Pestana Miramar São Tomé — Hotel in São Tomé

It took a mere ten minutes to reach the Miramar from the airport (taxi 10 EUR, payable in euros). I was greeted by a friendly receptionist, but her English was almost as non-existent as my Portuguese. She got me checked in, but when I tried to request a room with a good wifi connection, she didn’t understand me. Some receptionists spoke English well, others only managed a greeting. That was a big problem because there was only one person working at a time. However, I found all staff members very friendly and well-intentioned although I can’t praise them for being professional. The manager, Carlos, was an exception; he was professional, corteous and spoke excellent English.||||The room was a sad affair. Two narrow beds, a chair. No desk. No wifi. A small fridge with a complimentary 0.5 L water bottle, not replenished. Direct access to the pool, which was nice. The room screams 1986 all over, and the ”renovations” my Bradt guide tells me they’ve done seem to consist of thick coats of white paint, and that’s it. There was a safe in the room, but it didn’t work. They changed it the next day. There was a socket between the beds at floor level, so after some crawling I managed to charge my phone. The AC was efficient.||||The bathroom came with a bathtub&shower combination, but no plug so bring your own if you want to take a bath. Hot water was ample most of the time, and water pressure was fine. Toiletries included soap, shower gel and shampoo in wall-mounted containers, that’s it. However, the shower gel container was empty on arrival and was never refilled during my five-night stay.||||Wi-fi worked fine in the lobby, and there was a router in the hallway close to my room, so I suppose it should have worked in the room, too, but after repeated attempts to talk to reception and different explanations heard, I just gave up. This was a major inconvenience as the was no AC in the lobby, and there were mosquitoes there in the evenings.||||The breakfast buffet was served from 7 to 10. The omelettes were made to order and were tasty. Otherwise, it was a very basic buffet with a narrow selection; a few local items as well as imported cheese and ham, a few fruit, toast, and dry, tasteless pastries.||||I had dinner in the restaurant on arrival. The menu was extremely limited, pizzas, gnocchi and a breaded chicken cutlet. That’s what I ordered and it was visibly half-raw when I received it. When I pointed this out, the waiter didn’t see any problem with it so I had to use google translate to have them fry it properly. Be careful! Dinner is served from 6:30 to 10 and the menu was expanded during my stay to include some italian dishes, like tomato soup and pasta.||||The swimming pool is large but about the pool is too shallow for actual swimming. It was, nevertheless, a joy. The hotel was very empty during my stay so I had the pool all to myself. The water was refreshing and warm enough. There was a sign saying pool hours are from 8 am till 8 pm, but this was not enforced in any way, however the garden does get very dark after dusk.||||The hotel is located within walking distance of the beautiful old colonial center of the city, the walk took 15 min. Supermercado Colombo is a 5-minute walk away (1.5 L water bottle 10 dobras or 0.40 EUR, the hotel charges 3.50 EUR).||||The hotel is incredibly expensive for what you get. I paid 128 EUR/night, which is supposed to be a good price. The hotel claims four stars, which is completely ridiculous. If this hotel were located in eg. Spain, three stars would be an overstatement. Think of it as a worn-out 2.5 star establishment and your expectations will be more or less right.||||However, it is the only hotel within a comfortable walking distance from the city centre that comes with a swimming pool. If you don’t mind the price, the language barrier and the non-existent wifi, you will be okay here as long as you set your...

My wife and I stayed 5 nights, arriving at 1PM on the hotel’s TMS Airport shuttle. A nice receptionist assisted by the English-speaking manager copied my reservation, produced a key and a porter carried one of our bags upstairs to check the room. We soon discovered it’s underperforming AC and with the head housekeeper, we chose an acceptable room, then made payment with a VISA card. |#209 was tiled opening to a sliding door closet with a small refrigerator and safe, across a fully outfitted bathroom with a tub shower(broken mount for handheld shower). Next was a long shelf with an average reception cable TV(AXN shows/movies and Nat. Geo. in English, France 24 in French and more local channels) across 2 comfortable twin beds put together. The nice sized room had proper lighting/outlets/hot water, quiet AC, good secure WIFI and was serviced daily.|Glass doors had a lovely wide view of the large garden’s huge pool which we used daily.|The 7AM breakfast buffet was attentively serviced; juices, fruits, wheat flakes with several seeds and grains, egg station, cold meats/cheese, breads/rolls/jam and decaf/coffee/tea. |-This somewhat aging hotel(built in 1986, refurbished in 1996) has a comfortable lobby, beautifully tiled restaurant and a landmark pool surrounded by a spacious garden, all kept very clean and welcoming by diligent staff. Our Sao Tome manager, trained in Lisbon, went out of his way to acquire our needed Gabon Visas from its embassy recently moved to the suburbs.|-We visited the 2008 sister hotel(their nice English-speaking Portuguese manager arranged a tour) located 600m south, noting its ocean view rooms, spa/gym and upgraded breakfast(muesli, more meats/cheese & chocolate cake) but its infinity pool and unshaded garden are both small and tightly sited. |-We freely walked around the city center: Fort Museu Nacional, Catedral de São Tomé, Igreja da Conceição, Mercado Municipal, shopped at the Colombo Supermarket and ate lunches at Papa Petisco, Papa-Figo and here at our air conditioned...

This place single handedly devalued my entire trip up São Tomé. You would expect most of these from a low budget hotel, but not at $125 a night for basic room. Almost nothing works the way it’s supposed to: ||- wanted to book airport, shuttle in advance, but they do not respond to emails or phone calls. |- I prepaid online for my room, at check in they claimed I did not. Had to provide receipts. |- in the restaurant I asked if “Pizza Miramar” was vegetarian. Server says yes and brings ham pizza. |- shower is substandard handheld only. Looks like it used to connect to the wall, but they never reattached it.|- Toilet flush sprays water into the air. |- housekeeping entered with a Do Not Disturb sign on that door. |- Balcony door was sealed shut. |- WiFi is inconsistently working, at best. |- claims credit card machine was down at checkout time, forced to pay cash at a very poor...