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Dear Duecitania owners, Your hotel is magnificent and I LOVE it. The architecture, the details, the workmanship are superb. Your natural pool and surroundings are stunning, and, very importantly, your staff are lovely, nice, helpful. Ah yeah, also the spa! Unfortunately, you need to look for another chef and another maintenance manager. Why change them? Because food and hospitality require love: love of taste, love of detail, love of choice, love of attention to detail. Because maintenance needs love for things that work, are clean, have square angles where required. And the love is lacking in the food and in the maintenance. 1. We arrive in our room on the 3rd floor; the wifi is abysmal, the fridge does not work, the water pressure is miserable, and the towel racks need to be tightened and squared up. And in the spa, the barrier to walk down into the jacuzzi must be put back in, the sauna and the vienne shower are still not working since last time we came. Also, can men with long feet have appropriate slippers? Your maintenance manager (if you have one) does not walk around looking at what works and does not work. And does not teach your staff to do the same and tell him or her “hey the towel rack in room 314 needs tightening “. There is no love. 2. For a place like the Duecitania, the menu is really poor. And the quality of the food average. The cheeses/sausages in the mixed platter do not honour the richness available in Portugal, the chicken in the (very small) Cesar salad is sad and dry. The bread of the hamburgers equals in quality what is found at McDo. When we arrive at breakfast, there is no brown bread. Yes, it comes just later. But why do we have to wait? Same with the bacon.. arrives later. And why have to ask the staff to cut the grapes bunches into manageable sizes? Here as well, the chef does not care and does not teach the staff how a well managed restaurant runs. No love. So, please, get your act together. It is not difficult, if you have the love.

Entering this ancient xisto town with its steeps hills and adorable cobble stoned streets was incredible. Cars are parked at the entrance of the village, and we proceeded on foot for the next 100 meters to get to the room. It felt like traveling 100 years back into time, it was fantastic. The elevation of the location is pretty high, which means the views of the surrounding area are breathtaking. All you will hear here are birds chirping and the rustle of leaves. The staff is very welcoming and everyone made sure our room was tidy, and that we had everything we needed. The breakfast options are numerous and the quality was very good. Having access to a pool was refreshing in the midday heat. It's very easy to visit Coimbra from here. We really enjoyed our stay and we hope to visit again soon! We heard about this place through (instagram) @vivacoimbra

I visited Portugal on a group tour that included stays at three pousadas. A big takeaway from my experience is that pousadas are remarkably variable. Pousada Mosteiro de Guimaraes was fantastic, and Pousada Castelo Palmela was okay but with some flaws. However, this one, Conimbriga Hotel Do Paço, was abysmal. I recommend you choose your pousada carefully; some are great, but some, such as this one, are bad beyond belief. The hotel itself is nothing special, and a massive disappointment after the delight of the first pousada I visited, Pousada Mosteiro de Guimaraes. This pousada claims to be originally a ‘manor house’, but it just looks like a tatty old house that’s had tacky modern hotel features crudely appended. Tattiness and dirtiness were everywhere. My room was the type that motivates me to avoid touching anything I don’t need to; surfaces were not clean. However, the bed linen was okay, as was the bed. Lots of insects were attracted by the needlessly bright modern garden lights, and doors and windows were left open so they could get inside. Even my hotel key was disgusting: the tag attached to it had an old sticky label which was partly worn away, and its glue residue was holding the accumulated dirt and pocket fluff of innumerable previous guests. Presumably, no one at the hotel could be bothered to clean it. It rather sums up the hotel. Dinner was awful. The dining room’s maître d' was badly dressed in a shabby polo shirt and casual trousers; he looked like it was his job to clean toilets, not greet diners. I was brought soup, and had to request a spoon with which to eat it. Service for me was slow, but I got luckier than my fellow diners – some were waiting two hours for food. I was fortunate enough to have other dining arrangements for my second night in this hotel; some of my fellow diners who did not returned to the hotel with food from grocery stores rather than endure the same dining experience for a second time. Breakfast was also awful. The floor of the breakfast room was wet and slippery, I had to request that it be dried. I also had to request that lights were turned on in the breakfast room, which was dark. Scrambled eggs were strangely lumpy. The toaster was of an impenetrable design. Coffee dispensers ran out of coffee half an hour after breakfast started.

This is a beautiful and unique hotel and most of the staff is extremely pleasant, but I have reluctantly decided to stop suggesting it to my guests, even though I live nearby. A friend from Spain and I were looking forward to enjoying lunch in their lovely restaurant. Soon after we arrived, a couple with a small child with a very loud game player we seated near us. The noise from her game shattered the ambiance. I asked the hostess if she could ask the parents to turn off the volume, but she refused. The child had the right to blast her noisy game, she said. I suspect I may have been treated this way because I'm not yet fluent in Portuguese and obviously not Portuguese myself. But we were made to feel unwelcome. It's unlikely I'll take a chance going back if this is how hotel guests are treated. My friend was interested in booking a weekend there with her husband, but now says that based upon this experience, she has decided to book a different hotel.

A ajuda começou desde o momento do primeiro telefonema para a pousada a solicitar preços e pormenores. Obtive muito mais do que o esperado! Informações sobre transportes, percursos pedestres, locais de interesse... A simpatia, a amabilidade e disponibilidade de todas as pessoas da receção foi cativante e influenciou positivamente a nossa escolha, que se mostrou acertada. Instalações simples, práticas e limpas. A possibilidade de utilização da cozinha e da lavandaria foram pontos extra. Agradecemos toda a hospitalidade que tiveram connosco e as fantásticas sugestões de passeio. Caminhar na serra da Lousã foi relaxante para a mente, mas a pousada foi o descanso do guerreiro após cada jornada.

Silvia was our receptionist and go-to person. She was truly AMAZING! She is a delightful young lady who was our contact person, greeted us, carried our luggage ( the stairs were a bit difficult for me), called taxis for us, brought extra blankets, prepared breakfast, recommended restaurants and sites in Ciombra…there was nothing she wasn’t available to do. She was always smiling and friendly. While the property is on a large piece of land and is farm like it is NOT in the countryside. It is in a suburban area 10-15 minutes from Coimbra. We were specifically attracted to being in the countryside so this was a disappointment. Even with Apple CarPlay, our gps system, we missed the street several times. The name of the street is not well marked. The property is behind a lovely gate and parking is readily available. This was a plus. Our room was very large ( bedroom, separate living room, bathroom, entry space)and had lovely views overlooking the grounds, the pool and distant mountains. We booked on *********** “ Family Room with Balcony” 441 sq/ft. and stayed Sept 29-Oct.1. The room was stylish and very clean with big windows overlooking the grounds. However there were many flaws. There were no glasses for water in the room, no water provided, no conditioner in the shower, no robes or slippers, only 2 very flat pillows, one set of towels. We were offered use of the communal kitchen but this was not inviting. We were shown the refrigerator and told there was a different shelf designated for each room. Too much like a college dorm or work fridge. We could use the kitchen as we wished but did not avail ourselves. Silvia did immediately bring us an extra duvet when we found the room too cold. She did offer to turn the radiators on but we were afraid we would find it too hot.There was no thermostat for us to control. There were enough outlets for adapters and charging cables. We did not expect USB ports as is common in Portugal.wi-fi was good. The worst was the shower. It’s a beautiful walk in with a rain shower but on the first morning my husband had cold water. I had scalding hot then tepid then cold. And yes…we do know how to turn on and adjust the water. On the second morning we both had COLD showers. The hair dryer was terrible…barely dried my short hair. The room was not serviced. We came back after a long day exploring Coimbra to find an unmade bed and wet towels. So we made the bed and used wet towels… The breakfast, again Silvia was the star, was in a small dark room with a buffet selection on a narrow sideboard. There were decent choices…cheeses, bread and good coffee and scrambled eggs. One table was so close to the sideboard we couldn’t access those foods without being rude. We did take taxis into Coimbra . We thankfully had a hotel address card to show drivers for our return trip. Even with that, both drivers had a difficult time finding the property. People have their own travel styles. This property has prove