So this place, one of the handful of remaining reviews I still have to write from our somewhat…read moreill-fated trip to Portugal, is now permanently the epicenter in my brain of one of the *worst* memories of the trip, in which, while my wife was still sick with something unrelated... we both eat something our first day in Coimbra that causes us to both wake up the next morning, violently sick with food poisoning and lose a whole day, half our planned activities for Coimbra, stuck in the room, sick. That's obviously not remotely the Hotel's fault, though, it's just setup for the review itself, and what I remember/focus on.
I didn't entirely know what to expect, Coimbra being somewhat off the beaten path, and this being basically *the* hotel in the area - but I would strongly recommend it and would happily stay here again. Everyone there was super friendly, in checking in, whenever we needed anything, at the bar... The room itself was fairly small, but had everything we needed. The bed was one of the more comfortable beds I've used at a hotel. I always bring my own blanket, but given we were both feeling sick for 24 hours, we ended up asking for more - received it super quickly, also, incidentally (service here was great.) Super comfortable blankets, though. No issues with wifi service. The room did have the unfortunate, seemingly common problem with hotel rooms in this part of the planet in general, though, in that the only access to fresh air was outside, and opening the window meant getting noise from nearby buildings, meaning, when the bar across the street *wasn't* playing music, we could have both quiet and fresh air, but when it was, it was one or the other.
Decent amount of room in the bathroom, though the shower had the annoyingly common problem of hotel showers, in not closing all the way and getting water all over the bathroom floor. Didn't have any issue with hot water, though.
The location is unbeatable - right in the heart of town, though the train that used to run right to the hotel, is apparently now permanently closed and replaced with free bus service. Still, the free bus service from the train station, picks up and drops off from literally the entrance to this hotel, which was pretty convenient. There are a couple great bakeries just a block away, and a number of great restaurants, not including the sandwich place we think we got food poisoning from, within easy walking distance of here. And the university tour is only about 15 minutes away by foot, albeit, admittedly, 15 minutes basically *straight* up (a majority of the walk is stairs or steep inclined paths, because it's Coimbra and you're starting at the bottom of the hill, but it *is* still a usefully central location.)
I was slightly sad to discover, given the name of the rooftop bar, "The River", that it actually only has a view from one side of the building, the side pointing directly *away* from the actual river. But I couldn't be *too* sad, either, given that meant it had a perfect view straight up the hill to the lit-up university. Not a very large bar, but the day I was there, I was the only guest, which was pretty fun, a relaxing place to chill, drink some great drinks with a view of the city. Drinks there were a bit pricey by the increasingly inexpensive standards of drinks elsewhere in Coimbra - you're paying for the view - but also still incredibly cheap by American standards, if you order the right things, i.e. with local rather than imported spirits.
I will say, though, I also had the absolute worst, most stupidly expensive "sandwich" of my life here, via room service... feeling particularly bad knowing that there were two great bakeries quite close-by, if we hadn't been recovering, at that point, from an entire extremely uncomfortable morning and afternoon, still not feeling well at all, but suddenly very hungry, and ordered room service, of the most incredibly lackluster sandwich of low-quality ham and cheese on low-quality bread, for room service prices, in a city surrounded by great, cheap food, ham, cheese and bread very much included, and extremely watery, tasteless orange juice. I figured it was worth mentioning in case anyone reading this had ever thought about getting anything from their room service for any non-emergency reason (don't!) - but that would be a silly reason to ding them any actual stars, given I would also never have ordered if it had *not* been a very fringe circumstance (I would have gone to, again, one of a couple different, both great bakeries, one and two blocks away, respectively.)
