looking for hotel recs-lisbon, lagos and porto
 

Hello all

I am leaving for spain and portugal in mid-september. I was looking for hotel recommendations for Lisbon, Porto and Lagos. We are a young couple, don't mind walking but would prefer hotels within walking distance of city centres (and preferably under $100 per night!)

Porto hotel I enjoyed.
Porto
Melia Gaia Porto 4 starts
Nights: 2 $100/night (used Expedia.com)
This hotel is new and business oriented. Best breakfast on the trip with great variety of items including dietary food, great coffee machines, the stations where you can order eggs to your liking; efficient staff.
Our room was large with huge bed (two queen size beds under same headboard).
There are two negatives I want to mention, both were not too important to us, but might be big to some of you. First, the water pressure in the shower changed all the time, very surprising for the new hotel; second, first night we walked to the riverfront and surroundings were not pretty. We hired taxi on the way back (less then 4 E) and next morning to the train station (5E).

I can't remember off-hand if they were less than $100, but I do remember we got quite a good deal on all of our hotels in Portugal.

Lisbon - Le Meridien - very modern/attractive and a nice walking location

Lagos - Romantik Hotel Vivienda Miranda - a little outside of town (we had a car) and an EXTREMELY steep hike down to a public beach. We liked this place the least, although the grounds are lovely. We were in the cheapest room in the place, and it was a hole. Service was eh.
Porto - Infante do Sagres - BEAUTIFUL common areas and a good location, but my goodness, one of the hardest beds I have ever slept on. We would seriously have to take Tylenol PM to get to sleep on that plank.

Our favorite, though, was the Pena Longha, just outside Sintra. A gorgeous Ritz-managed property at a fraction of the price.

Thanks for the suggestions! I was laughing about your comment about the bed at the hotel in Lagos; my brother is a chiropractor, he'd probably recommend the hard bed!

We stayed at Holiday Inn Garden Court in Porto five years ago. I don't remember any negatives - the bed wasn't hard, and it was a very covenient location. The breakfast room was very pleasant and the breakfast itself very good. I think we paid 60 euro a night.
In Lisbon we didn't stay in a hotel but in a pensao, Pensao Lar-Do-Areeiro. It was halfway between the airport and the centre, and very close to a metro station. Like the Porto hotel it was plain business-type decor, and very good value for money - certainly less that 60 euro a night.