The Vintage House - Douro

We experienced the Vintage Hotel like a large, very comfortable, vintage clubhouse with soft leather sofas, warm winter fires, well sized rooms with high ceilings, and good food. It has a superb location right on the banks of the Douro. Our bedroom had a lovely terrace. The hotel put on a fantastic NYE dinner, fireworks and party after midnight.

This hotel has great views and a lovely exterior. But…our experience left us less than enthusiastic. For such an expensive stay and restaurant the staff should have been much better trained. The staff in large part seemed dutifully confused as to their jobs and were on their phones a lot. Our room was a hot hellscape because they turned off the HVAC. It also smelled like cat urine. The restaurant was quite good but expensive and a come hungry leave hungry experience.

Anna greeted us upon arrival and not only checked us in, but walked us to our room. The property is wonderful, clean, well attended and in a perfect location. Staff are always available and smiling. Breakfast buffets are numerous, plentiful and delicious. We enjoyed our room with a balcony overlooking the river very much.

We enjoyed this hotel. We had a lovely room with a terrace overlooking the Douro River. Dinner in the luxury dining room was excellent but expensive. Bar food was good and reasonably priced. The pool was nice. We enjoyed the town with winery visits and boat trips. The only really odd thing was that the bottom of the shower door does not come to the floor and water flooded the bathroom floor. This happened to our friends also, so it was not just our room. You learn to stand in one small spot to wash. Odd, I would say.

Great location with beautiful views. Staff was amazing. Highly recommend.

Lovely hotel by the river

Beautiful place with very professional friendly staff. I had a lovely stay. This place is centrally located and can walk (or hike) to many Quintas nearby. Very clean and comfortable. The Breakfast was great. I had dinner in their restaurant with some modern twist- fantastic experience.
If you like peaceful yet comfortable place with old charm- highly recommend.

Beautiful property and wonderful stay overall. Two minor issues: didn’t like the plastic mattress cover and lack of mirror in the bathroom.

Excellent location on the Duoro River. The hotel is very choppy. It was hard finding our room and they don’t have elevators… so be prepared to carry your luggage up stairs and ramps. The service for drinks and food was bad.

The room is very dark since there is no overhead lighting. There are lamps, but two of the lamps need new bulbs and we were told at 4 PM that the maintenance staff was no longer here. The room is ridiculously hot, but it is no surprise that it is hot in the Douro Valley in August. They should at least have ceiling fans or plug-in fans to give the guests, since the air-conditioning is so inadequate. The number of towels is woefully insufficient, and the safe is broken with the same response that the maintenance staff is gone. We are staying here 2 nights and I’m dreading being here tomorrow. I definitely cannot recommend this hotel.

Very comfortable location to visit the port vineyards! Not a lot of dining options in town, but the hotel restaurant was good.

Stunningly beautiful hotel and grounds. View or river from second floor was exceptional. Very nice staff.

Wineries around the area, the Douro river, and lookout points are fantastic, amazing, beyond words at times. However, the surrounding town doesnt offer much else. The train station was cool but "short n sweet", much cooler if actually travelling by train.

This hotel has a perfect balance of luxury and chill - the location and views are incredible and everyone was so friendly and helpful.
One of the nicest hotels I have stayed in

This hotel exceeded my expectations and I would not hesitate in recommending it.

The hotel had plenty of personality and the views over the river and the gardens were spectacular.

Mostly the staff were very friendly and helpful, only with the occasional sullen or inexperienced member of staff.

The pool was lovely and we played tennis on a couple of mornings. The tennis court could do with a little bit of minor attention.

Breakfast was excellent, and the views from the breakfast terrace over the river were stunning.

We had dinner in the hotel on the first evening and the meal was very pleasant. Not outstanding, but nothing to complain about and very tasty, I would eat there again.

The bedrooms were very nice with a pretty, traditional bathroom, if I was being fussy the bathroom could probably benefit from a walk-in shower rather than a shower over a bath.

The staff at the reception were extremely helpful in booking us a late wine tour.

I think this was an excellent hotel and I would definitely go back.

First thing to say is this hotel is in a stunning location. Room had fantastic views and was clean and ready when we arrived at 4pm by train. Those were the highlights.

This is a 5 star hotel and cost almost £300 a night. It’s simply not worth the money. Echoing previous reviews, the rooms are tired and pretty small, balcony doors are cracked and peeling, toilet makes a very weird noise when flushed, shower wasn’t great, no bathroom mirror, bar a shaving mirror - away from the sink. This in and of itself is not the end of the world but other stuff also wasn’t great.

We arrived at 4pm and asked for an iron and ironing board - we had dinner booked at 7pm. No ironing boards spare despite the staffs best efforts to find one. Eventually at 6.30pm they found one in the kitchen which I am guessing they were pressing table cloths with. Bar had 8 cocktails but the two we asked for could not be made due to missing ingredients. Again the staff did their best to find a work around but it just wasn’t good enough. Breakfast location is lovely but hot food was often cold and staff were a bit hit and miss - some were great and one older chap was a miserable g!t. Pool is much smaller than it looks - €8 for a barely drinkable small glass of Rose and €4.50 for a coke is a bit rich even with the views.

Overall this feels like a hotel living on past glories. The staff try but just seem weary and tired - much like the hotel. The management can’t keep sweating this asset. I was stupid enough to ignore a number of the reviews and whilst I loved Douro and Pinhao, this hotel was a poor choice. Don’t make the same mistake.

I first came across Vintage House 7 years ago when on a rally in Portugal and Spain and instantly thought this is a hotel I would like to revisit. It claims to be 5 star but I would say it's not quite but still impressive in many ways. It's a bit of a bygone age hotel with a lot of dignity. The rooms with there fabulous views are very comfortable even though in need of a bit of care. The bathrooms are let down by surprisingly an absence of a bidet and a full size mirror(just a shaving mirror)
Breakfast on the terrace is a delightful experience.
In a small hotel circa 50 rooms not once did I see the GM and I was there for 4 days.
In Portugal the people are very charming and helpful again for a 5* hotel I would expect the staff to be more hospitable and charming. I felt there was a degree of arrogance which I haven't experienced in any other hotel in portugal
I can compare the vintage house to an old pair of shoes maybe not looking pristine but so comfortable to wear

Beautiful old hotel. Property outside with the vines making a garden is very romantic. Close to many wineries, we even walked to some. All staff speak perfect English. The rooms are large, our bathroom in the Junior Suite room was huge, with a circular step in shower/tub. Balconies are small with no room to sit and relax with 2 tiny uncomfortable metal chairs. The view from the balcony/hotel is just Ok, not what I expected since the hotel is at the bottom so all you mostly see are the large boats parked in front of the hotel. It’s the same view from the pool and restaurant since the hotel is at the bottom not the top of the hill. Breakfast is excellent, huge variety, good service. My biggest concern is the quality of the AC. Ours barely worked and was already set to the lowest rating of 5 degrees Celsius by the prior room occupant. I knew there was no point in complaining since another guest was arguing about AC in the lobby when we checked in. In our room there was not even a AC vent in the bathroom and it felt like a sauna after trying to take a shower. When I mentioned to the staff that they need to completely gut and replace the AC system, she said it was replaced last year, so something is really not working well. There is also a train that runs next to the property during the day but not at night

A lovely stay and a wonderful bar experience at the expert and knowledgable hands of Sandro. Beautiful scenery. Thank you.

It was lovely, quiet and convenient to the boats.