Lisbon Hotel Question
 

Three questions I am hoping you all can help me with associated with our April trip to Lisbon (and elsewhere in Portugal).

1) Any suggestions for a nice (but not crazy expensive - $400/night max) family friendly hotel in central (good location) Lisbon?

2) The party is 2 adults + 2 small kids. Obviously - I would like to put us all in one room - but it isn't clear to me that a lot of these hotels have rooms that can accommodate 4 people. Am I confused?

3) My wife wants a hotel with a gym. I want to convince her that gyms in hotels are somewhat rare in Europe. Can you back me up?

Thanks

Hotel Mundial is right in the thick of things and has views of Castelo Sao Jorge.

www.hotel-mundial.pt


Thingorjus

rholt:

http://tiny.cc/SxbMW

This is a link to Hotel VIP Eden. We stayed there this past May .... especially large rooms, and they even advertise rooms for two adults two kids...of which they have more than a few. Good sized elevator, very attentive staff..excellent location.

We paid about $175 for two of us..when the € was at 1.55. The hotel is on Praca Rstauradores, easy walk to Praca Rossio and pedestrian Rua Augusta....trams to Castle Sao Jorge are one block from Rossio. Just about 50 yeards from the hotel entrance is the tram to Bairro Alto.
The Eden is a renovated movie theater from the 40's..clean and neat..beautiful rooftop pool with smashing views of the castle and the city(see pix).....breakfast bar is next to the pool....but we opted for a smaller egg, juice, cereal and pastry breakfast at a fine little cafe next door...you can feed the whole family for less than $12..nice outdoor seating, etc.

Here are my Portugal pix, and the Eden is in the first batch, pool a little further on.

Stu T.
(yes other than the very upscale chain hotels, gyms are rare in Europe...they don't seem to be nutty about exercise...maybe they know something we don't!)

Rholt...best viewed as a slide show...click on slide show and set to about 5 second intervals.

stu

Hi, rholt,

I know several people who like the Heritage chain a lot. Actually, chain is a bit of a misnomer, since I think it's a family run five or six hotel group. I am pretty sure that one of them has some sort of fitness center, but it's probably nothing like you would see in a standard US business hotel chain. I think it's worth asking about though.

You can see the locations on their website: http://www.heritage.pt/

I've stayed in the Lisbon Marriott a number of times, and its fitness center is small, two kind of clunky ellipticals, three treadmills, and some weight machines. I definitely wouldn't choose it because of the fitness center, because the location is not great for those who are going to Lisbon for tourism.

And another option would be the Real Palacio. http://www.realpalaciohotel.com/index.html I see from their website that they have some kind of gym. I like the location very much, though it's not right downtown. It's very convenient, close to the metro stop Sao Sebastiao and the Corte Ingles department store (great supermarket). It's in a very pleasant neighborhood, probably mainly 19th and early 20th century, lots of commerce -- small shops and cafes, etc. My parents stayed there about 7 years ago (I think it's been renovated since then) and got great internet prices.

I think you are not going to find too many places with rooms for four, but I could be wrong on that. We have travelled in Portugal a fair amount with adult children and frequently were able to get connecting rooms. But we didn't ask about rooms for four, so I can't say that they weren't available.

Happy planning1 Laurie

Although I realize that you asked for help with Lisbon Hotels, please consider renting an apt (especially since you will have your children with you).

We stayed in this apt in Lisbon with our two children in 2006 and would stay here again in a heartbeat.

The apt was so nice and clean and although we didn't cook much, it was still nice to have a kitchen and a washer/dryer combo. Lastly, both of the couches fold out to make double beds (although my kids choose to share just one).

Paolo, (the owner) was great and we had planned to pay for the apt in cash on arrival but could not get any money from the atm's and Paolo just told us to pay him when we could.

Here is the apt:

VRBO- #77293