I stayed in this hotel in July 2010 taking advantage of a special promotion price of 50 € per night per double room. It was an offer that just lasted for a couple of days. Normal price is double.

Our room didn’t have a balcony, but had air conditioning more than enough to keep the inside fresh. There were 38 degrees outside, but the walls are 1 meter thick! It is a former Convent built in the XVII century. Comfortable bed, very nice bathroom.

It is a marvelous place, with superb breakfast and very nice atmosphere in several living rooms and in the courtyard. Hotel staff were very kind, helpfull and friendly.

My only criticism: the swimming pool is indeed too small, but then this is not the right place to go for a swim.

The nearby Palace is well worth a visit. It is easy to find a nice restaurant to eat typical Portuguese food at very reasonable prices.

This is one of the hottest regions of Portugal, the temperatures in the summer months (June, July, August, September) can easily reach 40C, and at night it is also very hot. I live in the south of Spain, so I am used to these temperatures. The air-conditioning in this hotel is bad in the bedrooms during the day, but it is turned off (!!!) at night!
Since 2007 we have stayed at this hotel for a total of 20 nights, always in the summer, so I consider my criticism can be taken seriously and truthfully.
Why have we returned then? Because we always hope it will be better next time, we cannot believe that an expensive (!) hotel like this could continue to be without air-conditioning. We ask for a room with a balcony, in order to sit outside at night, but last weekend was just too much.........impossible to sleep until 5am!
The actual hotel is so peaceful and beautiful. It is a 16th century convent, with lovely (unkempt) gardens, although Internet connection costs an incredible 10E per day, and the restuarant is over-priced. The little town of Vila Viçosa is well worth a visit.....there are unexpected monuments, such as the Ducal Palace, which is next to this hotel.
But, after our latest stay we have finally decided it is just not worth those sleepless nights!

This hotel is just beautiful. Our room was spacious and had a balcony. The bathroom was large and new. The staff was great. One morning, when we thought we had missed breakfast, we called to see if by any chance they could bring us something small, and a full breakfast tray appeared at our room shortly thereafter. The town is very pretty, with a reasonable selection of restaurants. It's definitely worth taking a day to wander around. My one quibble is the lighting in the bar, which was a bit harsh. That's not a huge problem, because you can take your drink to the living room or courtyard, but it could easily be fixed.

We stayed one night at this pousada as a base for visiting Evora and seeing the cork trees in the area. We had already spent seven days on the coast and wanted to get a view of the interior. The pousada was a good choice.

Our suite was very spacious. It included a sitting room, bedroom, entry hallway with many closets and a built in safe, a large bathroom and an additional room that had a desk. The bedroom had a small balcony but when I opened the door to admire the view I was surprised to find we had a family of baby pigeons as neighbors so we were unable to leave the balcony doors open. The room looked out on the central courtyard and across to the palace and church rooftops.

After checking in we walked over to the palace for a tour. There was only one tour remaining for the day and it was in Portugese. We decided to go along anyway just to see the interior. The guide came over to us in a few key rooms after giving his presentation and tried to give us an idea of the important things in the room. His English was limited but we appreciated his kindness and between his few words and what we'd read about the palace in the guidebooks we were able to pretty well figure out the big things we were seeing. It is certainly worth seeing if you are staying at the pousada.

Shortly after we arrived back at the pousada a bottle of champagne was delivered from the management. We weren't sure if this was standard for those staying in suites or because we had agreed to change our reservation from another pousada to this one to accommodate a scheduling problem the pousada booking agency had. Either way, it was a nice surprise.

We arrived on a day when there was a large public market in the town. It didn't have any fruits or veggies but it had tables overflowing with all types of shoes (including very high heels and Crocs); men, women's, and children's clothes (bras in every size and color, dress suits, and more housedress aprons than you've ever seen in your life, many in black); furniture; hardware, inexpensive jewelry; electronics; household goods; etc. If you are in town when the market is open, don't miss it.

We had dinner at the pousada since it was free because of our agreeing to change our reservation. We ate in a narrow walled courtyard with a small fountain that worked intermittently. The dinner was a buffet. It was okay but it wasn't my favorite meal in Portugal. In the morning we ate breakfast in a covered area looking across the main courtyard with groomed orange trees. This was also a buffet but breakfast buffets work better and the setting was lovely.

We enjoyed our stay at the pousada and would recommend it to anyone visiting the area.