Pousada Convento de Beja – Historic Hotel

Being an old convent, this building has an austere look and feel with clean simple lines but it’s still very comfortable and well appointed. The rooms are cosy and well equipped although there is no coffee machine or kettle in the classic room we stayed in. Breakfast is good and the breakfast room is lovely. The view from the bell tower is fabulous and the hotel is perfectly situated to see all the town has to offer on foot. The staff we encountered were all super friendly and efficient. A great stay.

Following my review of the Pousada at Estremoz, where the accommodation was disappointing, the room here was huge and well furnished for a small premium over the standard room. The convent itself is a magnificent building with an extensive garden. The front desk staff were friendly and efficient. Buffet breakfast was varied and good, but dinner was a bit of a mixed bag. The two different soups were delicious and my monkfish stew was enjoyable. However my wife's cod dish was disappointing as the potatoes were swimming in butter and the spinach had not been prepared properly. We agreed that a hotel combining this hotel's accommodation and the Estremoz cooking would be the perfect Pousada.

Pousada Convento Beja is a great stopover place when visiting the Alentejo area, that covers 1/3 of Portugal! A quaint town too, with local life around every corner. The pool is fabulous, biiiiig breakfast! Peaceful and with an interesting history and its own gothic chapel! Highly recommended!

Wonderful hotel - quiet and serene! Hotel staff were friendly and very helpful - especially the restaurant staff who did their best to improve my very poor Portuguese! The facilities are good but don't expect a tournament level tennis court! Highly recommend a short stay here or even a week or so - there is plenty to see in the neighbouring area. You will need a car tho'.

The building and location score highly. And the garden is pleasant, though the swimming pool is spoilt by having steps and a sloping floor on two adjacent sides so it is impossible to swim from end to end without hitting the bottom as you approach a sidewall. The dinner was poor. After enjoying a delicious, traditionally prepared 'gazpacho' on arrival at lunchtime, I couldn't resist ordering the same again. Except it was different: this time it was a bowl of watery, olive-oily liquid full of minutely diced veg. Horrible. As if the chef had forgotten to liquidise the dish which was, apparently, in the Alentejano style. Left uneaten. So, on to the main course: fillet steak. I chewed my first mouthful, and chewed, and chewed. And gave up. I hid it under the accompanying 'sweet' potato mash - which was bitter and uneatable. The ice cream for dessert was good! Apart from the gastronomic disappointment, the bedroom too left something to be desired. The bathroom was tired, the wired-in hairdryer cut out every few seconds (we were given a replacement plug-in one), and the fixed overhead shower didn't work so we had to shower by holding the flexible shower in one hand instead: not comfortable at all. In the bedroom proper, the electric sockets were virtually all at floor level - not convenient for our travel kettle for wake-up coffee (as there are no coffee-making facilities provided), and we had to have someone come to switch off wall lights because we hadn't spotted the switches on the side of a small bedside table, hidden hard up against the mattress. Which reminds me: the pillows were poor, one flat and empty, the other too big and hard. The mattress was too hard for my arthritic hips too. But everywhere was clean, and the staff were friendly and helpful. Apart from the food (constantly criticised in reviews: can't something be done?), my criticisms are minor irritants, really. Sort out the food and I'd put up with the irritants on another visit.

The suite was large with a large bathroom. The air-conditioning could be better. The cleaning staff and reception staff were lovely and helpful. The staff serving breakfast struggled to understand Portuguese. One of the staff at the bar made some weird/unwelcome comments. The water in the pool was dirty with lots of air in suspension. If you subtract the quality of the water and some failures from the staff the place is fine.