Hotel Vila Galé Coimbra ★★★★

Portugal’s medieval capital of Coimbra takes you by surprise after the modern delights of Porto and Lisbon. This is the site of the country’s oldest and greatest university, and so the population of students makes for a lively atmosphere that is at odds with its weighty and dignified history. For centuries a Moorish stronghold, and for a century the seat of Portugal’s kings, the ancient city centre spreads its historic buildings and cobbled alleyways over a hillside on the bank of the Rio Mondego, the old buildings forming a jumble of crowded colours. To get to the labyrinth of lanes, you enter the old city through the Moorish gateway of Arco de Almedia and up the mercifully staggered steps, the Rua Quebra Costas.

The proximity of the Hotel Vila Galé to the historic centre of Coimbra means it is easy to get to all the major cultural sites like the famous staircase, and from there to the cathedral, the Church of Santa Cruz, the university with its majestic library, the so-called New Cathedral dating from the 16th century and the National Museum of Machado de Castro. We congratulated ourselves on finding a perfect location for our explorations! Friendly staff and a bright modern interior, with the dance theme apparent in the wall decorations, greeted our arrival. We were so happy to be off the road after a long drive and we went in search of a refreshing drink while our bags were taken to our room. We found the Euphoria Bar, a slick and contemporary modern bar, with bottles lined up on the glass shelves behind the counter featuring a predominance of port, of course, and other Portuguese wines. It was a cool and relaxing space, with lovely views down over the river.

In our room we found simple plush comfort with large settees, a huge TV screen, and masses of desk and storage space – in short, everything we could need for comfort and relaxation. As you would expect in a hotel geared up for business visitors, the Wi-Fi was good and the room service excellent. It had dark furniture, enlivened with sunshine yellow in the lightshades and a multitude of colours in the modern cubist-style artworks on the walls.

As well as the bar, the hotel has two restaurants and we looked forward to sampling them both. We didn’t have too long to wait. The Inevitável Restaurant is where we had dinner that evening and we enjoyed traditional Portuguese dishes with local Portuguese wine, which was topped off with attentive service. Breakfast the next morning was a sumptuous buffet in the Versátil Restaurant, a bright open space with colourful light shades and even more colourful dance paintings on the walls. We were certainly well set up for our day of sightseeing. When we needed a break from sightseeing, it was lovely to soak up the sun beside the huge outdoor pool, or indulge ourselves with a massage in the spa. By the end of our few days of delightful discoveries, we were fit to hit the road again, very glad to have found our haven of comfort in the Hotel Vila Galé Coimbra.