Pousada da Serra da Estrela - Historic Hotel

We spent five days here as a family. The hotel itself is very good, and the pool, kids' room and games room are highly recommended. The gym equipment has some issues, though. The shower and AC in our bedroom didn't work well. The shower was worst of all, shifting from hot to cold and back again without us touching the taps. I also didn't understand why we had no slippers or why my gowns weren't replaced with dry ones. Dinner was a problem every one of our four nights. The first night, employees argued with each other while taking ages to serve us. On the second, my plate and the kids' plate both arrived with potatoes even though we'd ordered them without. The kids' rice on night three was rock hard and over-fried. Night four was a complete disaster: they forgot one plate, and I had to remind them. Then I had to ask them to redo mine because it had gone cold, something they should have noticed themselves. When both plates finally came, the fish was overcooked, my meat was cold, and the cake dessert was overcooked too. They offered appetizers to apologize, but a €6.50 appetizer doesn't make up for the same sort of mistakes across four separate nights at these prices. I can't recommend staying here.

We brought our dog, so it was great that the hotel accepts pets. The staff were friendly, and our suite on the third floor was spacious, with a round private balcony. The bed, though, was too soft, and the WiFi was very weak. The place is full of couples with kids, lots of kids, so it's not somewhere to come for quiet time. The spa area was noisy with no adult time to relax, and children ran around in the restaurants and corridors. Breakfast and dinner were buffets with a very poor choice of food. The grass by the trees around the hotel was covered in dog poop bags. We picked up at least six and put them in the trash.

We really like it here, and would come back. The hotel is beautiful and cozy, the staff at reception and around the hotel are polite, and the children's playroom is pretty good. All the toys worked, and the batteries had been replaced. Covilla is nearby. Our room was warm, and the bathroom was spacious and comfortable. The pool was warm and easy to get into, and the children really enjoyed it. There's plenty of room in the sauna if the pool feels too cool. The bathroom also had body cream as well as shower gel. Breakfast was very good, though I wished there were more vegetables. Lunch and dinner use the same menu, even though we paid for half board and had to choose from the menu for dinner. We stayed one day with a few more still to go, and were told the menu might change a little so we wouldn't have the same dishes every day. One thing to keep in mind in cold weather: moisture gathers on some windows and drips onto the floor. In our room and the game room, we put towels under the windows. After two days, we could wring the towels out by hand. It wasn't happening on every window.

The hotel has a games room, sauna, steam room and indoor pool. The outdoor pool was closed for the off-season during our October visit. Breakfast had a generous, varied selection, but the dinner menu was limited and the food tasted flat. The bar had few options beyond local wines. The views and setting are amazing, but it's an impractical spot if you need to get around on foot or reach amenities. The road climbs to the hotel's 4,000-foot elevation in winding curves with a 10 percent grade. Experienced drivers will notice the challenge, and it's definitely not suited to driving at night.