Spring and Summer in Porto Staying at M.Ou.Co.

Stay at Porto’s first music hotel featuring a restaurant, bar, garden with swimming pool, music library and concert hall. Porto now has more flights than ever from across the UK: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London (four airports) and Manchester  

Portugal’s second largest city Porto is often overlooked as a summer holiday destination but Porto offers a fantastic combination of both city and beach life. Porto’s award-winning airport now offers more flights to various UK cities than ever before and it is on the metro system. Porto recently welcomed a new independent hotel and cultural space where music is the headliner. This all happened via an entire regeneration of an area of 5,000 square metres. M.Ou.Co. celebrated its one year anniversary in late 2022. This unique space in the city’s Bonfim neighbourhood combines a 62-bedroom hotel, a 50-seater restaurant, a bar, a garden with alfresco dining, an outdoor swimming pool, a music library, musical instruments for hire and a concert hall with a capacity of 180 seated and 300 standing guests. Music is at the heart of everything at M.Ou.Co.

Beach areas reachable by metro, train or taxi from M.Ou.Co.

• Foz do Douro – beach life, traditional restaurants, modern restaurants and bars with DJs for sunset drinks. 
• Matosinhos – big and busy, family-friendly and surf friendly including surf schools, also on the metro. 
• Leça da Palmeira – a bit more secluded but a walk from Matosinhos with quieter, smaller beaches.
• Gaia – long golden sand beaches with many restaurants and bars on the other side of Porto. Reached by train. 

Porto combines old and new and this is evident across the city. Two major historic city destinations reopened at the end of 2022 and are within walking distance of M.Ou.Co.

• Bolhão Market – Opened in 1839 in the heart of Porto, Mercado do Bolhão stands out in the heart of Porto as a leading market. The original building was designed in 1914 influenced by the École des Beaux Arts. The market closed in 2018 for extensive renovation works and finally reopened at the end of 2022. 
• Batalha Centro de Cinema – First opened in 1947 the Batalha Centro de Cinema had fallen into bad shape and found it difficult to compete with new viewing behaviours and locations. It has now been fully restored, reopening late 2022, showcasing Art-Deco design throughout. The cinema includes an art deco bar, exhibitions, library and shop. 

Because the city has the vast river Douro running through it, visitors can enjoy some beautiful sunsets: 

• One bar which may surprise visitors is the Guindalense Football Club Bar This very simple spot offers a vast terrace over several levels with fantastic uninterrupted views of Porto’s UNESCO Luis I Bridge which crosses the Douro River.
• Jardim das Virtudes is popular with locals and offers perfect views of the river. There are terraces, a grass area and further down a garden is split over various levels, all facing the river almost like seating facing a stage.
• Miradouro Ignez is an outdoor bar serving cocktails, wines and food throughout the day and evening with uninterrupted views of the river. Evenings and weekends include a DJ. 
• Porto’s most beautiful gardens Jardins do Palácio de Cristal are centrally located and offer uninterrupted river views. The gardens are home to a venue with cafés.  

Music is at the heart of everything at M.Ou.Co. The interior design is focused entirely on vintage making the most of the city’s vast vintage shops and warehouses. All furniture is either vintage or was commissioned locally to reflect a vintage look. All hotel guests are given a GuestU phone for use whilst in Porto offering complimentary wifi and city guides with walking distances included. 

M.Ou.Co. has hosted a wide selection of musicians on its stage from many countries including artists from Brazil, France, Portugal, the UK and the USA. The agenda continues to offer a diverse range of musical genres and the venue has become one of Porto’s most popular music destinations. 

Dining in Porto is taken seriously and the city is home to a wide variety of cuisines including many seafood restaurants serving freshly caught fish from the Atlantic. Meia-Nau have two restaurants serving a wide variety of seafood dishes. Antunes is a typical old school Portuguese restaurant serving a wide variety of meat and fish dishes. Many sushi restaurants exist in Porto including the cooler Subenshi spread over several floors. Vegetarian cuisine has also grown massively over the last few years with Seiva being the most innovative followed by Tia Tia with its own private garden and Espécie open daily serving food all day. For Mediterranean and Israeli flavours try MONTEEN. For Italian, try Innamorato. For some of the best modern Portuguese try, OFICINA. For authentic Mexican, try Frida. 

Drinking in Porto is also a big deal given how much wine Portugal produces and exports. For natural wine head to GITO, a new wine bar. Capela Incomum is a 19th century chapel serving Portuguese wines and tapas. Aduela is a firm locals favourite with a terrace. BASE is a cool outdoor bar with a DJ and located by Porto’s famous historic tower. On the other side of the river in Gaia where the Port wine lodges are and with stunning views of Porto is the Porto Cruz Roof Terrace. 

Stay. Listen. Play. at Porto’s newest hotel and discover a different rhythm this spring and summer in Portugal’s northern city. 

moucohotel.pt  / instagram.com/m.ou.co M.Ou.Co. : M=música; Ou=outras; Co=coisas (Music and Other things…)

B&B is priced from 85€ per room per night

M. Ou. Co – Rua de Frei Heitor Pinto, 67, 4300-081, Porto, Portugal. 

Less than five minutes walk to Heroísmo metro station or Campanhã train station