Palácio da Lousã Boutique Hotel

Style

Curlicued country palácio

Setting

Cyclist’s mountain rest

In the wooded hills of the Serra Lousã, ornate plasterwork, four-poster beds, curlicued balconies and imperial staircases bring polished grandeur to Palácio da Lousã Boutique Hotel. There are fewer flourishes in the hotel’s modern wing, but rooms are just as high-spec. And there are victuals fit for a viscondessa at its Portuguese restaurant and bar. The hotel’s mountain locale has timeless appeal and is a lure for cyclists, too – this grand bolthole having achieved Bikotel status: all guests (Lycra-clad or otherwise) can take a free tour on two wheels.

Facilities

Rooms

46, including six suites.

Checkout

Noon; earliest check-in, 3pm but both are flexible, subject to availability.

More Details

Rates include breakfast.

Also

Lifts provide access to all floors at Palácio da Lousã, and one room is adapted for wheelchair use.

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Pet Friendly

Pool

On-Site Restaurant

Room Service

Spa

At the Hotel

Gardens, indoor and outdoor pools, spa, playground, bike workshop and wash station. In rooms: free WiFi, smart TV, minibar, Nespresso machine and kettle.

Our Favourite Rooms

Rooms in the modern wing, contemporarily dressed in monochrome against soft-blue walls, are practical for families (with extra space) and cyclists (there's even a bike rack in your room), but it’s the original house that steals our hearts with period plasterwork details, ornate window frames and (in some cases) Juliet balconies. Our tip is the double deluxe rooms (201 especially) on the second floor.

Poolside

In addition to the soon-to-open indoor pool at the spa, an outdoor pool in the garden is bordered in stone paving and reached by a series of grand staircases. Its generous proportions are crowned by a semicircular shallow end with curved steps and, adjacent to the deep end, there’s a broad sun terrace of parasols and sunloungers.

Spa

The newest addition to Palácio da Lousã is a spa complex at garden level and we can’t wait to see how the heated indoor pool and trio of treatment rooms complement their historic setting.

Packing Tips

Elegantly draped tailoring and a fair bit of sparkle are de rigueur if you don’t want to be outdone by the grandeur of the palácio’s high ceilings, chandeliers and sweeping staircases.

Also

The hotel can arrange a ‘blind dinner’ (not to be confused with a blind date) in a private corner of the grounds with a surprise menu of food and drink designed to conjure a memorable, romantic evening.

Children

Welcome: cots can be added to suites for free (on request) and extra beds for three to 12 year olds at a cost of €50; the hotel can arrange babysitting (at extra cost) and there’s a kids’ menu at À Terra.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

In a glass-ceilinged annexe, the chef’s table seats 12 on high stools and oozes exclusivity. For drama with dinner, take a seat by the open kitchen, or opt for the serene scenery that comes with a winter garden table.

Dress Code

À Terra’s casual set-up has no need of a dress code, but a little finery will go a long way to make you feel at home in the hotel’s series of elegant salons for post-prandial drinks.

Hotel Restaurant

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, top-floor À Terra prides itself on unpretentious Portuguese fare that borrows liberally from other cuisines. Its menu of regional mains (baked sea bass, slow-cooked lamb with chestnuts), tapas-style small plates, cheese platters, burgers and pizza backs up the restaurant’s casual ambience with irreverent section headings such as ‘starving’ and ‘crazy for cheese’. Its décor, however, reflects the palácio’s refined standards, with woven chairs, pale wooden floors, Japanese lantern-style pendant lights and potted ferns strung from the ceiling. A pillared conservatory (called the winter garden), with floor-to-ceiling windows, has tables for two or four with a side of mountain scenery. Due to open in summer 2022, A Viscondessa is the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, serving upscale Portuguese cuisine: if the food can even meet the beauty of the fresco- and gilt-adorned 18th-century dining room halfway, it’s sure to be an impressive addition.

Hotel Bar

À Terra welcomes drinkers as warmly as diners with a choice of craft beers on tap, bottled cider and beer and extensive cocktail list covering everything from martinis to negronis via caipirinhas. Portuguese wines from Minho, Douro and Alentejo are available by the bottle or glass.

Last Orders

Breakfast is served at À Terra from 7.30am–11am. At both restaurants, lunch hours are 1pm–3pm and dinner, 7.30pm–9.30pm.

Room Service

A dedicated menu is available 24 hours.

Planes

Porto airport is one hour and 45 minutes away by road and Lisbon airport is a two-hour drive from the hotel; private transfers can be arranged at an extra cost.

Automobiles

There’s a free car park on site at the hotel. Driving from Porto is straightforward with only a few turn-offs to navigate.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

The Serra Lousã is a landscape of forested hills, home to deer and wild boar, but also waterfalls (Pedra Ferida), Lousã’s very own ruined 11th-century castelo and mountainside schist villages (aldeias do xisto): one of the best preserved of these 17th-century stone hamlets is Talasnal, where terracotta-topped ancient dwellings, draped in sun-loving vines, are ribboned with steep alleyways and there’s also a restaurant and a couple of craft shops. Unesco-listed university town Coimbra on the river Modego has an attractive old town, a Romanesque cathedral and a monastery where Portugal’s first king is buried. Guided outings into the countryside arranged by the hotel (on foot, by tuk-tuk or bike) include a bike ride to a blueberry farm, complete with picnic, jam-making workshop and blueberry cocktails back at the palácio, and a trip to the apiary, to see what makes Lousã’s origin-protected honey so special. Road biking and mountain biking in this wild terrain attracts cyclists of all sorts; hiking, too, is popular.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .