"I had wanted to stay here ever since I saw photos of the hotel 2 years ago but family commitments didn’t allow until now.
I was not disappointed. We were collected from the hotel by private transfer arranged by the hotel and it all went very smoothly.
The hotel is in the old town which is very pretty but very hilly, I didn’t appreciate how hilly! Hill after hill after hill. We mostly walked down and got a taxi back. As others have said Ubers and Tuktuks aren’t allowed all the way up to the castle, only 2 thirds of the way I would say. The taxi driver that picked us up to take us back to the airport said taxis didn’t like going to Solar because the roads are so narrow. In fact one taxi who we hired scraped his wheel arch quite badly 🥴 There also seemed to be a varying cost.
Beware, the streets are very slippery, I wore Birkenstocks and one time, if I hadn’t been holding my husband’s hand I would’ve slipped over. The paths and roads are shiny cobbled stone or mosaic tiles. The 3rd night I wore trainers and felt a lot safer.
The hotel is everything I dreamt it would be. Full of antiquities and furnished nicely. Quiet and reserved. Disappointingly, we only saw 2-3 peacocks and their noise didn’t disturb us at all.
Breakfast was good quality. Fresh fruit, plain yogurt, fresh orange juice, scrambled egg, bacon, sausage. Continental platter and smoked salmon. Bread for toasting, pastries, cake. Ready made coffee pots, hot milk, tea and a coffee machine with pods. Also a variety of tea bags. The kettle and toaster were Kitchen Aid and it made me realise I need a Kitchen Aid toaster in my life!
The tea and coffee, cakes and pastries were available all day to help yourself.
The pastries included homemade Pastel de Nata which was torture for me as having recently become a gluten free diner, I couldn’t have any.
Being a GF diner, I did email the hotel prior to let them know. I did state that I didn’t expect any special consideration for this and received a lovely email back to say they would treat my dietary requirements with care & attention.
Indeed, I did have options as mentioned above, I can eat eggs & bacon and fresh fruit salad, and they did have GF bread to offer me. However, they didn’t have any jam, marmalade etc that was GF or any cake which I know is available. Although, I can live without cake at breakfast, it would be nice to have had an option of GF jam and to have one option of GF cake for afternoon tea, after all everybody else had an option of a variety of cakes & pastries. My husband mentioned the jam situation to reception and they offered to get some in for me, along with a cake which was very kind and they did, ready for the next morning.
Every evening from 6pm there was Prosecco to help yourself to, which was a really nice touch. There was also a decanter of port with 2 port glasses in our bedroom which was complimentary also.
During our stay we had 2 Tuktuk tours, one around the Old Town and one in the next district called Belem. Both tours were good and a great way to see the sights.
All in all it was a fabulous hotel and a great stay."
