Very helpful man at the frontdesk. Fire lit every night. Great to walk in the mountains right after breakfast when it is not too hot and then get back torelax by the pool. By the way very nice surroundings by the pool - olive trees to give you some shade. The village Alvados is very small and nothing to see. A bigger town is Leiria 1 hr drive away, cosy with small streets.
Lovely and tranquil place with friendly staff, beautiful decor, nice food and beautiful nature. We went hiking in the hills, attended outdoor yogaclass and hang out by the pretty pool. All rooms are different with lovely views and cool features.
We stayed in tis hotel with our 2 kids and enjoyed it a lot.
The pool is nice, the nature is beautiful and the food is good. I had the best octopus ever in my life !
The young staff is really friendly and helpful giving good recommendations on places to visits, restaurants to go to etc.
A great place to stay a couple of days.
Just one point to improve > better tea selection for breakfast :)
This was the highlight of my trip to Portugal. Great staff, great food and drink. Total relaxation. Rooms are very interesting, and clean. Do not be fooled that you can get there by yourself. NAVIGATION is a MUST. This hotel is located in very secluded location deep in the mountains. Make sure to take advantage of a cooking class. Hotel staff is well trained in culinary arts. If you have time, I recommend to spend a few nights. The hotel is located within short distances from major Portugal’s main cities that tourists visit.
This place may be a little tricky to find but it is well worth the effort. The public rooms are very comfortable and our bedroom was a delight - a picture of a penguin family on the ceiling! The log fires inside and out added to the sense of relaxation. The food was fantastic and I am pretty sure I will never have better mushroom soup if I live to be 120 (which I think I could reach if I came here regularly). Thoroughly recommended.
We went there during winter time and for new year's eve. The climat is great at that time 12 - 16°C and that was sunny. Hotel really hold its promises, very nicely and consistantly designed rooms, great architecture and different pleasant places with fireplaces, nice outdoor space and heated inside small swimming pools.
It's a boutique hotel, so service is not extensive, (for example the bar is an "honesty bar", meaning you help yourself and write down what you have) but the people we had were very nice and very helpfull, in every situations (that goes from the owner to the cooks, but we especially appreciated Sara).
We're not very sporty people, but we went to walk in the surrounded mountains every day. They have very nice trails and they give you (free) gps loaded with the trails so you can't really loose yourself.
If you have kids place is fine for them and they even have a soundproof room!
Breakfast was good, with a large choice (even if I would have had a bit more fresh fruits), and serve till 11 am which is nice when you come here for a rest.
In the evening, the food was good, and we really enjoyed taking the cooking lessons (everything reagarding too boring preparation was already done)
The "cooking and nature" concept, is in my opinion very well managed (not too much, not too little), meaning that you can stay there whithout cooking or mountain walking, but you can also cook every evening and have nice walks, biking and so on in the region.
Overall, we were very happy there and we would definitely go back, try another room (I think most of them are great)!
A few minor improvements (as nobody's perfect :) ) :
- therapist war good, but I think there is still a way for improvement
- I understand that as they are offered for cooking class as well, the number of courses cannot be extended, but that would be nice if you can change every 3 days. That way if you stay more than 2 days and don't like one of the course you don't have to eat the same menu twice
- New year's eve set menu was a bit expedited (I understand there were everyone at the same time and kids), but it's a little bit of a frustration regarding the extra price
