Overall Ratings & Reviews Vila Galé Coimbra

This hotel is beautiful like the pictures, but the buffet is overpriced. My travel companions loved the themed buffet nights, but I ordered from the menu (which was limited). The AC would have to be reset by the front desk everytime we removed the key from the power slot and one night several rooms lost power for an unknown reason... so I woke up to no AC and I had to get dressed for my conference by cell phone flash light.... When I asked to speak with the manager, I was told that she was not there... no apology, explanation, or offer to make amends for the inconvenience! The room was ALWAY cleaned excellently! The AC was very cold and the remote only worked sometimes so I had to call the front desk often for them to fix it. But they did not alway answer the phone? I am not sure why, but I had a hard time reaching any services... room service, the spa, the front desk. No one consistently answered their extension. I stayed here with 14 students and 4 coworkers so we had like 10 rooms but we experienced similar issues. The spa was very reasonably priced. I recommend using the steam room, sauna, hot tub, and indoor pool... by 8p because they literally asked me to leave the pool at 8p (even though the front desk guy said that the pool closed at 9p). Different people give you different information. For example, the bartender told us that we had to leave the lobby tables because we had outside food. When I asked at the front desk, they said we could our food anywhere!

Great staff. Lovely pool. Great views over river

Beautiful hotel, amazing restaurant, great staff!

We were upgraded to a corner room with an oversized balcony looking out over the pool to the river. Spacious room, quiet, plenty of shelf and drawer space. The staff were amazing, Portuguese-friendly. Breakfast was very nice, with lots of hot and cold options including an omelet station. Location was very walkable to the Old Town, and also to the opposite side of the river and the Santa Clara monastery, plus walkways on both sides of the river.

The room was spacious, clean and breakfast was great. Nice pool

Excellent hotel

Location was very good. Easy 20 min walk to the Old Town. Are was a little suspect but had good dinning spots.

A very nice clean property with a great indoor pool and good restaurant where the food was amazing.

Hotel beautiful & breakfast outstanding. Staff is very nice

Nice clean and well located hotel. The room was a bit outdated and the bed wasn’t the most comfortable but was perfectly fine for one night’s stay. While the mini bar was surprisingly included in my room rate, I was equally surprised to see that there were no amenities provided (body lotion, cotton balls etc). I didn’t try the breakfast.

This was an affordable stay in Coimbra. Supposedly it's a 4 star hotel. However the in-room amenities/experience made it feel more like a 3 star. The room didn't have facial tissues and the toilet paper was rough. The bath was immaculately clean but the shower head leaked water all over the place. You can ask for a coffee maker to be brought to the room, but then it will cover the TV. All extra outlets were in a wall away from bed, so when the phone alarm rings in the morning you have to walk to turn it off, if you put your phone to charge at night as most people do. The hair dryer is the 1200watt attached to the wall without much cord that easily overheats. The room was very ample with plenty of storage and a great view, but the area around the hotel was not enticing for a stroll to the city which is just a 10min walk. The lobby and common areas are very nice. Breakfast was very good, and the staff was very attentive and helpful. Overall mixed feelings about the place. But for $165/night including taxes, breakfast and parking it's not a bad option.

Traffic around the hotel was a nightmare at 6:30 pm. Once there it was great.

The staff were friendly and helpful. We really enjoyed the outdoor pool and the bar area. The breakfast was really nice and they even offered a tray with gluten-free options to my partner with outstanding and tasty products. However, it does not seem like anything else change since I was last there about 8 or 9 years ago. The rooms looked dated, the door didn't really offer soundproofing so you could hear everything in the hallway and other doors banging loudly, the bed was not comfortable whatsoever and the tables and chairs in the balcony were not clean (they had bird poop all over them). Moreover and even though we put the DnD sign at the door, the hotel staff entered the room without checking with us and while we were away: one to leave a plate with apples (not sure what that was about but ok), and another one to leave a slice of cake and wine, which I admit it was nice but I would rather have someone checking with me before walking into the room. Plus, because we were out the whole afternoon and evening for my birthday, that slice of cake must have been left out for so long it was pretty dry and sad. You will need a cap to use the indoor pool, which they don't tell you about it until you reach the spa staff, who look to charge you 4€ for each cap, so we didn't use it. I think this hotel is good enough to stay for a couple nights but not a whole week like we did. Will certainly look for other options around the area next time.

BEWARE, the difference between rooms is huge. I booked a standard room with a "city view". It had no ceiling light in the bedroom area with only weak side lights. Since there are no additional sockets to plug your laptop or device you need to unplug one of the bedside tables, which means you are completely in the dark. There is no desk because the tiny desk (without chair) is where the TV stands. The room itself is small but the bathroom is very nice and large. I had no heating at night because all their air conditioning systems are blocked to a standard set up, but at night it can be chilly, while in the day it's hot. The bed linen was very good but the actual mattress is not so comfortable. Portugal tends to use extremely hard old-fashioned mattresses, but if you are a foreigner, you may not find it comfortable. No memory foam mattress here. Breakfast was good enough. I am vegan so my options were limited, but at least here they had baked beans and cucumbers with olive oil, and that's enough for me. Some other "luxury" Portuguese hotels have chia seeds and soy/coconut milk as healthier options but here they do not. The room was a corner one so it had a large balcony, which I liked, but no outside chair and no outside table. I was on the 3rd floor so I could see a bit of "city" but mainly you have a car park at the bottom and a new building in front. But, if you have a room on this side on the lower floors, you will have a horrible view.

Hotel was nice and clean

The whole hotel looked elegant and had a charm. They offer in-site parking for a rate but we had no problem finding off street parking. Room was cozy. Bed was comfy and breakfast was exceptional. Staff was kind and helpful. Highly recommend it.

Beautiful hotel with amazing staff

The room was lovely and the breakfasts were absolute fantastic! We were able to walk along the water to downtown easily and I could run along the water into the park and all around Coimbra. The only hiccup we experienced was that they decided to clean both pools at the same time on Monday morning (when our daughter had been looking forward to finally spending the day at the pool, after our “boring” touring all weekend), but it looked like someone else got upset about that and alerted a manager, because the cleaning promptly stopped and the kids were able to play! (Which we appreciated very much!). Cleaning of the pool after hours sounds like a good idea to me, in general.

Wonderful pool, spacious lobby, good parking

Great place. Would stay again.