We stayed here for one night---a Sunday night when things were pretty dead at the hotel. The pousada does reek of history, but overall we were a little disappointed. First of all, if you're coming by car, it is extremely difficult to find. It's within the walled old town where no parking is allowed. So you have to park on a gated street about a five minute walk from the hotel. When we finally found this little street (hotel directions were useless), we were advised by the gate attendant that there were no open parking spots. Luckily within five minutes a space opened up. If not, we may have had to park far away, as parking seemed to be at a premium all around Guimaraes. The hotel location is a plus---right near the main square of the old quarter.

We found this hotel to be a little gloomy (with dark halls), and the rooms, although nice, had little distinctiveness. We were expecting a little more luxury from a pousada. Staff was generally friendly, although the morning desk clerk was all business. We came down for breakfast (included in room price) at the 8:30 opening time, but the restaurant didn't open for another 10 minutes. We didn't have dinner at the restaurant, but the menu looked very pricey. Not a problem, as there are plenty of good places to eat close by (try Solar Arco for seafood). Overall, unless you're totally there to be in a historic setting, it is nothing special.

My husband and I decided to take a road trip to Guimares while visiting my family in Portugal. We didn't have hotel reservations and luckily found this beautiful Pousada that accomodated us. They happily gave us the only room they had, which happened to be a suite and charged us the price of a regular room. The rooms are very clean and do not have modern ammenites which added to the hotel's charm. There is a wonderful restaurant on site which served delicious traditional portuguese food. The service was impecable. The hotel is situated next to a church so we did hear church bells ringing throughtout the day. I thought this was pretty cool...the bells did stop ringing at a certain time every night as to not disturb guests. Definitely a cool place to stay at.

My boyfriend and I happened to stumble onto this pousada desperately looking for a place to stay. We originally did not intend on staying in Guimaraes on our drive through Portugal, but were happy we ended up at the Nossa Senhora da Oliveira. As was mentioned by another reviewer, the parking on the side streets within the old city is approximately 100m away from the pousada but not difficult. There is a chain and a guardpost at the entrance of the driveway so you may think you can't enter. Once you let them know you are going to the pousada, they lower the chain to let your car within the old city. Once we got to the pousada, the man at the front desk was very welcoming. Although we did not have a reservation, they were able to accomodate us. He even showed us two rooms and let us choose which one we wanted. He even gave us a brief history of the pousada, as well as maps of both the town and of all pousadas located in Portugal. The rest of the pousada had various antiques and pictures displayed that added to the charming historical atmosphere. For dinner, they were able to recommend not only their restaurant, but also a couple more affordable places within the old city. So the service itself won me over. A drawback which I'm sure was a matter of personal taste was the bed. It was a too hard for my boyfriend which made it difficult for him to sleep. Also, we happened to be in town during the night of a football (soccer) game where Italy won. Throughout the night, we could not escape the drunken chanting of "Italia!". Unfortunately, as with many older buildings in closely situated neighborhoods, we were able to hear EVERYTHING outside. But despite those things, I still would return based on the location and attentive service alone.

Pros: This pousada is in a beautiful building, very nicely decorated with lovely antique furnishings, in an excellent location in Guimares, right on the main square. We stayed in a suite in the front, with 2 large rooms (a bedroom and a study) and a bathroom. We paid 117 Euros for this, which we considered an excellent value (if we could have slept, that is). This included an excellent breakfast.

Cons: The problem was with ventilation. The air conditioning and ventilation are turned completely off every night at 1:00 a.m. (the woman at the desk says this is because it's noisy and bothers the neighbors). The windows will not stay open because there are no sash cords, and the room becomes impossibly stuffy and hot even in early June. I can only imagine what it would be like in the middle of summer when the nights are hotter. If we'd been staying longer, we probably could have found sticks to prop the windows open, but then there would have been no privacy with the shutters open, since the room fronted on the main village square and the curtains were too small to completely close over the windows. You also would have to not mind street noise and waking up with the dawn.

The restaurant food at dinner was good, if quite expensive, but it seemed very odd to eat in a place where we were the only diners between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. There were SO many waiters standing around with nothing to do while we ate, looking like they really wanted us to finish so they could close up the place and go home.