If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR266.04), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Named after Porto’s barrel-bearing rabelo boats, the Rebello Hotel & Spa is overflowing with references to its industrial past. Adjacent to the city’s last remaining boatyard with drink-me-in views over the Douro, the converted warehouses hold plenty in store for those looking to wine down on the south bank. With Smeg-stocked kitchens and thoughtfully-furnished living spaces, the studios and suites are designed to feel like home. The spa looks to the Romans for divine wellness inspiration, and the rooftop terrace is equally heavenly on the tapas and tipple front – enticing you to explore the terracotta-tinged skyline across the water.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A bottle of wine in your room on arrival, and 15% off spa treatments when you spend at least €75
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £241.92 (€282), including tax at 6 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €2.00 per person per night on check-in.
More details
Rates include a generous buffet breakfast of Portuguese classics, with à la carte options like cheese and chilli omelettes, honey-drizzled pancakes, and homemade oatmeal.
Also
All of the Rebello’s common areas (including the spa and restaurant) are wheelchair-accessible. There are also some studios suitable for guests with reduced mobility.
At the hotel
Rooftop terrace, courtyard, lounge, laundry service, electric-vehicle chargers, plug adaptors, and free WiFi. In rooms: Marshall Bluetooth speakers, TV, air-conditioning, gourmet minibar, fully-equipped kitchen, Sjöstrand coffee machine, tea-making kit, free bottled water, and Claus Porto bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Expect clean lines, polished concrete floors, and industrial-chic details throughout the Rebello’s studios and suites – many of which have stylishly-furnished balconies and light-flooded window seats from which to drink in the Douro views. Sleek kitchens with handy dishwashers also come as standard, but the full-size Smeg fridges (stocked with kombuchas, traditional sardine pâté, and other local treats) are reserved for the One Bedroom River Suites and upwards. The split-level apartments offer some more separation between your sleeping and living spaces, and every bedroom has an ensuite bathroom (ideal for avoiding family disagreements over who’s showering first).
Poolside
Dips in the Rebello’s indoor pool are lit by softly glowing lanterns that seem to float above the semi-heated waters, with cloud-like loungers to recline on while you admire the Roman-style pottery adorning the peach-coloured walls.
Spa
Drawing on ancient Roman rituals, the spa at the Rebello (open daily from 7am to 8pm) revolves around the indoor pool – with four treatment rooms to book into, plus a sauna and whirlpool to unwind in. Massages range from deep tissue to bamboo, and there’s a 50-minute jet lag-targeting therapy if you’re travelling long-haul. You can also pre-book slots in the high-tech gym for an exclusive workout, with personal trainers available on request.
Packing tips
No need to weigh yourself down with holiday reading material, there are artsy books to thumb through in the hotel’s relaxed lobby.
Also
Beauty treatments can be booked outside spa hours for an extra charge.
Pet‐friendly
Well-behaved dogs (weighing under 15 kilograms) are welcome to stay in any room here for an extra charge of €30 (a night, each pet). They will be treated to a comfy bed, blanket, and treats, but must be kept on a lead throughout the hotel. See more pet-friendly hotels in Porto.
Children
All ages are welcome and well catered for here.
Sustainability efforts
The Rebello’s history might run deep, but the renovation of these former port warehouses was done with the future – and environment – in mind. The hotel runs entirely from renewable energy, uses biodegradable, Ecolabel products in its water-conserving bathrooms, and has a strict recycling policy in place. There are several charging stations for electric vehicles onsite, and you can access your room using your mobile phone (high-tech, low energy). The hotel also supports various charities and non-profit organisations, including Make-A-Wish Foundation, the volunteers at Just a Change – rebuilding homes across Portugal – and by donating used mattresses and bed linen to nursing homes in the city.
Take any of the river-facing tables for a prime boat-watching seat.
Dress Code
It’s all electric blues and vibrant reds, so wear something suitably statement to match.
Hotel restaurant
Named for its past as a manufacturing site for kitchen utensils and cookware, the Rebello’s Pot&Pan restaurant now produces family-style sharing plates and tapas dishes served in, you guessed it, oversized pots and pans. The menu favours Portuguese ingredients, and seafood features in almost every course – from the crispy fried squid (best dunked in tartare sauce and red pepper jelly) to start, to the dedicated seaside deli section (the garlicky scarlet shrimp in the linguine nero is sublime). Save room for some experimental ice-cream flavours, like the port wine gelato topping the French toast.
Hotel bar
Bello Rooftop (open from noon to midnight) is as handsome as its name suggests, with sweeping views across the Douro towards the Dom Luís I Bridge. The blue and white striped brollies and matching soft furnishings create a nautical feel, as though you’re standing on the deck of a boat pulling into Gaia’s harbour – with artisanal pizzas to nibble, tapas-style snacks to share, and signature cocktails to sip. There’s always an inventive cocktail of the month to keep things fresh, and the wine list is entirely focused on Portuguese labels split between the south, Atlantic, and valleys. On the ground floor, the Lobby Bar (open from noon to 10.30pm) is a light, laptop-friendly spot for remote workers to kick back on blue velvet sofas with a sourdough toastie – followed by espresso martinis after dark.
Last orders
Breakfast is from 7am to 10.30am, with all-day dining options until midnight.
Room service
The in-room daytime menu runs from noon to 11pm, with a limited night menu between 11pm and 7am.
Right on the riverside, the Rebello Hotel & Spa lies in Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the Douro from Porto’s centre.
Planes
Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport is 30 minutes by car from the hotel. Private transfers are available, with prices on request.
Trains
General Torres and Vila Nova de Gaia Devesas stations are each a six-minute drive from the Rebello Hotel. Both hubs are connected to Porto’s airport via Line E on the subway – the journey takes around 45 minutes.
Automobiles
If wine tasting is top of your list, it’s best to leave your wheels in the hotel’s 24-hour car park for €25 a day. Free valet parking is also available.
Other
Arrive by water taxi and dock in Gaia’s quayside – many of the Douro Valley boat tours depart from here, too.
Worth getting out of bed for
The Rebello’s illustrated map by Porto-based artist Mariana Malhão will lead you to some of the city’s most creative spots, including Ó! Galeria, a drawing exhibition space and shop with a neighbouring ceramics studio. Here, you can try your hand at making your own azulejos in a three-hour pottery class (all materials are included with the fee). There are also plenty of places to admire Porto’s iconic hand-painted tiles – the most striking blue-and-white bedecked buildings are just across the Douro, such as São Bento Station, Igreja do Carmo, and Capela das Almas. On your way back to the Dom Luís I Bridge, seek out the 40-piece ceramic wall inspired by Júlio Resende’s painting of Porto’s waterfront (it’s near the Ribeira tunnel entrance). As you’re staying in the suburb of Vila Nova de Gaia, home to Porto’s countless wine caves, sip your way through some vintages in a port tasting (usually accompanied by tasty cheese boards).
Local restaurants
Make the most of being on the south side of the Douro and dine right on the waterfront at Bacalhoeiro. Its terrace catches the late afternoon sun, and the highlight of its seafood-centric menu is the flake-off-the-fork cod, served in an almond crust. Tuck into traditional tapas at cosy Taberna da Villa, or make like the locals and head over to family-run Mário Luso for home-cooked Portuguese plates, such as a take on the Sunday roast involving wood-fired Mirandesa veal shoulder.
Local cafés
With a handful of locations around Porto, SO Coffee Roasters are hip spaces to hangout and refuel. They’re all over on the Douro’s north bank, ideal for some mid-sightseeing caffeine and to wash down the innumerable pastéis de nata you will no doubt consume.
Local bars
Many of the best port cellars need to be booked in advance, so call ahead to Churchill’s Lodge to tour the vintage tawny barrel-lined warehouse, then take a few glasses of wood-aged port into the riverside garden (with top-ups from 1982 Bar).
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this revamped riverside hotel in Porto and unpacked their port glassware and hand-painted tiles, a full account of their cork-popping city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Rebello Hotel & Spa in Portugal…
The Rebello Hotel & Spa’s transformation from an abandoned kitchen utensil factory to the polished set of studios and suites it is today is nothing short of marvellous. As miraculous as turning water to wine, perhaps… Ties to the Douro’s waters and Porto’s wine caves are cleverly knotted into the yacht-like interiors by Spanish designer Daniela Franceschini, with detailed textural works by local artists to unpick throughout your stay. Suspended canvas lighting creates an illusion of floating sailboats, and ceramic netting, metal lattices, and curvy mirrors resemble the Douro’s rippling waters – even the bathroom basins are modelled on old water tanks. The spa taps into the ancient rituals of Roman bathhouses, with a sauna to sweat out last night’s port tastings. Up on the rooftop deck, there’s free-flowing Portuguese wine to sink and boats bobbing out to the Atlantic to admire.
