Pestana Cidadela Cascais Pousada & Art Hotel

You can’t beat the location, the grounds inside the citadel are a sight to behold, but the place is run down. Breakfast was the highlight. We arrived at our room down a long hallway which had scratched walls and chipped paint everywhere. The carpets were stained. We got into our room to find mold ringing the bathtub enclosure, mold on the curtains and chipped paint on every corner of the room, and scratched furniture. We had an invasion of ants, which we thought imight have been our fault, we since leave unopened candy on the table, but no, we overheard another guest complaining to their friend that they had the same problem. So it was not our fault. Lastly, the elevator didn’t work for four out of the five days we were there, including the day we left. We had to take our bags through the service elevator to get them to the first floor so we could checkout. We told the front desk to no avail. If you want to stay at a 5 Star hotel this is NOT the place.

The good - This a funky hotel with a focus on art and design which is accentuated throughout the hotel. The hotel was kept clean and rooms were spacious. The bad - We noticed that the water pressure in the room was extremely low (almost to a dribble) and what water did come out didn’t drain away. On reporting this, they duly fixed the problem very quickly… The ugly - When we returned to the room, we noticed that maintenance staff had left the bathroom very dirty with footprints all over the shower mat and bathroom floor. My partner noted this to the man on reception on our way out to dinner (middle aged with greyish hair) only to ask if they could kindly replace the dirty bath mat. The man took immediate offence to us and the request, getting irate with my partner. It shouldn’t be relevant, but my partner is also pregnant and could do without the stress of dealing with a man with unprovoked aggression. The man then did arrange for new towels to be delivered to the room, but the dirty towel and floor were left for our benefit. I don’t expect this level of behaviour at any hotel, let alone one that prides itself for providing a 5* service. As my mother told me, manners don’t cost anything!

Fantastic place and excellent service. Beautiful surrounding9 s. Just let down by very ploor evening meal. Lovely breakfast. Cold plates for hot meals. Cold bowls for soup which was luke warm. Little or no presentation of food, ,which should be the norm for a five star hotel.

We stayed in the Pestana Cidadela Cascais for a week. Although the hotel has an amazing architecture und a great view from the breakfast restaurant and pool area, we will definitely not be coming back and we cannot recommend it. First, it seems they don’t want families staying. On the phone, we were told there were no available rooms for families for the week, but we then had no problems booking a room on their website. Secondly, families have to stay on the ground floor (junior suites) in rooms that only have a tiny window- not recommended for anyone who is claustrophobic! Our room was had a damp smell which they seem to attempt to hide with a sweet artificial smell. But the major problem we encountered were two giant cockroaches in the room…the hotel staff acted surprised and not too bothered when we showed them the pictures (when in fact this has been a problem before, as can be seen in a trip advisors review from October 2023). They only send over a housekeeping lady who stamped on the two cockroaches but left one of them leaving half alive on the floor. So we asked at the reception to change rooms. One would assume the hotel would be horrified at having cockroaches in the rooms, especially when charging over 400 euros per night, but they acted quite nonchalant about that…So we ended up staying in another room (not because the hotel offered but because we begged to change rooms. Also, not an upgrade but a room almost next to the cockroach -room). That room unfortunately had mold in the bathroom and a shattered water basin. Oh, and they don’t clean under the beds, so no wonder cockroaches have a good time hiding under there. This is quite a problem throughout the hotel, where the carpets on the corridors are quite dirty as well as the carpet in the breakfast room. In the corridor leading to the breakfast room we saw another cockroach during the day, not a good sign for cleanliness. So quite a few things dampened our experience. You really don’t get what you pay for. To top it all of at the end, we had to pay the hotel 100 euros for five nights parking …something they didn’t bother mentioning at check in. This has unfortunately really tainted my experience in Cascais and I strongly advise against booking this hotel. It is such a shame, the hotel is beautiful and the location amazing. But it has the worst hotel management.

We stayed here for a night last week on our Portuguese tour. The staff are extremely helpful and the breakfast had a lot of variety, our room was spacious with a big comfortable bed. I recommend it to Cascais visitors.