Hotel da Estrela

We may find it endlessly annoying that there is no subway stop near Estrela, but it's not that hard to go up the Avenida Álvares Cabral to get to one of the city's nicest gardens. On your way there, in a street parallel to the above mentioned avenue, you will find the Hotel da Estrela. Located within the old palace of the Counts of Paraty, it is a small deluxe hotel with the kind of gardens and outdoors areas that few city hotels enjoy.
With only 19 rooms and suites, at the Hotel da Estrela luxury doesn't mean officiousness. The staff is thoughtful but not overwhelming, and whatever flaws they might have, they make up for it with their kindness and effort. Most of the staff are young and fresh out of hospitality school. What for many would have been a disadvantage has become a calling card for the Hotel da Estrela; their Cantina da Estrela restaurant is also a “school”, where clients pay as much as they wish per plate beyond a set minimum – and the work of these cooks-in-training is much better than what you might expect.
Only a few metres from the hotel you will find the tram stop linking Campo de Ourique to Martim Moniz (be prepared for a painfully long wait). Right in the vicinity, the Estrela garden is a local favourite on sunny weekends, but you might have to fight to get a free square metre of lawn, so you may want to enjoy the Lisbon sun quietly at the hotel's garden and swimming pool. In summertime there are picnics on the grass.
And did we mention that after 2018 there might be a subway station in Estrela? We are waiting with bated breath.