FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Portugal Starwoods: from the Algarve to Porto [Master Thread]
Old Nov 14, 2005 | 2:12 pm
  #20  
HugoCH
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: GVA
Programs: BA Gold; AF/KL FB Gold; LX FTL; PC Plat/Amb; SPG Gold; HH Gold; Club Carlson Silver
Posts: 235
Just back from a trip to Portugal including stays at the Sheratons in Lisbon and Porto, so thought I'd add to these generally positive reports with one of my own, even though I have no status with *wood.

I booked a Towers-level room at the Lisbon Sheraton and was offered a room on the 24th floor. If I hadn't insisted on a non-smoking room (the highest non-smoking floor is the 22nd), I'd have got a room with a view over the entire Tagus estuary and the whole city. As it was, half of that view from the 22nd floor was obscured by the ugly apartment block next door. At least we got the full view from the lounge.

The room was quite plush and comfortable, though not exactly spacious. And the view was on the good side of the building. My main problem was with the Towers lounge, which is probably the worst I've ever seen at any hotel, *wood or otherwise.

For a 65 euro mark-up over a standard room, we got a happy hour that was accurately named only in that it lasted exactly one hour - from 7 to 8 p.m . But it wasn't exactly very happy. The lounge is tiny - the size of 2 regular rooms, so I guess we were lucky the Towers rooms weren't too busy because we got to sit down and actually eat off a table.
The beverages on offer were Portuguese only: red and white table wine (drinkable but nothing special), some ordinary tawny port and a sparkling wine. There were no spirits of any kind and absolutely no beer. Even the soft drinks were limited to water and fruit juice. No Coke or the like.
The "canapés", meanwhile, were what I would call UFOs - unidentifiable fried objects. The round ones tasted vaguely fishy while the triangular ones tasted of nothing at all. There were no nuts, chips/crisps or anything else.

I got up too late to try the breakfast.

So the LIS Sheraton is a good choice for anyone content with a standard room in a good hotel. It's also convenient for Picoas metro station and the staff were very friendly and efficient.

A few days later we arrived at the Sheraton Porto, which is a magnificent modern building. My 10th-floor Club floor room was perched 30 metres above the lobby atrium - only 10 cm of concrete floor between my bed and the void below!
The room was extremely comfortable with the high-tech glass bathroom already mentioned, but unfortunately a huge steel beam extending diagonally across the window. There wasn't much of a view anyway.

Again my main complaint is that the 45 euro mark-up for the club floor just wasn't worth it. The Club "lounge" was unstaffed (so check-in was at the main reception desk on the ground floor) and although happy hour lasted 2 hours it was barely any better than in Lisbon. Unsurprisingly, the selection of port wines was a lot better, but otherwise the wines were local again, and no spirits or beer were available. The food was fishy when it wasn't tasteless, so the whole experience was generally disappointing.

Either of the LIS and OPO Sheratons is a perfectly good hotel that I would recommend, but the Towers/Club level rooms are a total rip-off.
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