A public space at Palácio Príncipe Real
Pandemic or not, Lisbon’s hotel landscape is always evolving. (So are its restaurants.) Construction projects hum along all over town, and in recent months a few interesting new players—with completely different approaches—have arrived on the scene. Meanwhile, established hotels used some of their forced time off to expand, improve or change directions. Now the city has something for every kind of traveler.
A room at Palácio Príncipe Real
Palácio Príncipe Real
This newcomer in one of Lisbon’s poshest neighborhoods has history—it was the home of the noble Teixeira da Mota family, and Lisbon society still speaks of the parties hosted there—and also a surprising dose of nature. The private garden courtyard is an oasis in the city center, and one of very few in town to be large enough for a swimming pool. The 28 bedrooms have original tiles and moldings, slipper bathtubs, whimsical details and SMEG refrigerators stocked with local treats.
The rooftop pool at Lumen Hotel
Lumen Hotel
Lisbon’s extraordinary light is the the inspiration for this new design hotel, off the tourist track in the neighborhood of Picoas. The rooms are oriented for maximum sunlight, of course, and they’re also decorated in color palettes of yellow (golden dawn), orange (copper nightfall) and white (pure light) to suggest different incarnations of the sun. Custom lamps, similar to old-time photographic lighting, diffuse the artificial light in the rooms, and columns of light help with wayfinding in the public areas. The rooftop pool soaks up the sun, and its red mosaic tiles tint the light they reflect. Every night, the interior courtyard is illuminated with the Lisbon Light Show, an immersive video-mapping presentation that introduces guests to the sights of the city.
Sítio restaurant at the Valverde
The Valverde
Lisbon’s only Relais & Châteaux hotel roughly doubled in size in the past year, after a three-year renovation project that incorporated two adjacent buildings, to 48 rooms. It still retains its quiet and intimacy, and its feeling of being a discreet townhouse in the middle of one of the most fashionable blocks of Avenida da Liberdade. But now it also has a new living room with natural light, a balcony overlooking the indoor patio, an elevated heated swimming pool, a gym and treatment area, and a new, much bigger home for its excellent restaurant, Sítio. There, chef Carla Sousa prepares a menu of Portuguese dishes influenced by her family roots in Cape Verde.
A newly renovated room at the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon
Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon
More than sixty years after it first opened its doors, Lisbon’s most storied luxury hotel has breathed new life into some of its guests rooms. Portuguese architecture studio Oitoemoponto didn’t want to destroy the vintage feeling—the hotel is an emblematic architectural piece of 1950s Portugal, and its art collection practically makes it a museum of modern art—nor their own memories of staying at the classic hotel. They set about “re-imaging the past for the present,” creating rooms that nod to the hotel’s roots will making sense in the 21st century. Their look is lighter and more contemporary, and their tech is state of the art. The balconies overlooking Parque Eduardo VII, needed no improvements.
The new restaurant at Hotel 1908 Lisboa
1908 Lisboa Hotel
This art nouveau-meets-contemporary hotel in the up-and-coming area of Intendente used its dormant time to rethink all of its food and beverage. When it reopened last month, it was with a Portuguese restaurant under the direction of new chef André Rebelo (of Jangada at the 1908’s sister hotel, You and the Sea, in Ericeira). The new cocktails and menus make ample use of the organic vegetables grown in the garden of the seaside hotel.
The Decadente restaurant and the Independente
The Independente
This property between Chiado and Príncipe Real may classify itself as a hostel and suites, but many of the 22 suites in the renovated 19th-century palace are perfectly comfortable and luxurious. (They just don’t have mini-bars or room service.) Its management also used the time off to create new concepts in the restaurants and bars. Its restaurant, the Decadente, took on a new approach that combines its signature grilling and a new raw bar and an impressive list of wines by the glass. And its rooftop the Insólito, has a new bar counter and open kitchen, where chef David Vieira and his team are turning out a thoughtful men of snacks and small plates, meant to be paired with the master-crafted cocktails. Two more restaurants are in the works.
