Pousada Convento de Belmonte

This is an atmospheric ancient convent turned into a hotel in the hills overlooking the tiny old village of Belmonte, 2 ½ hrs south of Porto. An easy drive. We spent 2 nights - which is plenty - doing a wonderful walking tour on the Jewish history of the area. Highly recommend Tito and his company based there. The hotel restaurant is good, but there is nothing light for lunch, as seems to be the Portuguese way. Breakfast is a buffet with no real staff (coffee machine, good bread cheese and meats, pastries, terrible looking scrambled eggs in bain marie. We stayed in the one and only suite, which is extremely large with a private terrace. However, be warned about this suite… it’s 3 levels. On the entrance level is a small hallway and the small bathroom. The shower is in the bathtub with a curtain (pet peeve, shower curtains are horrible!). Then up a small set of stairs to a sitting area, with sofa, small dining table and doors to the terrace. Then up 8 more stairs (wooden and very creaky) to the bedroom area. This is a decent size room with king bed. Terrible pillows, but oddly we have found this to be the case all over Portugal. The rooms are clean, pretty enough, lots of stone and charm, but if you want the largest room/suite, you should know that from bed to bathroom is down two sets of loud stairs (needing my phone torch in the middle of the night). We asked to look at a smaller room but all they had was much smaller with a bit of a musty smell. Service wise, the hotel is lacking somewhat. We asked them to make a booking at a restaurant in the village (5-8 mins drive) and when we got there, no booking. Luckily there was a table free. We also asked for the room to be serviced while we were on a 3 hr walking tour, and they said sure, but it wasn’t done.

Nice hotel for a short stay. The room is large, but the bathroom is not very efficiently set up, and some renovations would be needed. There are also some areas of the hotel that could be better used. The pool is fine, but too small, and there should be more pool chairs, for instance in the upper terrace over the pool. In the restaurant, for dinner, it is a bit strange to wait in the entrance so long until someone tell us where to sit.

What a great hotel formerly a monk’s monastery. Incredible grounds and mountains surrounding the facility. Very friendly staff. Unique way to stay. Rooms identified by monk’s names. You walk through halls and floors of stone getting to your room. We had incredible views and could see for miles outside our back patio. Comfortable room and bathroom. Very nice.

The Pousada is a very well recovered old monastery with plenty of very nice social areas and confortable rooms. Located outside Belmonte on a quiet hill. Breakfast was good. Price was very competitive. Bathroom, although generally ok, shows signs of age and should be improved.

This hotel was amazing. We loved everything about it. The room was great, the breakfast outstanding and the location was perfect. It is located at the top of a steep street and feels a bit isolated at first. But once inside every view was beautiful and our three level room had everything we could possible need or want. Be sure to make sure you are not reserving this room if you have trouble with stairs. There are other lovely choices.