by Kate Gowers

Created on: November 03, 2008

When is a hotel not a hotel? When it's an apartment, of course! A normal hotel room is more than adequate for a couple, however, when travelling with another couple, you have a choice (particularly when travelling to Spain or Portugal, it seems) between renting two double or twin rooms in a hotel, or sharing a two bedroom holiday apartment. In September, my husband and I visited Portugal (near Lisbon) with another couple, and chose therefore to stay in a two bedroom apartment at the Clube do Lago in Monte Estoril (near Caiscais, about a half hour cab or train ride from Lisbon). We were there six days and five nights.

As the holiday had been booked through a travel agent, we were met at the airport by a driver, and driven the 40 minutes or so from the airport to the hotel. One of the first things you notice is the cobbled semi-circular drive in the front. This would be even more notable were it not for the fact that EVERY surface in the area is cobbled...even the train platforms. The atrium is large and airy. The front desk staff are multi-lingual (well, at least bilingual) and friendly. The front desk is (as you'd expect) prominently placed, and a bit to your right as you enter. To your left, you can wander downstairs to the bar and restaurant (more on that later). Past reception are smallish lifts. Although we were only on the 2nd floor (the Portuguese do floor labelling much as the Americans do - so the ground floor is floor one, and so on), because our companions were 65 and 82, we used the lifts quite a bit. They're clean, slowish but not painfully so, and seemingly safe. Looking out the large windows directly in front of you, you can see the swimming pool, sun loungers, and neighbouring tennis courts.

Once in the room you see a small corridor ahead of you leading to the kitchen, sitting room and balcony, with a shower room and bedroom two (with two single beds) off to the left. To the right was another corridor leading to the master bedroom, which contained a bathroom, the safe, and LOADS of closet space. In the closets were only around four hangers, and extra blankets and pillows. The bed was a double - for the size of the room, it could have accommodated a queen or even king. The bed was not terribly comfortable - it was very, very hard, and the pillows made of foam and also unyielding (but then, I like a very soft, down pillow). The master bedroom had a door leading to the large balcony. The bedrooms were pleasantly (if blandly) enough decorated, though

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