Best Hotels near Igreja do Salvador, Arraiolos

Staying in a historic place full of history that was preserved is always something to retain. On top of that feel being well received is always good. The place is amazing, the people are friendly, definitely a place to return and enjoy not only the Pousada but also the Arraiolos village and the surrounds.

First the good. Most of the staff are very nice. The bar and restaurant area are pleasant and so is the pool area. Water pressure in the shower is good. However, this is not up to 4 star standards. The rooms are dated. The doors don't fit properly and there are gaps. It is the first time I have seen a shower curtain over a bath in an hotel in many years. The TV is a very small free standing TV. There is a terrace but it only has one chair. On our second day after housekeeping had been we were faced with stained bath towels, we took them back to the housekeeping room but there was noone there so we swapped them with unstained ones. Certainly not acceptable in any class of hotel. The restaurant is nice and the food is good, but only buffet. Breakfast is extremely noisy because the hotel caters to coach parties and conferences. The breakfast food is nothing great but ok. The pool area is nice but although there is a member of staff in the pool bar area you have to get dry and dressed to go into the hotel to get food and drinks, not really great for a supposed 4 star hotel. The pool also was full of flying ants,/mosquitos on the first day, although there were a few less on the second day.

Not a great start but did get better through the 4 days. Our arrival was frosty, especially madame manager who couldn’t crack a smile for her customers. Next it’s a 4 star hotel that wanted payment for the room upfront. Then they didn’t accept Amex and finally, laundry service was suspended but they could give us the details of do it yourself launderettes in the town. Not a good start to our expensive stay. That said we had a very nice bungalow, well maintained and a nice cool retreat from the blistering summer heat. Great shower pressure, comfortable beds. All the important things for a vacation. The weird process of having to book specific times for breakfast and dinner didn’t make much sense, especially since there were never more than 4 tables occupied for the times we were there. Could be a process still in place from the pandemic. The jewel was the roof pool and solarium. A lovely place to chill after tourism. The staff we engaged with were very nice and helpful. It’s a shame our initial experience was tainted by management and some obscure policies you’d not expect for a hotel with 4 stars.

The hotel is in a good location, is modern, elegant, clean and well-maintained. Staff were very friendly. The room and bed was very comfortable and inviting. One thing that would have been helpful, would have been driving instructions. Either that, or a pickup from the front desk when I called several times for help. Evora is full of narrow, winding and one-way roads, and the GPS route was unadvisable (it wasn't obvious that our vehicle would have had enough clearance to navigate the extremely narrow lane that GPS sent us on) so we ended up asking lots of people for driving instructions. I suppose that's part of the charm of the place but after a long drive to get there ...

Our second stay in the en-suite room and, if possible, even more relaxing than the first time. The staff were superb, attentive and generous and the room was immaculate and peaceful. The breakfast is simple but enough to start the day for us. We went back because we wanted a few days of peace and quiet in a comfortable setting and that is exactly what we got. We said we would stay there again last time - and we have and will do again in the future.

The hotel is located in the old town of the gorgeous city of Evora. It’s indeed just refurbished and everything is brand new, the different spaces well decorated. I had a suite, all the comforts were available and the bathroom was really comfortable. No tub, but the shower made of grey stone very spacious and pleasant. Problems: the breakfast/dining room is only one and is tiny, so that for breakfast you have to take turns. If you wake up too early you have to wait, or if last minute you need to go early it can be fully booked and the staff is not very keen to find a solution, apart room service or accommodate you outside by the pool. That it can be good in summer, but not appealing in the other seasons… . A pity because a part this the hotel has a lot of charm and the staff was professional enough. The suite was a bit overpriced for the services offered. I would not recommend it for business, for holiday and with more flexibility in managing meals can be fine.

We had spent 3 nights at this Hilton and we got a top rate service, starting from the reception, with Moises, Raquel, Davide, the room services are excellent, as the different restaurants, where I remember just Celso, Diogo, Paolo. The breakfast display is amazing. The rooms large with excellent beds, plus free cover parking for gold members. If in Evora don’t look around this is the place.

What I liked: 1. When I first walked in … my impression was ‘Wow’. A sleek and modern lobby and a open concept restaurant really made the place look amazing. 2. While I didn’t use the pools. There were a lot of choices. I think there were 4 pools and they all looked nice. 3. The included dinner at the hotel restaurant with my Globus tour was more the same type of meal I could get in North America. I generally want to try the local cuisine. However, there was a lot of choice with the buffet and a very pleasant experience. The breakfast the next morning also had a lot of variety 4. The rooms were clean and modern What could be improved/didn’t like: 1. The check-in at this hotel needs a lot of work, especially when dealing with bus tours. However, I think a lot of their business are bus tours since I noticed a very large parking lot with several buses next door. We went to our room and discovered it didn’t have two twin beds. This was a communication problem with Globus and spoke to our tour guide after this issue. We phoned reception and told them the situation. We asked for someone to come to the room because it seemed to be a long walk to get back to reception. After about 10 minutes, someone arrived from reception and walked us to the new room. We weren’t too thrilled since it was directly in front of this “wall of heat’ that we passed by when getting off the elevator. The new room also had a lousy view compared to the first one that overlooked the pool. We specifically asked the reception person to make sure that are luggage comes to the new room. She told us not to worry, but sometimes it takes a bit of time. We waited for more than 40 minutes and then thought – maybe they sent our luggage to the old room. I went back and it wasn’t there. We called reception and finally got our luggage more than an hour after checking in. This time there was somewhat of an apology since it was the same reception person who said it would be sent to the new room. She admitted that she forgot, and we respected her honesty. Originally, she seemed annoyed when taking us to the new room and only seemed concerned about whether we used the washroom in the old room. When we met people from the tour and told them about the situation, they said there is a ton of luggage in a small back room that hasn’t been delivered. This lack of organization and efficiency took one hour of out of our vacation time. 2. The front of the hotel is glass and looks very modern. But when you pass by the corridors that are in the front of the hotel facing the street versus the back facing the pool – the temperature is so hot it is noticeable. I think the hotel tried to put some type of additional wall to block the heat. However, it isn’t enough and there needs to be more air conditioning in the corridors to keep the place at a proper temperature.