I stayed at the Ivens for a few days recently and thought I would post a quick review for anyone considering a stay there.

The hotel is very easy to get to from the airport. I always prefer Metro in any city I'm in over local taxi or Uber (a few countries excepted). Take the blue or green line (have to transfer from red) to Baixa-Chiado. The hotel is 2 blocks away. Travel time was 38 minutes from the airport and about 43 minutes to the airport.

The person who I first interacted with in the ground floor lobby was Antonio. He was awesome. He couldn't believe I was the ambassador coming to check in. I arrived early because flights from the US arrive early into LIS. Plus I was dressed in jeans and a hoodie which is typical travel clothes for me. He was professional and accommodating and told me that he noticed my SNAs had cleared but that the room wasn't ready. He proactively asked if I would like a separate room to take a rest or shower which I graciously accepted.

Breakfast was included because of my status. it's hosted at the Rocco restaurant which is directly connected to the ground floor lobby. Think old school, wildly decorated Italian place. Breakfast menu is 35 euro and includes coffee/tea/hot chocolate + fresh juice + bread basket + jams/butter + choices of eggs with two sides or cereals + fresh fruit. They're all served separately. I got the eggs each morning - one morning scrambled, another an omelet. Although the menu didn't mention it, they asked me what I would like in my omelet. The fresh juice was great. Service the first morning was fantastic and the waitress was super nice. The next morning I had a waiter and he was very unsure of what he was doing. I still got my food without issue and it was tasty.

A few other notes about Rocco: they have alternative milks which I was very happy to see. They unfortunately re-use their jam jars. They're the tiny jam jars like you get on airplanes, etc. They were re-filled and re-sealed with the sticky paper over the lip but the jar had clearly been used as evidenced by the encrusted jam at the rim of the glass on the inside. Plus there was no 'pop' of an unopened jar. Not a huge deal for me as I don't eat jam or much bread anyway. They did have a Nutella-like offering as well.

Covid protocols are taken more seriously in Lisbon now. I was there a few months ago and things were very lax. The Ivens is definitely enforcing the Covid rules put in place for lodgings - aka must have an EU digital vaccination card or a PCR test every 72 hours or an antigen test every 48 hours. Upon check-in I was asked to show my test which I had taken the day before. I also had to sign a self-attestation of the test I presented upon check-in and sign it. Since I wasn't staying more than the time allotted by my PCR test I can't say for certain how/if the hotel would have followed up with me for another test. I also can't say if the US CDC paper vaccination card would be sufficient because the self-attestation mentioned "EU Digital Vaccination Card or equivalent". I didn't ask what that meant.

Restaurants around the city are definitely checking vaccination status. A pic of my CDC card and ID were sufficient. I didn't go into any clubs this trip so no comment there.

Overall, Ivens was fantastic. The location is fantastic. The Metro runs under the hotel and I could definitely hear the trains as they rumbled by every few minutes but I quickly forgot about it. Otherwise, the hotel is in a very quiet part of town. Quick walk to the Arch, the main shopping areas, Tram 28 start, etc.

Comparing this to the Sheraton isn't truly fair. The Sheraton in its own right is in a good spot of the city but definitely longer walks to the tourist sights. The Sheraton does have a lounge (closed due to the pandemic); but they offer drinks/snacks in the lobby bar for qualifying guests. The Ivens has no lounge.

Hope this helps someone.

-RM