In October, my husband and I spent two nights at the Sapientia Boutique Hotel nestled 5 minutes from Coimbra University. As a 4-star hotel, it had all the amenities of nice hotel, from large spacious rooms, air conditioning, elevator, onsite restaurant, room service, and 24 hour hotel staff. Overall, we had a lovely time and I would stay here again. However, the location near the University requires quite a bit of walking on an incline and therefore, my husband would opt to stay somewhere else in our future visits.
Highlights
- Service & hospitality: from the moment we booked, the service was excellent. It was especially appreciated after we arrived as the weather was so rainy and windy, we needed help to navigate restaurant and transport options that kept us a dry as possible.
- Food: the food in the restaurant was awesome. In better weather, they have a beautiful outdoor terrace to relax and enjoy the sun. Since it rained the entire time we were there, we ate at the restaurant for lunch and had room service one night for dinner. The highlight was the fresh fish and the number of vegetarian options. Everything was well prepared, seasoned, and tasty. They have a great local wine list.
- Location: a 5 minute walk to the University and Botanical Gardens, it is a great place to be away from the main tourist sights in the lower town and really get a feel for University life. In this neighborhood, you can hear Fado performed in the Frat houses, see students in their cloaks going to class, and revisit your own university days.
Lowlights
- No storage in the rooms. We had a one-bedroom suite with a beautifully decorated room, two TVs, kitchen, but absolutely no storage. Only a few hangers, not drawers, so we had to keep everything in our. suitcase. It was okay for a few days, but with the space they had, they could have had some storage for clothes.
- Location: this is a location in which you have to walk everywhere, especially when you want to go out to eat. Walking 10-20 minutes down is fine, but climbing very steep streets is a disincentive to explore. It can also be dangerous when it is raining as the streets are very slick. In this area, there is limited public transport, so you walk or Uber/Bolt. We met some folks staying at the hotel, who didn't go out to do laundry or eat because it was so slippery and they had already fallen in Lisbon. Outside the University, we mostly toured in the lower town, so we walked a lot.
- Parking: if you drive, there is limited parking, so you may have to park on the street.