Hotel Vila Gale Opera  4

Generally, a pretty good experience. I stayed in the hotel for 9 days, and there's little to complain about. Other than the evident overhead trains noise that is. Many people have been complaining about that noise, but it's nothing some little music or TV in the room that wouldn't fade out! The room is spacious, clean, comfortable and the view is amazing. Good sound isolation from other rooms. Double sided curtains make sure you can sleep well even in daylight. Beds were comfortable. TV with only about 30 channels, mostly news and local. Lobby is nice. The restaurant is very good, but a little slow. Location isn't the best in town, but that depends on why you're visiting, and anyways, the prices make up for the location. All things said, this has been a pretty positive experience, and the best thing about the hotel, in my opinion,is the staff. I surely recommend it. Read more Hide description

The hotel is right in front the Tejo (Tagus river) and 25 Abril bridge offering a nice view, but the cars and train noise are always present, even inside the room (not comfortable , specially if you have a light sleep). Being a nice and modern hotel chain, the Vila Galé Opera has great facilities, LCD TV, nice bathroom with toiletries. There wasn't a tea/coffee katler in the room. The breakfast is really one of the best things at the hotel, very wide at choices. Great staff. Read more Hide description

I stayed in this hotel the first time I visited Lisbon and I thought it was fine. It was handy to walk to the tourist attractions along the river. It was a bit further out from the centre than I would have liked (our taxi bills crept up!)The hotel itself was clean and staff friendly. I was dissapointed that you had to pay to use the gym/pool, so I didn't. I visited the restaurant for breakfast on both mornings of my stay and there was a great selection. I had a room further away from the bridge so didn't find it too noisy. Read more Hide description

The internet in this hotel is the worst I have seen anywhere in Europe. It works passably for email or Skype or non-browser things. But in any browser it works for about one minute out of every ten. Either it really sucks and they do not have enough bandwidth to accommodate their guests, or it is capturing information as you browse and that slows everything down considerably. It's essentially unusable. Also the beds are not comfortable. Most hotel beds in Europe have some kind of thin pad on top of the mattress. Not these. You can feel the quilting of the mattress right under the sheet. Terrible. Read more Hide description

Although everything was clean and everyone was friendly there were a few things that made me be a bit skeptical. The mattress was not that good, while the area that the hotel is located is great if you go to the conference center that is 200 meters away but a bit far from the city center. Also because of the bridge road that is a bit far from there, there is a constant noise so you must think twice to sit outside or open the window. Breakfast was good. On Friday and Saturday night there is a live show at the lobby Read more Hide description

A truly casting error from the Vila Galé Hotels chain, with unconvenient location. Being at Lisbon’s Alcantara area, far from city centre on foot (5 kms), far from metro stops, only reachonable by bus (I think there are bus nearby, besides not noticed), I always went to city centre (Terreiro do paço, Rossio, Chiado, Bairro Alto) by car (very complicated to park in Lisbon city centre). The Belém area (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Torre de Belém, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, CCB and Pastel de Belém…) is on 3 kms distance. Although the hotel is right in front Docas area (cafés and restaurants zone, very lively, specially at night) there’s no easy access to the zone (need to cross the highway and train-line through a pedestrian-high-passage some meters ahead the hotel sidewalk and then backwards (10 min each side). The hotel is right in front the Tejo (Tagus river) and 25 Abril bridge offering a nice view, but the cars and train noises on the bridge are always present, even inside the room (not comfortable , specially if you have a light sleep). Being a nice and modern hotel chain, the Vila Galé Opera has great facilities, modern and nice rooms with a/c (not very efficient to warm up the room), LCD TV with multiple portuguese and internationals channels, clean, comfy bed, nice bathroom with some extras and excelent pressure shower. No sounds heard from other rooms or corridor, only from the cars and trains passing through the bridge. The breakfast is really one of the best things at the hotel, very wide at choices with great service staff all the time. The location and the noises from the bridge are terrible minus. I can’t recommend this hotel when there are others near city centre and metro stops more convenient and comfortable. Read more Hide description

Staff were very helpful, the room was fine, but yes, the location is incredibly noisy! Very convenient location if you're attending an event at the congress centre, but otherwise, why would you stay here?! Read more Hide description

Stayed here in early part of November. Very nice location for a hotel though away from central city. Surroundings are beautiful. Tragus river is right across the road. Since I was attending a conference in the international conference centre it was indeed the best place to stay. The conference venue was just a small walking distace away. There is a beautiful bridge over this hotel called 15th April bridge. Yes it is a noisy thing as noted in earlier reviews but I stayed in lower floor and was not really bothered by the noise. The bridge I believe is an added plus point to the location. The rooms were neat and the staff very polite. The food at the restaurant was above average. They have a pianist playing in the evening in lobby which gave nice value to the place. Local shopping is not so difficult from this place also. Tram station is close by and a nice ride awaits you to the city centre. Only problem I had was that the staff was not very proficient with english and had to work hard to explain them what i need. (asked for a comb which they didnt understand!!). Read more Hide description

Nothing to fault here, except that i dont know how this can be rated 4$ where i come from this would top 3. Make sure you get a room as far away from the bridge as possible as the noice of passing cars on the steel bridge is like a bee swarm. Friendly staff, clen rooms but utterly basic in my opinion, thus id only consider this a 3 star. But overall not too bad. The only thing i want to complain about are the extremely basic and hard beds, with basic sheets. Towards the packpacker end, true! The dinner buffet was better than i had expected, just above average but good enough. The same went for the breakfast. There were a lot of tour groups so i assume you can expect that type of crowd in high season. Which may mean longer wait in the restaurant. But overall i liked the experience when comparing against what I paid. Just really the bed that could be upgraded 3 notches. A bit more than half recommended. Read more Hide description

I stayed at this hotel while away on business. It was one of those places that has a nice facade but when you begin to scratch away at the surface, all the flaws are apparent. When we returned to our room one day, the porcelain sink had fallen out of the vanity and smashed into many pieces on the bathroom floor. When we called reception, they sent someone up to move us and he seemed unfazed by this, saying that it's just held together with glue. (It made me think that a sink smashing to the floor is not an uncommon occurrence!) The reception staff was not the friendliest or most helpful group of people. I hate to generalize but that seemed to be symptomatic of many service people in Lisbon. The customer is never right in their eyes. No wifi in the rooms!!! Just a 2 foot ethernet cord. Yikes - is it 2002 at the Vila Gale Opera? And it wasn't cheap. There was wifi on the reception floor but you had to pay for it in addition to what you paid for in the room. Ridiculous! The restaurant in the hotel was terrific. The hotel location is perfect for the convention center but otherwise not a good place to stay. Read more Hide description