Our recent Portugal trip hotel notes

We followed our Rick Steves' guidebook in booking hotels for Lisbon and Porto--the Hotel Avenida Palace for Lisbon, which was a beautiful, very pricey hotel in a good location--just as we expected from the guidebook--that gave us gifts of fresh pineapple chunks and vintage port after long days walking through Lisbon--and the Guest House Douro for Porto. With the GHD, boy did we hit a home run. Owner Carmen gave us white port and camomile tea (for slightly sick husband) while we hung our heads out of our room window overlooking the river Douro as soon as we arrived (Room 402--small, but not too small, with a romantic view of Porto). Amazing location, gorgeous and tasty tropical fruit sculptures by Carmen's friendly husband Joao for the included breakfast, and free port tours and tastings at Graham's port cave for GHD guests. Carmen also directed us to (and made the reservations) for excellent dinners at a 4-table hole-in-the-wall. Really perfect for Rick Steves-style travelers! I feel like Carmen and Joao are now our friends after long, entertaining conversations, and I intend to keep in touch. That's the best part of traveling, no? We also met some really nice travelers from Nebraska (we're from New Hampshire) at breakfast. I was smitten with GHD for its excellent location right along the river, luxurious accommodations (we had fresh tropical flowers, changed daily, in our bathroom and Vista Alegre porcelain as decorations and custom-made with the GHD logo at breakfast) and my husband fell for the good value considering you get to tour a great port cave and try three healthy portions of their ports, free of charge.