Grande Hotel de Luso — Hotel in Mealhada

|I love a thermal experience which is why we booked this hotel. I thought from the website and stuff they sent it might be an old fashioned spa hotel but that is not the case. The building is old but the inside has been refurbished and the attached Thermes are very modern indeed, at least the treatment areas are. ||It is true that the prevailing colour scheme in the hotel is brown, but it is well furnished and spacious, the rooms and the common areas alike. There are several lounge areas you can sit in, an Olympic size outdoor pool (just a bit chilly when we were there but lovely to sit round) and a fantastic indoor pool which is just beautiful.||We had a standard room which was fine, in fact it was on the north side of the hotel without a balcony but that meant the room stayed cool which is a good thing. The rooms have decent lighting, a fridge and a safe but lack tea making facilities. It was comfortable and quite well soundproofed, you couldn’t hear people walking up and down or slamming room doors. Until night 2 when the chap next door made a very loud phone call at 11.00 at night and was shouting...||Small complaint – the shower screen didn’t fit properly and it was hard to have a shower without making the floor very wet. There also weren’t enough hooks or racks for all the towels – bath towels, robe and swimming towels.||Breakfast was generous and relaxed, you could go whenever you wanted and no-one was taking room numbers. There was a decent coffee machine but the hot food was not all very warm.||Luso is only a little place but it has quite a lot of places to eat, and it is possibly to walk in the Bussaco national forest but it is a very steep walk up steps from the town and the map the tourist office give you is not very accurate so we got a lost...

The stay at this hotel was a very great and pleasant experience. The rooms were superb, very spacious and well looked after, the morning cleaners didn't miss a spot and were very thorough. The food was very good as well with a wide variety of food to choose from. From kitchen to reception staff, everyone was really pleasant do deal with and very accommodating. Hotel features an indoor and outdoor swimming pools, the latter features a 3, 5 and 10 metre diving board and the pool is from 1.3m to 4.6m deep.

The area of the hotel is rich with thermal waters and there's a day or two worth of stuff to do around there.. A few hundred meters away from the hotel there's a big fountain with amazing water and lots of people come and fill their water jugs there. A bit higher you can see an abandoned theater. As you follow the stairs up in the forest you find a nice set of stairs which look very Thailand-ish. The whole area is riddled with things from around 1690, the biggest being the big Bucaco palace with an amazing garden, which maintained very well. The architecture is very detailed and nice as well. Buçaco Forrest as it's called has an amazing history, from being settled by monks to seeing wars being fought, which I'd advise you to learn all about to have a truly unique experience. Leading up to the highest point of the forrest Cruz Alta there is a Calvary with many stations of Jesus's suffering. It was built in 1694 I suppose from clay and it's really interesting to see. And the view from the top is amazing, especially at nigh and the half an hour it takes you to reach the top is...

I really wanted to stay here after many years visiting as a child. We stayed for 4 nights. For the most part service was great and everything was fine. We got there essentially the day after tourist season when the town was closing down and the hotel turned from something cool to something short of being in hospice.

It is a great short hike up to Bussaço and if you are atrial ever like me you will see many California natives in the park.

The swallows on the side of the building where really cool as well as the view towards the back.

There was one rude morning server at breakfast who obviously did not like the gays and was quite rude to my husband because he needed a napkin and try taking one from the empty table. The next day I paid him with kindness and a few winks to let him know that I am here.

There are some features that I didn't like, such as the fact that in 2023 there should be shower doors instead of the water falling all over the granite floor.

They charged me a euro fifty for a pool towel without even telling me there was going to be a charge. 3 Euros isn't going to break the bank.

I am grateful for the very secure windows that tuned out the 530 am town of roosters. The king size bed is not a king size bed but two twins push together with a line going down the middle which is very uncomfortable, but the mattress themselves was fine.

I did find the front desk to be very helpful and kind.

Would I stay here again?

Absolutely! But since I have no desire to come back to see family again in Portugal that...