StyleNest headed to Portugal’s Capital city of Lisbon to stay in the five-star, boutique hotel Bairro Alto.
If it’s unique style and a unique Lisbon location you’re after, Bairro Alto is the hotel for you. Relatively small with just 55 rooms, the five-star boutique hotel sits between the bohemiam Bairro Alto area and the cosmopolitan Chiado district – think Shoreditch by way of New Bond Street. It’s no surprise then that this area plays home to to some of the Portuguese Capital’s coolest bars and restaurants.
We arrived in Lisbon after a four-hour train journey, tired, hungry and in desperate need of dumping our bags. Despite the hotel being a mere 2minutes walk from the nearby Chiado metro station, we managed to walk straight past it, so understated is Bairro Alto’s façade.
Inside, the hotel has that same cool nonchalant vibe. The staff are relaxed – they even team their suits with Adidas trainers – yet friendly and happy to help with everything. We’d barely checked-in and they’d already offered up ideas on where to eat and if they’d like us to book anything in, as the hotel restaurant wasn’t open till later.
We headed up to our room, perched on the top floor of this unique 19th Century building. Restored with taste and sensitively to the hotel’s original features, the décor is timeless and beautifully mirrors the city outside.
Mustard leather chairs and wicker wardrobes reflect the vibrant trams that glide through the city, crisp white bed linens mirror Lisbon’s white cobbled pavements, terracotta details are an homage to the sea of terracotta roof tiles we can see outside our window, whilst the cool blues of Lisbon’s famous river can be felt in the beautifully restored bathroom. It sounds somewhat over conceptual, but it works and aesthetically it is really rather beautiful.
Stocked with little touches of luxury, from the Miller Harris toiletries (a StyleNest favourite) to fluffy robes, and even a complimentary Moleskin notebook, we were happy to call this well thought out room home for the night.
Bairro Alto’s hidden gem however is its rooftop bar. Voted the 4th best hotel terrace not only in Lisbon, but the world, it’s pretty impressive. A unique view of Rio Tejo, Lisbon’s rustic and rickety rooftops and a sunset that slips slowly beneath the city’s iconic bridge, it’s worth a visit even if you’re not staying in the hotel.
Imagine then, how disappointed we were to arrive in the city on the rainiest day in what felt like decades – not a sprinkling of showers but a downpour of torrential wind and rain. The terrace bar sadly had to be locked up, so we made our way down to the ground floor hotel’s Café-Bar BA instead.
With a wealth of unique bars on Bairro Alto’s doorstep, there’s so much to see and do you just want to get out there. But the Café-Bar BA is the perfect spot to begin your night, G&T in hand. Gin is huge in Lisbon and the hotel serves them up in huge balloon-shaped glasses infused with pink peppercorns – their signature tipple.
Food-wise Bairro Alto’s Flores restaurant serves up traditional Portuegese cuisine with a modern, South European twist – think Iberian pork or roasted monkfish. The Flores breakfast proved a must in setting us up for a day of sightseeing and tackling Lisbon’s winding cobbled streets and steep hills.
Bairro Alto is certainly a hotel for couples wanting a romantic city break bursting with food, drink and culture, and it acts as the perfect base to lap this up.
If we ever venture back in Lisbon we’ll without a doubt return to the hotel. After all, we’re yet to see that view from the rooftop terrace.
Need To Know:
Rooms: 55
Rates: Doubles from £115 per room per night
Facilities: Restaurant, bar, rooftop bar voted 4th best in the world, in-room beauty treatments available on request, WiFi access, Miller Harris toiletries, free parking and valet service, fitness service, bicycle rental available, laundry and dry cleaning services. In-room i-stations, flat screen TVs and DVD players, a pillow menu and mini bar.
How to get there: Bairro Alto is located 5miles from the Lisbon International Airport, which is a 20minute taxi ride away. Transport links across the city are connected by Chiado metro station, just minutes away from the hotel.
Praça Luís de Camões no2 1200-243 Lisboa Reservations Tel: +351 213 408 288 Reservations Fax: +351 213 408 229 E-mail: [email protected]
Bairro Hotel is listed by Leading Hotels of the World
Heading to Portugal’s Algarve? Read our review of the Algarve’s Conrad Hotel here.