The Luxury Travel Magazine
The Luxury Travel Magazine
Is it a hotel? A performance centre? A music library? A great restaurant? A cutting edge bar? An on-trend place to hang-out? M.Ou.Co is Porto’s Stay, Play, and Listen Music Hotel and so much more And more. No doubt that M.Ou.Co. this city by the sea’s coolest hotel.
“M.Ou.Co? It means music and everything,” the receptionist responds to my quizzical look. The business gurus amongst you will sense disruption. Today’s successful businesses tend to cross boundaries. Steve Jobs turned the phone into an entertainment centre. Richard Branson aims to transform space exploration by making it into a holiday.
Hotel M.Ou.Co is edging into the music industry and it is probably the coolest place to stay in Porto. Even the name, a mix of initials, is radical. M.Ou.Co’s cutting edge when it comes to technology too. Every guest is issued with a smart phone that is loaded with helpful apps. There’s one for the useful essentials such as the location of the nearest open pharmacy and supermarket. A lengthy list of restaurant recommendations shows that Porto is becoming a foodie destination. Then there is a selection of walks designed to guide you around Porto’s attractions.
Forget the conventional hotel’s usual mix of spas and gym. M.Ou.Co does rehearsal rooms and a recording studio. The owners want M.Ou.Co to be a place where struggling musicians check. Aiming to reset their mental health and rediscover their creativity. Being a musician can be a lonely experience.
Musicians can hire guitars and keyboards from reception. This seems to have the potential to create a deafening atonal symphony. But if you worry about aspiring musicians simultaneously releasing their inner Jimmi Hendrix – fear not. The hotel rooms are superbly sound-proofed. You can hardly hear the cries of Porto’s raucous seagulls.
So, the challenge for M.Ou.Co is to reinvent the hotel. Making it comfortably homely for the 2020s. But not throwing the baby out without the bath water. An outdoor swimming pool, surrounded by sun loungers, makes the cut for those hot summer days. And it’s a site of quiet nooks and crannies. Even in early spring or late autumn you’ll find a suntrap of a spot for a quiet sangria.
Within a short stroll of Porto’s Campanha station, M.Ou.Co is an ideal landing pad for those arriving by rail in Porto. Even closer is the nearest metro station of Heroismo. Sitting on four metro lines, the underground gives M.Ou.Co guests rapid access to the city. One of Porto’s quirks is that on the metro you see flip-flops alongside stilettos. And briefcases next to surfboards. The metro also heads west to the Atlantic waves and wind-blown sands of Porto’s beaches.
There is an irony to the fact that Porto’s hotel of music lives in a quiet enclave at the heart of a city where trams clank and seagulls scream. Though remember that this is a city of music too. Buskers’ melodies carry to the ears of drinkers and diners sat by the River Doura as the sun sinks.
Later when the lights dim, throughout Porto the fado is sung. Portugal’s melancholic songs, the country’s take on the blues, were created long before the blues were born. These were sad songs sung by women whose men were away at sea. Fado translates as fate and the music is a way of confronting destiny with dignity. This is M.Ou.Co’s musical milieu.
Forget bland box hotel brands. M.Ou.Co immediately announces that this is not your conventional hotel. Talking to the world, a bold white sign, straight from the lexicon of cinema, lists forthcoming performances at M.Ou.Co. In the old world of hotels, guests would step into reception. Not at M.Ou.Co. A sloping, zigzagging path takes them through the most Zen of gardens. A tranquil red-leaved tree contrasts with the whitest of walls. There is a sun-drenched Californian feel to the architecture.
Open for less than a year, M.Ou.Co has already hosted classical, indie, jazz, rap and many a music genre. Children’s music workshops too. Some evenings there will be a DJ in the exposed brick bar. Probably looking on enviously at the cocktails the bar staff are shaking. Guests spend hours in the music library
It’s books are an eclectic treasure trove. You will find tomes on Abba and the Beatles. One author to seek out is New Musical Express critic Nick Kent. Back in the 1970s, Kent claimed notoriety by commenting that fans had washed their hair prior to a Pink Floyd concert whilst guitarist Dave Gilmore hadn’t. As every one of the rooms features a record deck, guests can sign out up to five LPs and books to enjoy in their room. Those rooms are larger than those of the average city hotel. On the footprint of a former factory, even the entry level rooms have a kitchenette with fridge and two ring hob. Given its history and its aspirations, the style is post industrial chic with studio lighting.
There is no doubt that M.Ou.Co is an original. One of some interesting options in Porto. Although open for less than a year, international travellers are checking in. While locals love the restaurant for those big family get togethers. Encouragingly, the performance centre is booking more gigs for the future. It looks as if M.Ou.Co’s three word motto – “Stay. Listen. Play” – is on a roll. And that is why M.Ou.Co. is Porto’s coolest hotel.
