Location
The hotel enjoys a good central location close to Martim Moniz and Rossio Metro stations. The airport bus also drops off at Rossio, about a five minute walk away. Many of the key attractions and plenty of restaurants are within walking distance but the real bonus is that Tram 28 and 12 stop a few steps away. Staff at reception are very helpful and will provide you with a free city map, pointing out the hotels position in relation to attractions and transport. They also sell tickets to the Oceanarium and stored our bag until after 2pm, the published time for room availability.
Room
We had room 521 facing Martim Moniz Park. It’s well double glazed, so even though it’s a busy main road with cars and trams, the street noise didn’t disturb us. The room is spacious and comfortable with nice bed linen but the double is really two singles pushed together, with the inevitable gap down the middle. They also supply two single quilts. There is an in room safe, TV and chargeable mini bar. There’s a nice writing desk but it’s irritating that there are no electrical sockets at desk level, so you’re reduced to scrabbling about on your hands and knees and unplugging something to get your phones charged. Also disappointing not to have tea/coffee making facilities in the room. Nice big bathroom with over bath shower, but the towels and bathrobes supplied are a little on the thin side but do the job. Shower gel, shampoo, soap are supplied all good enough without being amazing.
Breakfast
We’d booked a B&B deal and that’s taken in Jardim Mundial on the 1st Floor. This is a huge room and is completely self service (excluding clearing the tables). There are two similar, large food stations at either end of the room so you can use the one closest to your table. There’s quite a vast choice of hot, cold, pastries and cereals but the hot choice is a little disappointing if you are here for a few days, no variation. Eggs are only scrambled, no other choice. On our first day there were a number of tour parties staying at the hotel and by 7:15am the room was packed. We had a table alongside one of the buffet stations and it was a bit like having breakfast in the middle of a mainline station. The following days were much quieter and more relaxing and the food on offer each day was good enough to set us up for our days sightseeing with a full stomach.
Accessibility
There are no steps in from the street into reception and lifts are available to access the rooms and Jardim Mundial. I didn’t check every part of the hotel but overall accessibility looked good.
Overall
It’s a good base for exploring Lisbon and Rossio station is just 5 mins if you want to head off to Sintra or elsewhere. Rated as a 4 star it probably lives up to that but no more. We got this as a package deal with the flights from BA, so assuming a similar deal, we’d use this hotel again as a base to further explore Libson. A two Euros per day municipal tax is added to your bill.
