Albergaria Bracara Augusta - Braga, Portugal 

During two weeks in Portugal, we stayed in five different hotels from Braga to Sagres. Albergaria Bracara Augusta was by far the best and most enjoyable. The staff were prompt, accurate, friendly and very helpful on numerous topics. The hotel itself is well-placed, the room was comfortable by every imaginable criteria, and the food was beyond delicious. I have never written a review before, but I must recommend this hotel to everyone. It far surpassed our expectations, and made the accommodations on the rest of our trip pale in comparison.

This hotel is a hidden gem in Braga! My wife and I had splurged on the Spanish leg of our itinerary on a pricey inn and on our way back to Porto, we opted to spend a couple days and nights in Braga. Our travel agent offered two locations with the Bracara Augusta being the least costly of the two. When we arrived from the train station, we weren't sure what we were getting into because the cabbie dropped us off at a little park between the hotel and the street. When we got close to the door, the front desk clerk came outside to greet us and guide us into the hotel. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but once we got into our room, it was like being in a luxury inn. The window had shutters on it just as if we had taken a step back in time. And we learned to close the shutters at night to keep the chill out of the room from the spring rainstorms that soaked the city at night. The room was well appointed and clean. The bathroom had wash cloths, which is something we can't always say of our other European hotel experiences. The bed had extra large and soft pillows -- something my wife appreciated. The bed was large and comfortable as well -- something I appreciated after having to share our bed at home with the wife and two dogs! Normally, you are charged for everything in your room, but in this hotel, they offer a 1.5 liter bottle of water each night for their guests at no charge. They also provided a small basket of fruit for their guests in the room at no charge. The staff was not as proficient in English as the staff at our other Portugal hotel had been, but when I travel to foreign countries, I don't expect that. I try to learn enough of the language of the country where I'm traveling. Either way, their English was sufficient to get us started in our Braga adventure. We found that the restaurant affiliated with the hotel is excellent for food and service. And being guests of the hotel took 10% off the final tab. One thing the hotel does that I wasn't expecting was shutter their front door and lock it after 11:00 PM. If you are dining late, which isn't hard to do in that region of the country, you might have a bit of a bother getting inside to your room. I didn't see where the hotel had an after hours buzzer or bell to let the front desk know there was a guest waiting outside. This hotel is a great, little secret just waiting to be discovered. If you wanted a quiet hideaway, this place would be a pleasant surprise for you. The best surprise of this hotel is that it was the least costly of all the hotels for this trip. There was certainly a lot of room for the money here.