Hotel Astória

Beautiful and elegant antique hotel. Everything they kept original. It is like you are walking on a 1930 movie. Very elegant and charming. The elevator is very unique and gives you the vintage feeling of the time. Although, I guess… even the carpet is original… this vintage hotel could be so wonderful, but they do need new carpets asap (the old carpet gives the hotel a cheap, dirty, weird vibe). The hotel needs to figure out how to incorporate a new carpet with an antique style. Bedroom was ok beautiful decorated with vintage furniture, bed was very comfortable (although we got 2 twin beds instead of a queen bed. Looks like the queen bed was very small). Common areas,bedroom and bathroom were very clean. The rooms do not have a huge balcony, but quite nice to have the Mondego River view (keep in mind that the view in the pictures is better, in the real life view, the hotel has plenty of bus stops in front of it, and unfortunately they were having construction when we were there - noisy and dusty). Breakfast was poor in quality and options; fruits were not cut; coffee was terrible, not a gluten free friendly place. Hotel is very close to many coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and pharmacies. ( It is convenient). Overall this is a nice vintage hotel budget friendly in a very central location for travelers who are visiting the city for a couple days and don’t want to spend a lot of $ in expensive hotels.

The shower was dingy and took more than a minute to drain the pool of water out of the tub. When I asked if someone could clear the shower, we were told that it couldn’t be helped, and to our knowledge no maintenance person ever visited the room. The soap provided was the smallest hotel bar of soap I’ve ever seen, supplemented by tiny packets of body wash. Also, there isn’t proper ventilation in the bathroom. Finally, this hotel doesn’t have WiFi in the rooms, only in the reception area/lounge. When connected to the WiFi I could browse the internet, but I couldn’t enable a VPN or download apps that I required for traveling. The train I took to Coimbra had WiFi on it, it’s a little silly that in this day a hotel doesn’t have internet available in the rooms. The staff member that works at night was absolutely lovely and gave us fantastic recommendations for restaurants. Also, the view was wonderful from our room on the third floor and the location is great for walking around Coimbra.

In the first place, this hotel promises to give you an experience being in a very old classic and classy hotel where all still is original. The longer I was here (about 18 hours incl. the night), the more I experienced less interested employees, and a lack of interest of pride of the heritage and story of the hotel. The LED lighting in the rooms is far from romantic. Cables are laid sloppily. Actually, the main glass hotel entry canopy is dirty, and one part has a burst. This is kind of illustrating for the entire scene. Unfortunately, because this hotel could be a classic masterpiece with just some more hospitality attention and especially care to furniture, facilities, etc. There are many hotels in Coimbra to choose from, as a lot better option, and even for a lower price. I tended to give 4 stars, but I think the hotel management should try harder to bring that what they say in the booklet in the rooms.

Near walking distance to train station and the area near the university, eg. Igreja de Santa Cruz. Staff are friendly and helpful. Rooms are comfortable. If you like a hotel with a 'turn of the century' feel to it, Hotel Astoria is for you. Balcony gives a nice view of the river.

The hotel itself reminds me of one of the historic residences around Portugal that you would normally take a tour through, not stay in. The feeling was historic, but as far as an actual place to stay it was incredibly run down and the group of 7 we were with all left the next night congested out of our minds from god knows what is on the carpets or walls. There’s exposed concrete showing in the rooms and it’s hard to breathe in the hotel in general. In general, I would not recommend staying here although I can appreciate its historic value.