Hotel dos Templários — Hotel in Tomar

You will LOVE this hotel for some important reasons I describe below but beyond the surface you will find problems... The rooms and the bathrooms are nice and comfortable even if the bedrooms are a bit outdated, and both are very large for Europe. The bathroom is fabulous and very large. The pools are phenomenal; the outside pool is huge and very deep in some areas, which I love, but the inside pool is a little dirty (I found the same dirty band-aid 3 nights in a row, right by the indoor pool area on the far end side - and the pool water needed more salt or chlorine because I felt a mild infection after swimming there, nothing serious but all it takes is more attention to the water quality). The TV channels are non-existent. Worst of all, the coffee I drank at their bar was made by a very young woman who went into the kitchen and brought me some salty "colored" water, it was revolting and gave me GERD, which I never suffered from in my life. Really disgusting, with possibly gone-off ingredients or Lord knows what (untrained, maybe, and that's the reason why I only have the staff 3 stars, also because in other 4 and star hotels they impromptu accommodate healthier breakfast needs but not here). However, I complained about the bad coffee and the next day a fabulous bar attendant called Vasco made me a very good cappuccino imitation (hard to find real cappuccino in Portugal, except for good quality airport hotels and Starbucks), the best I had drunk in a long time, so if you like good quality coffee you need to specify that and the best of staff will help you out. But you need to be specific. Breakfast is included in the price, which is a good price for a hotel of this size, but the food is below mediocre and worse than in more "modest" hotels in Portugal offer. I would have preferred to pay less with no breakfast or to pay an additional fee for a very good breakfast. ZERO options for vegans unless you only eat cakes and pre-cut fruit (come on, have some baked beans, they are cheap!). The warm options were all "industrial-made" because they seem to be exactly the same, to the texture and taste (not good) that all other hotels in central Portugal provide. They gave me stomach pains. Another problem: they don't provide any free water in the room (unlike most other hotels I have stayed in anywhere) and they do NOT provide a kettle for tea or coffee (which you can find in the cheapest of hotels in Portugal but not here). The free water they provide at reception is TAP water and you can taste it (horrible). That's NOT acceptable. So on the surface it's a great looking hotel (the reception and bar areas are fabulous, probably the best in Portugal) but it has a lot of issues and an experienced traveler like me won't be satisfied with all those problems. They need to improve to accommodate discerning, experienced travelers who like good quality food and impeccable pool water. The clientele seem mostly to be Portuguese and Spanish, occasionally with some French seniors, so they may not care about healthier or vegetarian/vegan options; the rest of the clientele were happy-go-lucky seniors (American and other) who paid a package deal so unaware of detailed prices I am sure. But there is a wave of health-oriented tourist and business travelers like me; to those discerning about what they eat, preferring plant-based and above all preferring quality, well to those I warn that it's not all that great hotel that you may expect...

Good points: Location is great, very central and it is very nice to see the old pine trees and hear the birds as you walk outside

Parking was free when validated and very easy to access

The pianist was incredible and made the evening very pleasant

Pool and sauna are good

The main areas are well maintained

The low points:

The bath looked dirty and old, as did the tile cracks by the shower. I asked reception for room service to clean the bath, they did but it still looked worn and not pleasant to shower in

Breakfast was very mediocre (not many healthy choices) and the staff was not happy. They seemed rushed and annoyed. The breakfast room was hot and not pleasant to sit in

The reception staff were friendly, but did not seem to care much

The main hall smelled like chlorine

Fitness room looked dark and depressing

Charging €1 for coffee pods…?

I think the price does not justify overcharge for what you get. It’s very mediocre service and rooms...

Never comeback to this hotel again!! I'm not usually one to leave negative reviews, but I'm extremely frustrated with their customer service. We checked into this hotel on the afternoon of May 13. Our room # was 408. When we returned after dinner, we discovered there was no internet signal in our room. We reported the issue to the front desk multiple times, they kept telling us they would send a technician to solve this problem in 15 mins. The reality was no one come to our room, and we didn't have internet access for our entire stay. The evening front desk guy, who is in his 40s, was very rude to me. He claimed "he can do nothing about it. He even said "you have internet access in the lobby, so you received internet service from hotel". The attitude on his face showed he didn't care about customer's problem. What kind of 4-star hotel is this? They don't even...