When my son was a freshman in college, he elected, somewhat spontaneously and entirely driven by a desire to compose a class schedule that allowed him to sleep until 9, to take Portuguese to fulfill his language requirement. Fast forward to today, and the same son, having graduated with a double major in Economics and Portuguese, now lives in Lisbon.
With the holidays fast approaching and the pandemic continuing on, we decided to take the leap and booked tickets to Portugal to visit him.
The Path To Lisboa
International travel is not without challenges in ordinary times.
The pandemic, with ever-changing covid protocols depending on the destination, adds to the uncertainty. With vaccination rates surpassing most of Europe, Portugal is an excellent destination. Still, as with any travel, you should keep up to date with covid restrictions.
As of January 2022, entry to Portugal requires a negative covid test, even from fully vaccinated travelers, within three calendar days of departure. Hotels in Portugal require proof of a negative covid test within a shorter timeframe: 72 hours before check-in.
For most travelers, one test result will suffice for both time frames, but if you have a long flight coupled with a long layover, this might be a tight timeline, and is something to consider in how and when to book your pre-departure test. Free rapid testing is available at pharmacies and pop up stands in Lisbon, but they operate on limited hours and may require a lengthy wait on line.
So, while it is possible to check in, leave your bags and go out in search of a rapid result, it’s far better to time your entry covid test to fall within the shorter hotel 72-hour window.
Our son recommended we stay on Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon’s Champs Elysees. Designed in the 18th century as a park and converted into a tree-lined walkway in the 19th century, Avenida da Liberdade is the centerpiece of Lisbon.
Along the wide sidewalks made of traditional Portuguese tiles – the mathematics of the patterns is astounding to contemplate – you will find high end shopping, luxury hotels and fine dining. Avenida da Liberdade is centrally located and stretches from the famous Edward VII Park to Commerce Plaza (Praça do Comércio) by the Tagus River.
From Avenida da Liberdade, the historic neighborhood of Alfama and the trendy neighborhoods of Bairro Alto and Santos are easily accessible. Avenida da Liberdade’s metro station connects to almost any destination in the city, the Tagus River on one line and the airport on another. The metro also connects to the train station; popular day trips from Lisbon are Sintra, with its eccentrically charming hillside castles, and the beaches of Cascais.
We opted to stay at the Fontecruz Lisboa, a Marriott Autograph Collection property located right in the middle of Avenida da Liberdade, quite close to the metro station.
They participate in the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program, enroll before you stay.
Despite our somewhat late planning for the popular week leading up to Christmas, we were able to book three rooms at this five star hotel at a rate of 160 euros – less than I pay for a Residence Inn in most major cities in the US. A week after booking, Marriott posted a lower rate of 135 euros for stays of three days or more; a quick call to Marriott netted me the new rate. It pays to check back in periodically on your travel plans!
Like all Autograph Collection hotels, the Fontecruz is an independent hotel with uniquely themed decor.
The Fontecruz’s theme is vintage travel. Throughout the hotel, the decor speaks of the traveler – you in the present, they in the past – finding a place to stay, far from home but remaining connected to loved ones.
Fontecruz Lisboa – Vintage Lobby
Take note, for example, of the collection of antique room keys – 138 of them to correspond with the hotel’s address at 138 Avenida da Liberdade – arranged above the check-in counter. And the period motorcycle and side-car parked in the lobby; if you fancy a ride, the hotel arranges personal tours of Lisbon by motorcycle, each person with their own driver and side-car.
The vintage travel motif extends throughout the hotel.
Open the door to your room – whimsically numbered in Portuguese tiles – and it is as if you have stepped into an old black and white photograph displayed in a silver frame.
Postcard of Room at Fontecruz Lisboa
The centerpiece art in each room is an enlarged image from a vintage postcard, and you will find on your bed the corresponding reproduction postcard, ready for you to write home. No stamp needed; drop your postcard into the mailbox in the lobby, and the Fontecruz will mail it on your behalf.
Marriott elite status is richly rewarded at the Fontecruz, but know going in that suite inventory is limited, and these rooms are generally claimed by paying guests, making them unavailable for complimentary upgrades. Still, I had reserved three standard rooms, and each was upgraded in the days leading up to our arrival.
Our first room, reserved as current platinum, soon-to-be titanium elite members (we hit our 75th night just days before our arrival) was upgraded to a Terrace Room, a descriptor that comes nowhere near doing the room justice.
The room itself is spacious, with almost 350 square feet, but the star feature is the terrace, as large as the room itself, with glorious views of the hilly neighborhoods of Lisbon. In fact, on our first day of sightseeing, we trekked up the steep hill behind the Fontecruz to a designated scenic overlook, Miradouro do Jardim do Torel. From there, we could see our own terrace, as well as the Tagus river to the south – the mirror image of the view from our terrace.
Later that afternoon, as a welcome gift, the Fonetcruz sent up complimentary glasses of good port and a tray of truffles and pastéis de nata (the Portuguese custard tarts that by themselves make a visit to Portugal worth the trip), which we enjoyed immensely at sunset from our private terrace retreat.
Our other two rooms, booked under accounts with gold elite status, were upgraded to generously sized Deluxe King rooms. Knowing that we were traveling with our adult sons, but without me requesting it, we were all placed together, with our sons across the hall in connecting side by side rooms overlooking Avenida da Liberdade.
Even with the windows open, the rooms were surprisingly quiet, aside from the occasional motorcycle – an excellent trade-off for the view of the trees that run down the middle of the avenue and, especially, the view of the sidewalk tile work from above, an entirely different perspective than from the street.
Fontecruz Family Label
The Fontecruz is owned by a family of Spanish vintners, and they supply the hotel’s wines from their vineyard in the Douro Valley.
The Douro Valley is where the grapes for Portugal’s famous port wine, a sweet combination of wine and brandy, are grown. The grapes are harvested and prepared for fermentation in the valley; barrels of wine meant to become port are shipped north to Porto, where brandy is added, resulting in a fortified wine higher in concentration of both sugar and alcohol, before being transferred for aging into oak barrels.
The Fontecruz family label, Alta Pavina, comes from the same Douro Valley region, though across the border in Spain.
Bistrôa Restaurant
The hotel’s restaurant, Bistrôa, has a lovely outdoor patio seating area. When the weather is nice (and it usually is in Portugal; even in December, it was chilly but pleasant during the day), it’s the perfect place to sit with a glass of wine and listen to the live piano music playing inside.
Before the pandemic, the pianist was accompanied by local fado singers (hopefully to return in 2022), fado being a uniquely Portuguese art form of melancholic singing that expresses yearning, heartbreak and unrequited love.
Breakfast at Bistrôa, free for elite members platinum and above, begins with a charcuterie board of cheese and smoked meats, all locally sourced, along with a selection of jam and breads, the star of which are the croissants.
A small buffet offers fresh fruits and yogurts topped with raspberry or mango puree, and the chef prepares omelets and pancakes to order.
The centerpiece, which appeared from a distance to be a translucent sculpture, is actually a framed cross section of honeycomb, provided to the Fontecruz by a local beekeeper. Dripping with honey to be scooped, it makes for a beautiful piece of art.
Over the course of the day, Bistrôa subtly transforms through lighting and tableware.
In the late afternoon, the red curtains open to showcase a full bar with a cheeky wink in the form of traditional Portuguese tiles that spell out, “What Happens At Fontecruz Stays At Fontecruz.” From that point onward, Bistrôa offers two menus.
Go the route we did in the afternoon and sit at the circular tables, where the bar menu includes a fantastic burger, the only drawback being that it is served with chips instead of french fries – a surprising choice, given that fries are ubiquitous in Portugal, and were uniformly excellent at every restaurant we visited.
For the restaurant menu, sit at the square tables preset with wine glasses, chargers and linens. In the evening, the transformation to fine dining is complete. Chef Rui Borges serves upscale Portuguese dishes with a selection of Fontucruz family wines. Try the porco preto (black pork); it is excellent.
All of the fish, meat and produce are locally sourced, and leftovers from the kitchen are packaged for donation to a local charity that distributes it to the community.
After breakfast one morning, I had the opportunity to chat with Marta García Chozas, the general manager of the Fontecruz. Senhora Chozas’s enthusiasm for the property is palpable.
The Fontecruz’s goal, according to Sra. Chozas, is to make the stay of every guest tranquil and smooth. To that end, the Fontecruz notifies arriving guests not once but twice by email in the two days before check in of the government-mandated negative covid test hotel requirement. Despite staying on top of news related to covid restrictions, I would not have known that we needed a negative test result within 72 hours of check-in. And we never received any warning at all from our other hotels (forewarned being forearmed, we had our negative test results handy at each subsequent hotel check-in and, sure enough, we needed them).
Sra. Chozas’s proactivness saved us from considerable grief, as our flight was scheduled to arrive in Lisbon at 10:30 pm, well after the local pharmacies would have been closed. This kind of attention to detail, Sra. Chozas explained, assures that guests at the Fontecruz need not worry about anything, but can instead focus on what matters to them, whether business or personal.
Portugal is open for visitors, Sra. Chozas hopes travelers will realize, and the Fontecruz is ready to assist in the logistics. Given a day of notice, the Fontecruz will schedule an appointment for covid testing to come to you in your hotel room, with results returned to you the following day.
Should you happen to require medical care, the Fontecruz will coordinate that for you as well.
Sra. Chozas’s confidence in the Fontecruz’s ability to make every guest’s stay enjoyable and stress-free is well justified. Service is seamless at every level. The staff hits a nice Goldilocks balance of readiness to assist and unobtrusiveness.
Don’t mistake humbleness – a positive character trait in Portugal – for lack of warmth; you won’t find effusive chattiness here, but you will find genuine concern for your happiness. Any item you request from the front desk – ice, a toothbrush, the lost luggage that was finally delivered – will arrive at your door in no more time than it takes for the elevator to reach your floor.
When my boys had an evening craving for a local takeaway, but forgot to request utensils, I called down to the front desk and was promptly transferred to the kitchen’s manager. In retrospect, I suspect the kitchen was closing, or perhaps already closed, given the hour, but sets of silverware folded in linen napkins arrived at our door, before I had finished answering his inquiry about how we had enjoyed that afternoon’s truffles and port.
When our flight connecting us from Lisbon to London on our way back to the States was canceled the day before departure, upending our carefully laid plans for covid testing to meet both the American and English requirements, the Fontecruz assisted us at multiple points, from providing assistance in finding testing in Lisbon, to a landline and help with translation to English, to arranging for us to extend our stay or depart early without penalty, depending on how we were able to work out our flights.
Fontecruz Lisboa Staff
Our interactions with the staff, from housekeeping to the general manager and everyone in between, were so organically pleasant that it quickly became clear that staff in every position share a unified goal to showcase the Fontecruz to each of its guests in the best light possible. It is particularly satisfying expressing gratitude here, as it is met with such beaming pride at a job well done.
Were I to travel internationally again before the end of the pandemic, I would do a few things differently.
Most of the difficulties we encountered – an entire plane’s luggage left behind on the Heathrow tarmac when the plane itself departed for Lisbon, canceled flights rebooked then canceled again – stemmed from a decision made early on, when the pandemic seemed to be waning and entry restrictions loosening, to make our connection through London.
If I could recommend to my past self to select a direct flight to Lisbon from a US airport on the east coast, I would have no hesitation in choosing Portugal as our destination. But this time, I would stay at the Fontecruz Lisboa for several nights on each end of my stay, with trips to Porto, Sintra and the Algarve in between, and let the hotel arrange the details of my departure testing for me.
Lisbon is a charmingly old-world European city, the weather is lovely and the people lovelier still.
Having our Portuguese-speaking son as a guide was a lot of fun for us, but entirely unnecessary; English is fluently spoken by almost everyone in the city.
Enjoy walking around the historic neighborhoods admiring the tile work. Take a short train ride to the neighborhood of Belém to sample the original pastéis de nata (the monks of Belém began creating these custard pastries in the 18th century so as not to waste yolks left over from their use of the whites to starch their collars), and compare them with Sra. Chozas’s favorites at Manteigaria (she’s right, they are better – though we found better yet in Porto at a bakery called Castro).
Wander the neighborhood of Mouraria to hear real fado singing (another of Sra. Chozas’s excellent recommendations). Eat an amazing swordfish sandwich (Espadarte) at Prego da Peixaria. End your day with a glass of port on Bistrôa’s patio. Sleep in one of the most comfortable beds you will find on the road.
Without question, this is what I would recommend to anyone traveling to Portugal; allow yourself the luxury of easing into and out of your vacation knowing that you can rely on the Fontecruz to make your stay worry free and totally enjoyable.
