from Bolhão Market, Clérigos Tower, Livraria Lello, São Bento and more. That gave us the flexibility to swing by the apartment when we needed to drop off souvenirs or pick up forgotten sunglasses. There were also plenty of great restaurants to enjoy.
Líbere is a professional management company and they run two buildings across the street from each other (but under the same listing). There are several different apartment sizes to choose from and we opted for the largest so that our kids could have a real bed and we’d have a second bathroom. It worked out great!
Since the buildings are professionally managed, they were able to address a small issue in the apartment within a few hours while we were out enjoying the day. They also offer free lockers to store luggage when you checkout if you have a late flight, which saved us a lot of stress when our departure flight was cancelled and rescheduled. If you want, they’ll even provide breakfast in the morning for a small additional charge.
Overall I would heartily recommend this property and would stay there again.
Se Catedral Hotel Porto
If you’re looking for a family-friendly hotel in Porto, Se Catedral Hotel Porto by Hilton might fit the bill. Although the family connecting room doesn’t seem to be offered outright anymore, you can grab a queen room and a two-twin room and then email the hotel to ask for them to be connected. For older kids there’s even a fooseball table in the lobby to keep them busy while you’re checking in or finishing breakfast.
The location is solid, tucked in above the imposing cathedral and the riverfront. It’s also close to Rua das Flores as well as the tile painting workshop we loved.
This hotel can be a good value whether you’re paying cash or booking with points. If you hold an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points, you can transfer them to Hilton and each Amex point becomes two Hilton points. I talk about this in greater depth on this podcast episode. Standard rooms go for 31,000 to 45,000 points per night, so that’s at most 22,500 Amex points per night. If you hold an Amex Platinum card you’ll automatically have Hilton Gold status, which gives you your fifth night free and free breakfast plus $50 per quarter in statement credits for Hilton purchases.
If we had stuck with this hotel my plan was to use points for one of the rooms and then pay cash for the other room, but split the charge between my Amex Platinum and my husband’s to get $100 off the room rate.
RVA Porto Central Flats
Moving along to another lovely property that I booked and cancelled… RVA Porto Central Flats. These apartments look absolutely wonderful and it’s not their fault we ended up elsewhere. I just had a lot of credits that I wanted to use through a credit card that didn’t include this specific building.
Anyway, back to RVA Porto Central Flats. The location is close to the Hilton property above, just a few blocks west which pus it closer to the action. It’s the perfect choice if you’re visiting Porto with a big family or taking a multigenerational trip to Portugal, as there are several 3 bedroom apartments that can accommodate 6-7 people in real beds in actual bedrooms – you don’t have to give up the living room to an uncomfortable sleep sofa. If you don’t have that many people and want to save money, there are also studios and 1- and 2-bedroom units.
Some of the 4 person apartments have internal staircases, so you may want to avoid those if you’re visiting Porto with a baby or toddler. But given all of the other amenities like a kitchenette, these are definitely worth a look.
OCA Flores Hotel Boutique + OCA Vitória Village
It turns out you can stay on the prettiest street in Porto, Rua das Flores, even with kids in tow! Everything about OCA Flores Hotel Boutique is beautiful: the façade, the dining room, the rooftop terrace with a sweeping view of the city, the spa… it’s all a slam dunk on aesthetics.
Even though it’s advertised as a hotel, there are actually quite a few apartments in the building and that’s how families are accommodated. There are a few different configurations, but basically all of them have a real bed for the adults and one or two sofa beds for the kids. If your children are good with sofa beds, then this could be a perfect option!
It’s a little confusing but you can also book OCA Vitória Village – the two properties are back-to-back with a garden connecting them. Rooms on the Vitória Village side are a little simpler and more contemporary. You can also book a two-floor villa that opens on to the garden, which would be a nice option if your kids need space to run around.
In the interest of transparency, this is the only property on the list I never booked… my kids don’t like sofa beds and thankfully it was affordable enough to get a place with real beds for everyone.
Wrapping up
We loved Porto, and the good news is that there are plenty of awesome places to stay with kids – and tons of them are walkable. Check out these other articles to help you plan your trip to Portugal with kids: