Hotel Britania
Style Roaring Forties art deco heaven
Setting Just off tranquil Avenida Liberdade
A hotel with history in the perfect Lisbon location, Hotel Britania was built in the 1940s by the famous Portuguese architect Cassiano Branco. A stay at this award-winning wonder gives guests a real flavour of the Estado Novo era: expect modernism and luxury with art deco flair. It’s even home to a lovingly preserved barbershop.
Need to know
- Rooms 33, including one suite.
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Rates
Double rooms from $240.20 (€186), excluding tax at 5 per cent.
The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (€186) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
- More details Rates exclude breakfast, €14 a person.
- Facilities Bar, lounge, library, DVD library, free WiFi, laundry, complimentary newspaper and magazines, exchange desk, internet point, luggage store. In rooms: flatscreen TV, integrated DVD/CD, air-conditioning, minibar, Carven toiletries.
- Check-out Midday, though this is flexible, subject to availability. Check-in is at any time, depending on availability.
- Children Hotel Britania is a child-free hideaway.
- Also Pets are not allowed. There are smoking rooms available on one floor of the hotel.
Food and drink at Hotel Britania
- Hotel restaurant There is no restaurant as such at Hotel Britania, but a full buffet breakfast is served from 7.30am in the lounge every morning. It’s a plentiful and varied spread; choose from fresh fruit salad and strawberries and just-baked pastries, or bacon, eggs, cold meats, grilled vegetables and a selection of cheeses.
- Dress code Laid-back city chic.
- Room service Room service is available 24 hours; choose from a selection of drinks, soups, salads and sandwiches.
- Hotel bar In elegant contrast to the lobby’s vanilla and milky marble hues, Bar do Império, just to the right of the hotel’s main entrance, is a caramel and fudge treasure trove that’s kitted out in gleaming, glossy wood. Admire the original wall paintings, if you can peel your eyes away from the geometric patterned original cork floor, which is polished to such a sheen that you’ll be looking for your own reflection. The bar is a comfortable and seductive space, with squashy sofas, and curved, plump armchairs and barstools upholstered in a dusky blue, velvety fabric. Wooden chairs have striped upholstery in the same cappuccino and toffee palette, picking up on the pattern in the heavy curtains. Marble trimmings and grassy-grey tabletops add further liquidy lacquer to the space. The atmosphere in the bar is laid-back and relaxed. Soft classical music will put you at your ease and provide an unobtrusive background to your conversation. Sip on a signature Império cocktail: a blend of champagne, orange juice and redcurrant, and admire the art deco furnishings.
Hotel Britania R. Rodrigues Sampaio 17, Lisbon, 1150-278
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Smith extra at Hotel Britania
Free entrance to Lisbon's National Ancient Art Museum
In the know
Our favourite rooms
The hotel’s Superior Double rooms, filled with original art deco furniture and decorated in neutral shades, are particularly lovely. They're available with king-size beds or twins. The hotel also recently added rooms on its top floor, all designed and decorated by the Portuguese architect Pedro Appleton. The restored bathrooms are an elegant expanse of grey and white marble with peach trimmings. Chrome rain head showers will blast any morning cobwebs away. The top floor rooms also have outdoor terraces, so you can sit on the sunloungers to soak up the Lisbon light and seductive cityscapes without leaving your boudoir behind.
Packing tips
A notepad and camera to capture all the design details; you’ll want to transform your own pad into an art deco den once you’ve stayed here.
Also
This is the only hotel to remain intact after the stormy political turbulence of the Estado Novo era. It’s also received a few design nods here and there; Trivago named it Best Designer/Boutique Hotel and the city council presented it with an award for its sensitive renovation.
