Pousada Convento de Beja – Historic Hotel

Being an old convent, this building has an austere look and feel with clean simple lines but it’s still very comfortable and well appointed. The rooms are cosy and well equipped although there is no coffee machine or kettle in the classic room we stayed in. Breakfast is good and the breakfast room is lovely. The view from the bell tower is fabulous and the hotel is perfectly situated to see all the town has to offer on foot. The staff we encountered were all super friendly and efficient. A great stay.

Pousada Convento Beja is a great stopover place when visiting the Alentejo area, that covers 1/3 of Portugal! A quaint town too, with local life around every corner. The pool is fabulous, biiiiig breakfast! Peaceful and with an interesting history and its own gothic chapel! Highly recommended!

The building and location score highly. And the garden is pleasant, though the swimming pool is spoilt by having steps and a sloping floor on two adjacent sides so it is impossible to swim from end to end without hitting the bottom as you approach a sidewall. The dinner was poor. After enjoying a delicious, traditionally prepared 'gazpacho' on arrival at lunchtime, I couldn't resist ordering the same again. Except it was different: this time it was a bowl of watery, olive-oily liquid full of minutely diced veg. Horrible. As if the chef had forgotten to liquidise the dish which was, apparently, in the Alentejano style. Left uneaten. So, on to the main course: fillet steak. I chewed my first mouthful, and chewed, and chewed. And gave up. I hid it under the accompanying 'sweet' potato mash - which was bitter and uneatable. The ice cream for dessert was good! Apart from the gastronomic disappointment, the bedroom too left something to be desired. The bathroom was tired, the wired-in hairdryer cut out every few seconds (we were given a replacement plug-in one), and the fixed overhead shower didn't work so we had to shower by holding the flexible shower in one hand instead: not comfortable at all. In the bedroom proper, the electric sockets were virtually all at floor level - not convenient for our travel kettle for wake-up coffee (as there are no coffee-making facilities provided), and we had to have someone come to switch off wall lights because we hadn't spotted the switches on the side of a small bedside table, hidden hard up against the mattress. Which reminds me: the pillows were poor, one flat and empty, the other too big and hard. The mattress was too hard for my arthritic hips too. But everywhere was clean, and the staff were friendly and helpful. Apart from the food (constantly criticised in reviews: can't something be done?), my criticisms are minor irritants, really. Sort out the food and I'd put up with the irritants on another visit.