Bussaco Palace Hotel

An incredible experience, which clearly goes over the head of some who make critical comments in these reviews. A must stay for those seeking real and curious experiences - every corner steeped in stories. The only way to describe it is like stepping inside a movie - one where The Grand Budapest Hotel, Poor Things and The Shining (without the scary parts!) all come to life in one quirky reality.

I was at this beautiful hotel more that 40 years ago with my parents, and wanted to show it to my husband. It was such a wonderful experience! The building itself is a jewel, it was the royal summer palace of the Portuguese monarchy and since early 1900’s became a hotel. Just looking into the neo-manueline style architecture, the beautiful mahogany wood furniture, the azulejo tile historical scenes and all the art it was worthy staying there! Ana, the front office clerk was marvelous! Professional, friendly and sweet, she made our stay such a great one. And of course, discovering the Mata de Buçaco, the forest where the hotel is located, was a joy! If you have the opportunity, don’t hesitate, stay at this awesome palace hotel!

Really nice castle experience for a trip to Portugal. The castle is beautiful, rooms were clean, staff was very welcoming and there is a beautiful forest with easy trails surrounding it.

Our visit to the forest and hotel were absolutely wonderful. The property and architecture are spectacular. The main restaurant, however, was a little lacking in service. The empregada de mesa didn’t seem to remember who ordered what, and didn’t stop by to check on us mid-meal (which would have been great as we were out of drink!). I only mention this to help set restaurant expectations. Otherwise, it was 5-stars across the board.

The hotel is very impressive from outside and the location is amazing. But it's not a 5 star hotel, maybe 3 stars The furniture in the rooms is very old, the rooms are small and no air conditioner and no mini bar. Restorarant is very good and food is delicious.

Stopped here for lunch on a drive through Portugal and wow! This place is beautiful, so many incredible facades across this building. The surrounding forest is also incredible and the food was fantastic at the restaurant. Can't fault it. The scale of the place was appreciated until we had arrived either.

Probably the most beautiful hotel you will ever stay in. Make sure to get early enough so you can dedicate 30 min or more to walk around the palace and gardens. Also be prepared to eat in the hotel's restaurant, (there is no immediate other choice) , which is actully good, but expensive. (60 €pp with 3 courses plus a glass of wine). Our only complaint is that the bed, though comfortable, was not big enough. But the experience as a whole is great.

The hotel is beautiful situated in a national forest with many trails to hike. I felt that the room was a good price but dining was expensive. The rooms do not have wifi, it's only available in the bar and lobby. The TV in the room is a Smart TV but there's no wifi so no apps. Your choices if you want to watch TV is one of the 9 Portuguese channels. There is no music playing in the bar/ lounge which would have been nice. The hotel furnishings are lovely and represent the period of when the palace was built.

I was pleasantly surprised by our stay at the Bussaco Palace; I think the reviews who didn't have a good experience didn't do their homework prior to planning their stay and arrival. We came for one night (I wouldn't recommend more), and we definitely didn't eat dinner at the hotel (based on other people's reviews) -- we found an amazing restaurant in the nearby town of Luso. We arrived in the early evening, and upon check-in we got a brief history and tour of the hotel and escorted to our room. The staff were friendly and very informative. Of course the room is dated, that's to be expected of a palace over 100 years old, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised how large the bathroom in the room was. After we settled in and showered, we went out for dinner. We came back and had a night-cap drink in the common area prior to heading to our room and off to bed. We slept fine and when we awoke we came downstairs for breakfast which was a fairly decent buffet spread in an amazing ornate room overlooking the back lawn. After breakfast we hiked around the property for about an hour prior to departing. I paid about $150, and for 2 people with breakfast included, we felt it was a great deal for such an amazing experience (how often do you get to stay in a palace?!). The palace is beautiful with incredible details both inside and outside, and the property it sits on is equally as impressive with some amazing ponds and gardens to walk around. I can't imagine staying more than 1 day, I'd personally get bored, but to swing by in the afternoon/evening and leave the next day is the perfect way to experience this amazing place -- I'd do it again in the future of making my way through Portugal.

Every time we visited Portugal, we would visit the Bussaco Palace. Beautiful architecture. Lovely garden. There are trails, restaurant and hotel too.

Drove through Portugal and decided to make a detour to show my wife where mom took me 50 years ago. Told that to a staff member he said no to seeing hotel lobby, that I could pay to see the convent instead. Here's the trip to purgatory for the heartless staff member.

Beautiful Palace Hotel. We got to tour this hotel due to the same palace hotel chain that we stay. This hotel located in the National Park which required the park entrance fees. The compound is big and included the park. Many attraction. But I would said if you do not enjoy the park, you feel boring here because no close restaurant near by. The palace has beautiful gothic look outwardly. The garden is a bonus tho complement the palace. The interior is well decorated with edges and azulejo time and mural. Each room corner is a photo opportunity. I would said this place is a good place to get married and have photo. The upstairs and downstairs rooms is back old century look. It has many historical furniture and it nice to enjoy your time here. Don't forget to visit the patio and have the breakfast there.

This place is a big disappointment ! For starters, no air conditioning and they had one fan. We sweat all night. No ice. No room Service . Nothing but hiking to do here. Very Expensive dinner that was very underwhelming ; I had sirloin steak that had the consistency of a hockey puck & she had a 3 inch prawn for $41z that she finished in 3 bites . Waiter service was the worst I've ever seen. No American channels or Netflix on the TV. Will never return and will never recommend. Very disappointing Came here as a honeymoon spot ...left bored and hot and hungry

I have to say that I totally enjoyed my stay here, despite the other negative reviews this place has. While researching for hotels, I came upon this place. A real, ex-palace, built by the last king of Portugal!! My inner princess demanded to stay here. The price, to our surprise, was a rather modest €105 including breakfast. Our experience is actually a mixbag of ratings. The hotel is located inside a national park, and we drive up a small, winding road uphill, passing many hikers, until we reach the ground. The grounds and the exterior is simply gorgeous, built in the lavishly ornamental Manueline or Portuguese late Gothic style - 5 stars Our room has a balcony, which really reminds me of Romeo and Juliet. The interior does show some age: peeled wallpaper, unvarnished wood, tarnished mirror, uneven floor boards - so that's a 2. On the other hand, regarding what matters most in the room: it's spacious, the mattress is new, not saggy and in fact we had our best sleep, the shower is hot and powerful, linen is clean - worth a 4 I couldn't get wifi in most part of my room, though when available it's very fast. (1) And curiously, this place, deep in the national forest, is a hotbed of pokemons and pokestops... Breakfast is a lovely surprise, a wonderful spread in the ornate banquet hall. Perfectly soft boiled eggs with orangey yolks inside a hen-shaped warmer, artisan bread and cake, home made yogurt in mason jars, Portuguese cheeses, presunto (Portuguese prosciutto) with melon, poached apple, sparkling wine (which I mixed with fresh orange juice for a mimosa). We want seconds and thirds of everything! 6 stars!! As you can see, it's rather hard to sum up my experience with a single rating. My conclusion is, it depends on the visitor. If you expect a hotel with convenient wifi, gym, spa and restaurants and shops nearby, you'll totally hate this. However, we totally enjoy strolling the garden after breakfast and in the evening, and I somehow enjoy a few days of a more laid back pace, reading a book in the evening instead of playing on the phone. Come to think of it, I haven't seen family with kids, or teenagers, among the guests. I guess I am getting old. All I can say is, In the morning, when I open the window, see the verdant forest in the far, the manicured garden down below, breath in the fresh air and hear all the birds chirping, I am about to break into songs like a Disney princess.

Please read the other reviews of this place in order to fully understand this paradox of a palace before you book a room here. It is, indeed, beautiful and historical--a unique experience--but it's so run down that you'll struggle with what it was, what it is, and what it could be. Just like the Bom Jesus do Monte hotels (Hotel do Templo, specifically), you'll try to forgive a lot of the bad and you'll want to be positive about the opportunity, but the neglect and discomfort wear you down and, ultimately, you have nowhere else to go anyway; once you're here, you're here. I won't go into every detail because I think that's well-covered ground, but just know that this is a stunning building that's actually teetering on the brink of collapse while the once-stately grounds offer only glimpses of a better time. As an avid gardener, I really wanted the plants to be properly cared for. I was able to take some nice pics from generous angles in order to impress the folks back home, but I can't lie on Yelp. So we ended up spending huge amounts of money on truly worthless meals in an attempt to make the best of our stay and we overtipped the staff because they looked downtrodden and apathetic. Oh well.

Our stay in Bussaco is a story of "extremes". We had been given the hint to go to Bussaco by a person that we totally trusted and that had been there in the past, and had a wonderful experience. We were quite hyped by this, because the tales of the hotel, the palace, the gardens were rather strong and we couldn't wait to see the place ourselves. Well the palace and the interiors are simply stunning, it's like stepping back in the early 1900, frescoes, azulejus, beautiful original furniture... WOW. This is where probably we should have considered that they stay was not going to be like the one that we thought it would have been. Bussaco Hotel (and the restaurant), is really like stepping back in the past, so despite the fact that it has 5 stars you cannot expect the services that we are used now in a 5 stars hotel. And this is where all falls apart. The room that we were given was spacey, but very old furniture, quite bare, no curtains blocking the light from the windows. The bathroom looked extremely old, rusty water running off the taps (only at first, then it was clear), chipped wood and wallpaper, stained carpets, bathrobes that were stiff and torn, bedding that was good 30 years ago... Not a great impression. Common rooms are furbished like in the past, but most of the stuffed chairs were dirty and torn, the smell of "old" was everywhere. Wifi nonexistant unfortunately, the signal was good only at ground floor. Dinner at the restaurant was hideously expensive and plain terrible, probably the worst part of the stay. A shame because it's presented in a great hall, with silver forks and a beautiful atmosphere. All in all it's a tale of extremes, because on one side you are struck by the beauty and uniqueness of the place, on the other the very low standards that they offer. Staff was great with us, they helped us in cancelling 2 nights (we originally planned to stay 3 nights) and they have no responsibility into the bad part of our experience, the place is run by the hotel management but apparently works to the infrastructure is managed by the government, and the government doesn't allocate budget to this place apparently... Anyways, we did not like the experience, despite I can see some positives in staying in a place that once was the residence of a king.

It is a historical place and it might be good to stay for one night. It is located in the forest park. It has a lot of picturesque places with a lot of opportunities to hike. However, don't expect too much from it. It is a small hotel with about 60 rooms. My room No. 27, had no safe, no minibar and no Air conditioner. It was too hot to sleep. The old fashioned heater, which was turned on automatically, was working like crazy. There was no possibility to open a window. The TV had less than 10 channels and only one of them (BBC news) was in English. There was no pool or GYM. Even though it said on the hotel that it is 5 star, it is probably solid 2 stars. It has a restaurant and a bar. It seems that the hotel and restaurant with bar run by about 5 people so we saw them all the time during our stay. The same person was a waiter and a barman. This group of employees was not service oriented. Half of them did not speak a word in English. The other half could speak English, but didn't really want to. It took us a few hours to find a wine opener at about 6-8 pm. In the morning, I asked for a bottle of regular water from a receptionist since we got only one in the room and I was thirsty. She said "no" explaining that they only give one bottle per couple. So greedy! Would it kill them to give an extra bottle of water, especially considering the fact that they do not have facilities to buy it in the morning. After all, our room costed €183 per night. A bottle of water was a reasonable request. Everything was very old starting from the room key and ending with the plumbing. It smells like mold there. Our bathroom had a separate door to the hall and we had no possibility to lock that door because it didn't have a lock. So we were worried that someone from outside could enter our room from the bathroom at night. There are not so many choices where to eat. The restaurant is pricey. It looks good, but we didn't like anything what we ordered there (bread selection, cauliflower soup, roasted duck breast and a few deserts). They sell their local wines, which are not bad but overpriced. It is good to visit the palace for a change, but do not expect too much, and make sure you bring your own water, safe and night entertainment.

We completely agree with Lorenzo P's review below. This is far from a five-star hotel. Our experience started outside the grounds of Bussaco where we were met by a closed gate and a very unfriendly gatekeeper. We did not have a reservation as we wanted to look at the Palace before deciding whether or not to stay. If you do not have a reservation, there is a five Euro charge to enter the grounds. When we asked if we would be refunded the five dollars should we decide to stay we were told no. Welcome to the palace! The lady at the front desk was not much more courteous, however she did explain that the grounds are run by a separate company than the hotel and they must provide a list to allow for guests with reservations on the grounds at no charge. Five euro is not that big of a deal, but it is the principle of the thing! Beyond that, everything that Lorenzo says below we found to be true as well. However, we did not find the staff particularly helpful. We would recommend you pay your five dollars to see the grounds, have an overpriced drink and then find somewhere nicer to stay.