| Product: |
Hotels in Lisbon in general |
| Date: |
05/05/05 (160 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: good beds
Disadvantages: small, slow lift
When travelling abroad I donīt book hotels online, I somehow donīt trust myself, what if something goes wrong? I need someone to blame , so I go to a travel agency I can trust, they do their job well, up to now there has been no need to blame them!
When we went to Lisbon at Easter they found the Sana Executive Hotel *** for us for the special offer of four nights for the price of three meaning that the double room cost 70 a night (including breakfast) instead of 160 (without breakfast, breakfast costs 8 extra), Iīm sure that was a good deal and I couldnīt have found a better one myself.
The hotel is about a quarter of an hour away from the airport by car, i.e., the planes can be heard but they didnīt disturb us, the windows are good and keep most of the noise out and then, Lisbon airport is not Heathrow, thereīs not one plane after the other.
We arrived at midnight and found a friendly man at the reception desk who gave us the key to a room on the 7th floor. Thereīs one non-smoker floor (the second), but he didnīt ask us if we wanted to have a non-smoker room, the one we got, didnīt smell, though.
The hotel has only one lift which is not good for a house with 10 floors and 72 rooms, Iīm willing to walk up three floors but not more and the lift is a small one, comfortable only for four grown-ups. This is my opinion, other people think differently and when they see three people already standing in the lift, push in nevertheless with, say, two suitcases and five bags. In such a case I get out to the great astonishment of the other passengers at the floor where this happens although itīs clear that itīs not my destination and wait for the lift to come up again which is quite some time in the Sana Hotel, itīs so slow!
As it seems to be the case in all hotels from three stars down the door of the room opens directly into the room, i.e., there is no hall between the corridor and the room proper with a second door to keep out the noise. We were lucky, we only had quiet neighbours and, of course, we had our earplugs with us! Stepping in one finds the bathroom to the left, small but with all the necessary facilities, hair dryer, some toilet articles (soap, shower gel, tissues), new towels every day. The seat of the toilet bowl looked a bit worn, the covering finish was getting off in places.
From the space in front of the bathroom which is 2,50m x 1m one steps into the room proper which has the dimension of 3m x 4m, directly to the left covering the wall of the bathroom is an enormous wardrobe with sliding doors covered with mirrors containing the type of coat hangers all hotels have of the variety guests donīt steal because they canīt use them at home but which always fall off the hooks, a mini bar and a safe. For the safe one has to pay 2,50 a day and leave a deposit of 10 which are given back on the check out day. Air conditioning, Cable TV, Radio, direct dial telephone, itīs all there.
The furniture is fake art deco in dark wood with metal decorations, I quite liked it. The beds are comfortable, the mattresses perfect; Iīm not a good sleeper am I, but I slept very well indeed at Sana (the word means healthy!), in fact one night I slept for unbelievable 10 hours without interruption, what more can one want. The Portuguese are a small people but not so small that they could check their hairstyles in the large mirror hanging on the wall opposite the beds, I could not see my collar bone, to say nothing of my face!
In front of the window covering the whole wall are two tables with a chair each and the rack for the suitcases between them. The big asset are the movable bedside lamps with bright enough light bulbs so that reading in bed is possible, something Iīve never found before, not even in a four star hotel.
The room looked clean and we saw the cleaning ladies at work every day, however, when I missed my biro, I only found it two days later lying on the carpet under the curtains of the window, what does this tell us? Well, it didnīt bother me too much to be honest, do I use the vacuum cleaner at home every day? No, I donīt.
Now, down to the breakfast room which is on the ground floor opposite the main entrance and behind the reception area at the end of a corridor (where thereīs also a loo in case one doesnīt want to go up to the rooms), in fact it is the end of the corridor, thereīs no door closing it off; if all the 72 hotel rooms are occupied , itīs definitely too small. We were there at Easter and the house was quite full, people had to queue for some time until they could find a seat. This is not nice for the peeps that have to wait but not nice for the ones eating, either, I donīt feel good if I know that others are looking at me thinking, īWhy canīt she eat a bit faster?ī
One wall of the breakfast room is made of glass with a door leading into a patio with a palm tree. I saw some tables and chairs there and thought why not wait outside instead of standing around, so I went out but didnīt get far, I banged my head against the glass pane, I hadnīt realised that the door was closed! None of the guests and waitresses blinked an eye, either because they were polite or because they were used to catastrophes. The tablecloths were all of superproportional dimensions hanging down over the sides and even touching the floor, I was waiting for someone to trip on them bringing crockery and cutlery down to get my share of self-made catastrophes, but in vain, during the week we stayed there nothing of that kind happened.
They have a self-service buffet there, not exceptionally rich but with much more food than I would ever like to eat for breakfast, one can have everything from müsli to hot sausages, I donīt think anybody went away hungry.
The hotel doesnīt have any sports facilities (why should tourists go to Lisbon and then spend their time in the workout room?), there are two function rooms for conferences on the top floors where up to 70 people can congegrate. The entrance area has a kind of lobby where people can sit and watch TV or have a drink from the bar. Internet access is possible on request, private parking is offered and disabled facilities available.
The Sana Executive Hotel is situated in the new quarters of Lisbon, very close to the most important business and shopping areas, it takes five minutes on foot to reach the underground station Sao Sebastian from where it is about seven minutes to downtown Lisbon (one way ticket 0.65 ). Just above the underground station is the enormous shopping centre El Corte Ingles with a supermarket and a very good self-service restaurant. The world famous Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is also only five minutes away on foot.
We had booked for four nights but wanted to stay for seven nights in Portugal, we didnīt know if we wanted to stay the whole time in Lisbon or travel around a bit. We decided to stay and do tours to the surrounding sights, so we asked if we could stay for the same favourable conditions we had got through the German travel agency. We could.
Recommended? Definitely!
Sana Executive Hotel
Avenida Conde de Valbom, 56
1050-069 Lisboa Portugal
email: sanaexecutive@sanahotels.com
www.sanahotels.com
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 30/05/05 We've only stayed in the Algarve but do fancy Lisbon. Not sure if I would stay here as you had a few problems.
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- 20/05/05 Did not understand your maths on the room rate, nor your rating of the hotel when most things did not come up to standard.
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- 09/05/05 have already read it and commened!Ann
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