Lovely hotel, great location near the sea, only 5-10 mins walk from cascais centre. Lovely friendly staff, great brekkie and good rooms. They had the best selection of british channels we have had at a foriegn hotel (the portuguese fox channel has all the american shows with portuguese subtitles so fully watchable). This sounds like a crap point to make, but after watching CNN / SKY NEWS for a week - you are crying out for something else! there is a really nice public park just behind the hotel full of peacocks, turtles and ducks which is a shortcut to the marina. I would stay there again!

The rooms were enormous!! I stayed here on business for 5 nights, and was pleasantly shocked when I came into my room. The hotel is quite a way from the airport, I was surprised that the taxi driver was leading me to the coast. Being on a business trip, you don’t really get to stay near the coast. The view from my huge balcony was wow. In fact, when I drew open my curtains on a Monday morning, the view of the ocean was so beautiful that I was very depressed to think that I would be spending the whole week in the office instead of enjoying myself by the beach. The hotel room felt like you were staying in a friend’s villa’s huge spare room because of the quaint homely d?cor and brownish ceramic tiles. There was so much space in the room. The bar was great to have a few drinks before heading out. Breakfast was decent. Cascais is a very upmarket residential area. I would love to have a holiday home here! I cannot emphasize enough how it really doesn’t feel like a hotel room!

Hotel is a decent standard tourist hotel with desk staff a bit in need of customer service training - not unpleasant just a little unhelpul giving curt/clipped responses to questions rather than offering info/assistance. To save you effort: > They do have maps of area, ask for one > Boca do Inferno is 10 minutes walk if you turn right on main road and there are some market type stalls there too, you cannot miss it > Town centre is 15 minutes in opposite direction (left on main road), Marina 5 minutes along this way > There is a bus every 10 minutes - BUSCAS - one-way circlular route for EUR0.65 per journey, stops at Marina, Town square/harbour, Station, Boca do Inferno etc. Room (jnr suite, sea view) not bad but 'new decor' leaves a lot to be desired - very dark & gloomy and not at all a 'holiday' feel. Pool & garden do make up as very pleasant - plenty loungers etc and guests came and went throughout day without leaving towels to claim ownership! Mixed crowd of nationalities and age groups but all in the polite & well-mannered set (no loud music, gangs of rowdies). Snack bar by pool OK but pricey and terribly slow service for lunch - instead take 5 minute walk and head out of hotel to the left towards marina and you'll see a small restaurant/snack bar by bridge overlooking lighthouse/bay (red awnings/tables) Excellent value & quality! You'll also still be quicker... Location appears great but problem is Cascais seems only to come to life at weekends - generally not a place to visit if you're looking for nightlife - to us in July felt like it was out-of-season and we're mid-40's! Beautiful Marina so close by hotel is virtually deserted all week which means sitting alone in a 50 seater bar or last out of restaurant at 10.30pm! That said two top restaurants on Marina - Latitude 38 (fantastic food, classy with friendly staff) and Entrecote Bistro (serves only their speciality steak dish which tells you how good it is!) Not surprisingly these are also generally busiest. Town marginally better from a livelyness perspective but avoid tourist/mediocre restaurants in main square - very average. Train from Lison to Cascais is cheap & easy but word of warning - WATCH YOUR BAG! Midday, with quite a few people around, just as train pulled into station distracted by Crook No1 whilst Crook No 2 snatched bag. Fortunately realised old trick just in time and with a bit of wrangling held on to bag but not pleasant experience so learn from us. For return to airport we used excellent company (Transferes & Tours) recommended by Tourist Info in Cascais - costs EUR35 but driver was charming taking us along coast route, highlighting sights so worth every penny. Another helpful tip is expect a cold wind in evenings - even on hottest days you'll need a sweater/jacket at night.

We had stayed in this hotel previously (May 2007) so were happy to book in for 5 nights of our 2 week holiday on the Lisbon coast. Last year the two of us had booked a twin room but were given a junior suite offering lots of space so we hoped to get the same this time around. At check-in, Sophia recognised us from last year and told us that we would be getting a similar room but on a lower level but then, without any quibble from us, she said she could do better and offered us one of the re-furbished suites. The suite was huge with a living area c. 5m x 5m plus tiny balcony (some have no balcony at all) and the bedroom slightly smaller but still very large. The refurbishment is excellent with the useless kitchenette having been removed, new furniture installed on a laminate flooring and a high quality bathroom fitted. LCD / plasma tv's in both rooms which also have their own a/c unit. Peeking through the doors of the twin / double rooms (left open as the cleaners were doing their duties) gave the inpression that these rooms are also quite generous in size and have been refurbished to the same high standard. For info only, there are no tea and coffee making facilities in the rooms in common with every other Potuguese accommodation we have stayed in other than on the Algarve. Buffet breakfast is available from 7 - 10.30 and there is a pretty good selection but does have some areas that could be improved. Being an Englishman my choice of cuppa is tea but outside of the UK it is impossible to get a decent brew. Elsewhere in the world, this is normally compensated for by great coffee being available and has been the case at all of the other hotels, most much cheaper, in which we have stayed. Unfortunately the VG Cascais seem incapable of providing good coffee and have dispensed with the seperate hot coffee / milk urns leaving only a couple of Nescafe machines dispensing horrible coffee or sweet hot milk both made from powder. VG Ericiera and VG Beja both offer good coffee so I don't know why Cascais cannot. On the first day we arrived for breakfast at c.9.15 and this must have been the peak time as the room was very busy but there did seem to be a lack of coordination of the staff. Tables were not getting cleared and re-laid quickly enough and no-one seemed to be checking and topping up the buffet. On the other days we got down before 8.45 and there was no such problems - we talked with a couple who had decided to avoid the peak time too but by going later, c.10 am and they said that the buffet had been re-stocked. Avoid the 9-10am period then and you should be ok. Other than using the room and breakfast, we spent a few hours around the pool that got quite busy but not overcrowded. Our main reasons for booking the VG were price and location being easy to get to by car and with free parking but also within a reasonable walking distance of the marina and Cascais centre. The other places we stopped in this time around were Sao Martinho do Porto, Nazare and Costa da Caparica. If you want a good source of info on Portugal I can recommend the Rough Guide.

My husband stayed in a sister hotel in Lisbon a few weeks ago and was so impressed he booked us a 3 night break. He upgraded our booking to a junior suite with sea view so we were expecting quite a good standard. When we arrived we couldn't believe how dismal our suite was. It WAS a suite but the decor dated back at least 20 years and there was a very tired kitchen area. The worst thing was there was no balcony to sit out on. As I went to reception to pay for our safe I could see that the standard rooms were better decorated and had balconies. We went back to the front desk and asked if they had anything better. The receptionist was quite vague and said how busy they were but we could look at a room where someone had not turned up. ( This seems unikley as we arrived before noon ). The difference in quality was huge - it was properly decorated with a balcony, nice furnishings. We took the second room which was really nice. However I think they were trying to put people in the lower quality rooms. The hotel was not particularly busy - most people were on older people's package deals. I think it was a bit off to put us into a much lower grade room than we would have expected from the 4 star rating. The location is good - close to the town and sea, and is very quiet. The buffet breakfast was included and had a good selection of food. There were a few families and some younger couples but most people were a lot older - 60 plus, so it wasn't lively.