Quinta Da Praia Das Fontes

The Quinta is lovely, well-decorated and comfortable.

The room is very comfortable and beautifully decorated. The breakfast was very good, with fresh products, some of them local. The location is fantastic, right by the river with a great view of Lisbon, and very close to the centre of town (restaurants, bars, museum, etc.) also, there is public transport to Lisbon close by.

Wonderful location adjacent to the Tagus estuary. An historical building with a huge garden. Individual and comfortable bedrooms set around a large courtyard. The breakfast room is a converted olive storeroom which is stunning. Breakfast buffet was beautifully laid out. We booked a full day birdwatching tour and explored Saltmarsh, mudflats, forest and farmlands, seeing 78 different species. Will certainly be back again.

In "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," Sherlock Holmes comments on the curious incident of the dog that barked in the night. That was the main problem of our stay at this hotel. The hotel allowed two dogs to roam free in the gardens, on which our room backed, and the dogs barked loudly until at least 1 AM. When we complained, the dogs were locked up for the next two nights but were out again on our fourth night. The other problem we had was figuring out how to work the shower, which has both an overhead and a hand-held fixture. It was not clear how to get the overhead to work, and we managed to flood the bathroom when the handheld came on instead and shot water everywhere. We had to use all the towels, which are mostly so thin we had to use the pool towels as bath towels, to soak up the water. Otherwise, we were mostly pleased with our room, which was large and clean, with plenty of room to unpack for four nights. Some of the furniture was rather worn, but the room was still attractive, and it was sufficiently well lit that reading was not a problem. The knob and lock on the outer door were set so low you had to bend over to lock and unlock the door. You have to be careful about opening the door, as the area swarms with mosquitos, and as careful as we were, some got into the room. The hotel has a very nice breakfast buffet served in the former wine cellar, and there are many good restaurants close by. A nice place to stay, but bring ear plugs in case the dogs are loose.