The catch at Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon

The address is Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca 88, on high ground beside Parque Eduardo VII, in a quarter of offices, embassies and apartment blocks. Marquês de Pombal metro is eight minutes on foot, and the hotel's own site puts Avenida da Liberdade about 14 minutes away and Rossio and Bairro Alto about 2 kilometres, or 25 minutes, each. Largo do Chiado is 2.5 kilometres, more than half an hour. The walk down is pleasant; the walk back climbs almost all the way, about 80 metres from Rossio to the hotel door, and that is the direction that matters at eleven at night.

None of that makes the hotel badly placed, only differently placed. You do not step out into tiled lanes and miradouros; you step out into residential streets with a handful of very good restaurants, and the old city is a ride away.

For 9 to 11 February 2027, a winter midweek, the cheapest room in the house, a 42 square metre Superior facing the courtyard entrance and the street, was 1,085 euros a night on the flexible room-only rate, before Lisbon's tourist tax of 4 euros per person per night. Mid-January and mid-November came within 25 euros of that; 20 to 22 April was 1,210. Breakfast is extra: the Bed and Breakfast rate adds 86 euros a night for two, and the Varanda buffet bought on the day is 62 euros a head.

The rest of the bill follows the same scale. An espresso at breakfast is 6.50 euros, a club sandwich in the bar 37, a burger at the pool bar 40, afternoon tea 65 a head and a pet 250 euros a stay. Check-in is at 4 pm, and the hotel's own advice for a guaranteed early room is to book the night before.

Since spring 2021 the hotel has been rolling out redesigned rooms and suites, in a 1950s style modelled on its original room 44, and it has stayed open throughout. Its own pages still describe the categories unevenly: the Deluxe Room and the Premier Riverside-View Room are called newly renovated, while the Superior and Deluxe Park-View pages say nothing either way. Guests report exactly that split, praise for the refurbished rooms and disappointment at older ones that feel dated at these rates.

The public rooms are formal by design: ten storeys, more than 40,000 square metres of marble, and Henri Samuel's mix of 18th-century French style and Art Deco geometry. It suits an occasion better than a lazy weekend, and the Ritz Bar is currently operating out of the Almada Negreiros Lounge.

The three 42 square metre categories, Superior, Deluxe and Premier Riverside-View, are listed for two adults plus one infant aged three or under. A child of four or more needs a 49 square metre room or a suite, which take two adults and one child. Every suite, up to the 247 square metre Presidential, is listed for two adults, one child and one infant at most, so two parents with two children over three need two rooms. The hotel says connecting rooms can usually be arranged with notice, and children aged 18 and under stay free in their parents' room where space permits.

CURA, the restaurant the hotel leads with, takes children from 12. What families do get: babysitting, cots, children's menus, and free meals for under-fives staying in the hotel, at Varanda and the pool bar.

The heated outdoor pool, opened in 2021 in the gardens with its own bar, is open May to September only, 9 am to 7 pm. For the other seven months the swimming is the 18-metre indoor lap pool in the spa, open 6:30 am to 9 pm. That pool, the sauna, the steam room, the gym and the rooftop running track are also sold as a membership, from 7,300 euros a year, so you share them with members. In summer the garden pool is for hotel and spa guests, and the pool bar advises booking loungers, daybeds and cabanas a week ahead, especially at weekends.

The spa has four treatment rooms for a 282-room hotel, with treatments from 10 am to 8 pm.