Lisbon, Portugal

Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz

Price per night from$160.40

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR152.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Regal rework

Setting

The old town’s atelier

Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz is a collection of five serviced apartments in the heart of Santos, Lisbon’s thriving design quarter. Painted a stately sienna red, the decorative-fronted building is an emblem of traditional Portuguese design and overlooks the Chafariz da Esperança, a baroque fountain – and official national monument – dating from 1760. Inside, the apartments tell tales of an equally illustrious past, featuring ornate ceilings, wooden beams and interior shutters. Modernity has arrived in the form of sleek kitchens, contemporary furnishings and statement lamps, ensuring the apartments are fit for 21st-century travellers. Downstairs, the expert concierge team are all too happy to spill the city’s secrets, and Santos’ streets are full of characterful cafés, art galleries and homegrown boutiques, many of which have taken up residence in old warehouses and workshops.

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Facilities

Photos Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Five serviced apartments.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm, but flexible subject to availability. The hotel also provides a contact-free check-in and out service, and keyless access to your room (via your phone).

More details

Breakfast isn't usually included in rates, but a breakfast box including bread, yoghurt with granola, croissants, jam, cheese, fruit and coffee can be delivered to your door daily at 8am for an additional fee.

Also

The baroque fountain outside the hotel is classed as a national monument, and was one of the first to be finished after the Great Earthquake of 1755.

At the hotel

Contact-free check-in service and keyless room access, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: HDTV; fully-equipped kitchen with a fridge, hob, oven, microwave, toaster and dishwasher; Delta Q coffee machine; tea and a kettle; organic Damana bath products.

Our favourite rooms

If it’s just the two of you, go for the one-bedroom Santos Suite, which has a spacious living area, a kitchen with an island and views of the Chafariz da Esperança fountain. If you’ve got family in tow, book the two-bedroom Miradouro Suite, which has a open-plan living and dining area with skyline views of Chiado. The kitchen is full size and has plenty of counter space, making family meals a cinch.

Packing tips

Don’t forget your swimming gear – you can take a train from Cais de Sodré to nearby Cascais, a quaint fishing town with one of the best local beaches.

Also

The hotel's historic layout means it's not wheelchair accessible. Towels are changed every three days and linen every week.

Children

All ages are welcome, and the apartments have lots of legroom for families. Every one has a sofabed, and cots (free for children under three) can be added on request.

Food and Drink

Photos Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz food and drink

Dress Code

Something from one of the boutiques scattered throughout Santos.

Hotel restaurant

The hotel doesn't have a restaurant, but every apartment has a fully-equipped kitchen so you can cook up a storm with ease. 

Hotel bar

There's no bar, so chill a choice bottle in the fridge or leave it to breathe on the counter.

Last orders

The apartments are all self-catered, so everything's in your own time. Breakfast can be served from 8am (you'll need to order 24 hours in advance).

Location

Photos Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz location
Address
Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz
Rua da Esperança 4
Lisbon
1200-657
Portugal

The hotel is in Lisbon’s bustling design district, Santos, which is peppered with galleries, independent boutiques and modish restaurants.

Planes

Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport is the best place to touch down. It takes around 25 minutes to drive from there to the hotel and taxis typically cost €30.

Automobiles

You won’t need a car in Lisbon – the metro, trams and buses are cheap and easy to use, and taxis have you covered for everything else. If you do choose to drive, bear in mind the city’s made up of steep cobbled hills with many a one-way street. The Smith24 team can arrange your hire should you need it. You'll find the most convenient parking garage just two minutes from the hotel at Parque Vitorino Damásio; it costs around €25 a day, is open 24/7 and no advance booking is needed.

Worth getting out of bed for

The hotel may not have much in the way of entertainment, but that doesn’t mean you’re left to fend for yourself. The adept concierge team know all the best cafés, restaurants and worthwhile tours in town, and are only too happy to make bookings on your behalf. In terms of local highlights, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga is a 10-minute walk away, laying claim to some of the finest classical artworks in the country. For creativity of a more contemporary kind, head to LX Factory, a creative hub housed in a building that dates back to 1846. At turns a textile mill, food-processing plant and printers, this relic of old-world industry has now been restored and turned over to the city's creative community, who’ve populated it with restaurants, design workshops, fashion boutiques, homeware stores and more. If this sample of the city’s creative output has you yearning for more, try the Centro Cultural de Belém, which has a permanent art collection and hosts all manner of termporary exhibitions, talks and performances. If it's your first visit to Lisbon, spend some time wandering around bohemian Bairro Alto, where the steep cobbled streets are lined with 300-year-old houses and hole-in-the-wall bars. It’s worth hiking up to the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, a landscaped garden with sweeping views across the historic centre.

Local restaurants

Fast becoming one of the best breakfast spots in Santos, Fauna and Flora serves all the classics and then some, with brunch options for every sort of persuasion; better still, it's practically on the doorstep. Housed in a historic building that’s been treated to a contemporary refit, Local is perfect for a laid-back lunch, serving healthy, nutritious dishes like poké bowls, prawn curries and turmeric-spiced chicken. Authentic Italian cuisine can be had at Osteria Cucina di Amici, an intimate trattoria serving soulful classics and select Italian wines. For atmospheric fine dining, book a table at Travessa, which has taken up residence in a 17th-century convent in Madragoa. Meals here are tinged with old-world romance and make a showcase of northern Portugal’s best produce, including tenderloin beef, venison, monkfish and black truffles. Those with a passion for seafood shouldn't miss local legend Frade dos Mares, known for serving some of the best mussels, prawns and octopus in town.

Local bars

Aptly-named Park is...well, on the top floor of a car park, but the space has been transformed into a suave roof terrace where sundowners are sipped among planters filled with exotic greenery. It’s got some of the best sunset views of any bar in Bairro Alto, so be sure to arrive in plenty of time to snag a table.

Reviews

Photos Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz reviews
Lizzy Dening

Anonymous review

By Lizzy Dening, Feature writer

I’m 33 and I’ve never been to Lisbon before now. I can see, immediately, that this has been a big mistake. On arrival, I immediately fall for the city’s charms in the taxi ride from the train station to boutique hideaway Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz. (FYI if you’ve ever wanted to do both Porto and Lisbon in one trip, there’s a super easy direct train route between them, a wonderfully relaxed way to travel).

This is a city that feels young, lived-in, and packed with potential. Our trip is heartbreakingly short, but we manage to pack in a lot. This is all aided marvellously by the Hermitage, our new peaceful pad. Not only is the aparthotel’s location handy for sightseeing on foot (or by tram, bus, cab, bike – whatever your transport of choice) but it’s surprisingly quiet at night, allowing for blissed-out slumber between the crispest white sheets imaginable. The apartment is spacious – it feels almost selfish having it for just the two of us – and could easily fit another couple or small family (even if we didn’t get on…) thanks to separate bathrooms and a decent dining room. With its pale wooden beams, white walls and statement artwork, it feels a bit like being on a music-video set – it’s somehow both modern and timeless. The only downside is the very steep staircase up (from the first floor there’s a small lift) which would make access a real challenge for many, but this is probably always a concern for old buildings in busy cities. We don’t make much use of the spotless kitchen, which seems well-fitted (although we appreciate the bottle of red we’re given), instead giving in to holiday laziness and eating at the restaurant next door. Staff at Pratinho Feio are very friendly, and happy to help clueless Brits make menu choices that are as authentically Portuguese as possible: a crisp white wine, crab stew and feta pastries are all recommended and received with joy. Other options include Avocado House, opposite, which is – as you might have guessed – an avo-themed café, featuring tiny avocado plants on every table, and one of the greenest menus around. Being boring, we plump for beetroot burgers in bread buns, but there’s an option to have one inside an avo too.

The strangest nearby attraction has got to be the puppet museum, which is about five minutes away (albeit up a steep incline). It’s…truly weird. We love it, but it definitely ranks highly on places not to get trapped alone at night. We see puppets – shadow, marionette, glove, and more – from around the world, and learn a lot about the way different cultures have used them for storytelling. There’s currently a fantastic Tim Burton exhibition on there too, and we develop a new appreciation for his craftsmanship when seen up close.

Our whole trip is dominated by our enthusiasm for museums, and we also take in the Museu do Aljube – a monument to the Portuguese resistance against dictatorship. It’s a period of history we know embarrassingly little about, so it feels important to understand it better and to appreciate the suffering that locals endured for decades – the building itself is a former prison. We also take in the Fado Museum, wanting to get under the skin of this unique element of Portuguese culture. Fado, for the uninitiated (as we were) is a traditional, mournful type of song, a staple of a particular type of tavern. They’re extraordinarily beautiful and sad, and we love hearing some of them at the museum – although it works much better on displays with subtitles, one can’t help feeling that the meaning of many songs is lost without translation. Another unexpected joy comes with the discovery of an overlooked artist – Sarah Affonso – an exhibition of whose work is currently at the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado. As well as vibrant portraits that are packed with feeling and colour, there are also examples of illustration and craft (I have a weakness for ceramic buttons) from her long and varied career.

As bar enthusiasts we’re spoilt for choice, our favourite is probably Pensao Amor – a former brothel that’s retained it’s slightly seedy vibe (in a good way) with worn velvet chairs, red walls and vintage cocktails – try the Communist if you’re a fan of cherries. We also eat one night at Pharmacia, a strange restaurant and bar built in an old pharmacy. Cocktail menus come via a pill box, water is served from a first-aid canister, and there are test tubes and beakers everywhere you look. Despite this unappetising setting, the tapas is largely delicious.

Lisbon is, for us at least, a city of discovery. There’s something exciting around every corner – whether a niche museum, live music or just a gathering of students. In a couple of nights we barely scratched the surface so it’s definitely on our TBC list. I won’t be waiting another 33 years this time.

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Price per night from $151.95