Weekend MR to Lisbon
 

On my earlier trips to Portugal, I found it to be quite inexpensive. I haven;t been back since 2001. Prices seem to have gone up a lot since then. Any ideas for a a decent hotels for two nights? I am going thehre for the weekend of 21-22 Feb.

Becoming part of the eurozone meant a big increase in prices in Portugal.

I always stay at a Pension when I am in Lisbon, which is down in the Rossio area, and even that's nearly €30.

The costs for a hotel often add to the costs for the mileage run. When searching for a hotel on a mileage run to Europe HRS is an excellent tool. It supports 25 languages, lists hotel prices in all major currencies and works as follows: Go to the HRS website. Choose Zulu, English or whatever language is convenient for you. Do a hotel search on the city or region you intend to visit. A list of available hotels appears with the lowest priced hotels listed first. Distance to the airport etc. is mentioned. Click on the hotel name. Pages with the specifics of the hotel will pop-up. You can check on directions & distances, view hotel photos, check facilities and see the street map.

On 21 February 2004 you can have in Lisboa, Portugal:
- Residencial Horizonte, 2-star hotel, single room US$ 45 breakfast included;
- Residencial Avenida Alameda, 2-star hotel, single room US$ 47 breakfast included
- Residencial Dom Sancho I, 2-star hotel, single room US$ 48 breakfast included;
- Dom Manuel I, 4-star hotel, single room US$ 55 breakfast included.

Thanks for the great info. It's my fault that I did not make it clear, it's more like a family MR/micro vacation.

I just stayed at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers for $59/night. Email me if you want to find out how!

I e-mailed you. I had a problem with my smtp server. I had to try it several times. It turns out that the SMTP server name had been changed. Did you get any e-mail from me?

[This message has been edited by Yaatri (edited Feb 16, 2004).]

welcome to portugal! in lisbon i would definetely choose the sharaton lisbon. alternatively i like the tivoli group: choose tivoli lisbon if you want to mix with the jet set, or the new tivoli tejo, if you travel with kidds, as it is within walking distance to the oceanarium in the expo98 area.
in oporto: there is a brand new sharaton, which i did not try yet
in algarve: there are a few sharatons, very good value for money in the low season. yet, in algarve, you can find even better values in the low season, if you are not too much addicted to the spg programme.
cheers, and consider yourself invited for a beer if you come to algarve/carvoeiro.

Many hotels I tried to book are saying that we book two rooms since we have two children, 11 and 6. Has anyone come across this before? Whatever happend to children sharing parent's room?

in this case you should go for the radisson-sas lisbon! just book online. they will not pose any problems.
my family, we are 6: 2 small kidds and 2 teenagers. though we usually stay only with the small ones (we only request a room with 2 beds, which might get upgraded to a junior suit on arrival), we have already stayed there the 6 of us having only a room (upgraded to junior, that is). the hotel is confortable and breakfast is fine.
at the sharaton, it shouldnt also be a problem to stay with small ones. only at local hotels the issue might come up!

I love Lisbon and thought of doing a MR there myself -- stay at Sheraton and use Cash/Points from spg.com to get a cheap rate. Prices are still very good for travel there. I love it!!!

Hotel rooms in Europe are generally very small compared to US. Finding two double beds in a room or extra floorspace for rollaways is rare. Bedding is usually set up exactly for the number of guests declared.