Hall Chiado

An Absolutely Great Small Independent Hotel

Really, really loved the stay here. Want to go back. Probably cannot recommend it enough. For starters, the location is great. Lisbon does not really have a compact, well-defined city center (it’s a bit spread out), but Hall Chiado is right in the heart of the city nonetheless with a nice view of the river from the hotel balconies. The neighborhood it is in (Chiado) is also quite trendy now with tons of great restaurants & bars nearby. Recommend you try the gazpacho from Meson Anduluz (Spanish restaurant just around the corner). Also have a look at the many options in Mercado da Ribeira down the road (go for lunch; dinner can be very crowded and hard to find a seat). As far as the rooms, they are quite lovely with a simple, but stylish décor. I personally would have elected to put a few more photographs or paintings on the walls in the rooms, but this is just a matter of personal taste. In either case, the rooms are great. Not huge, but very comfortable, feeling a bit like being a guest at a friend’s home. It is also very quiet. The street the hotel is located on is quite busy with people, cars, buses and trams, but we never once had a problem with the noise in the rooms (even with the Portuguese love of honking in traffic). With the balcony doors shut, it seemed nearly sound-proof. Like the rooms, the bathroom was very nice and looked relatively new. As far as the lobby of the hotel, it is really more just the stairwell to the building (similar to the entrance to a residential apartment building). As you enter, you have the stairs in front of you with some shelves off to the side with books you can borrow (thought this was a nice touch). There are a few chairs off to the other side and a small room on the left with lockers for your luggage after check-out. Just to your right there is a medium sized office for the hotel itself. The helpful two ladies that own/run the place are there during the day, but the office is closed in the evening. In fact, the hotel does not even have a formal check-in/out process. A day or so before your arrival, the ladies will email you a 4-digit pin. You use this on the keypad outside the building and at your room to get in. I quite liked this. It was great arriving at 11:00 PM and just being able to go straight up to the room with no fuss. It also made check-out a breeze as well. The internet was very good. Was consistently getting ~25 Mbps up & down. It was summer when we were here and the A/C worked quite well. There was a small room safe, but no mini-fridge. If in Lisbon again, will definitely stay here again without a doubt (and look forward to it).