Hotels in Matosinhos

Matosinhos is Porto's working seafront: a fishing and port town at the mouth of the Leça river, now absorbed into the metro area but still with its own clear identity. It is best known for fish. Charcoal grills smoke outside the restaurants around Rua Heróis de França, serving sardines, sea bass and octopus straight from the boats at Leixões harbour. The long sandy beach is popular with surfers and families, and across the river in Leça da Palmeira, Álvaro Siza's tidal swimming pools and Boa Nova Tea House are pilgrimage sites for architecture fans.

Be honest: the Atlantic here is cold, the beach often windy or misty, and the container port and industrial edges are hard to romanticise. It's no postcard resort. But it's handy, with Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport a short ride away and the metro reaching the Cathedral, Palácio da Bolsa and Campanhã in central Porto. Stay near the beach and the restaurant streets close to a metro stop, so you can eat well in the evenings and still get into Porto easily.