Review: the new InterContinental Estoril hotel, Portugal (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of our review of the new InterContinental Estoril hotel in Portugal.  You can read part 1 here.

In part 1 of my review of the InterContinental Estoril my focus was on our room and the different categories of room you can book. Here is part 2 where I review everything outside the room.

As a reminder, IHG provided Head for Points with two free nights to have a look at this new addition to the InterContinental family.  We paid for all of our expenses including flights.

Breakfast at InterContinental Estoril

The breakfast buffet was being served in the bar/restaurant area on the same level as the reception just outside the lounge.

Despite having executive lounge access (more on that below) we still sat there and enjoyed some additional items of food!

The club lounge

Despite having just 59 rooms and two suites, InterContinental Estoril has its own executive lounge.  The lounge had its own balcony with heaters on the ceiling so you could even sit outside on a colder day.

This was the sitting area in the lounge.

There were snacks, soft drinks, coffee and tea throughout the whole day, with and canapes and champagne from 5pm – 7pm.

Pool

The InterContinental Estoril pool is split in half with a paddling pool on one side and a deeper one on the other. Unfortunately due to a storm the previous day there was no water in the pool whilst we were at the hotel.

There were lots of deckchairs and parasols for sunbathing and you could order drinks and snacks from the poolbar to enjoy on your deckchair.

Gym

The gym was very spacious and had all the equipment needed for a good workout – if you want to work out indoors.

Spa

The spa area looked very bright and modern with a broad treatment menu, although I didn’t try anything whilst I was there.

The beach

The sandy public beach in Estoril was about a 5 minute walk along the sea front from the InterContinental and has deckchairs, bars and restaurants.  It was not crowded although it was only mid May when I was there.

Cascais

From the beach it was another 5 minutes walk to the nearby village of Cascais.  As the weather on the first day wasn’t good enough for sunbathing, we went to Cascais instead to get some lunch. We went back later in the evening for dinner and bar hopping and on the second evening we found a lovely Brazilian meat restaurant.

Conclusion

The InterContinental Estoril is a great hotel in a great location and the staff were genuinely attentive.

As it is a very new hotel there are obviously some things that can be improved but nothing major. Yes, we were confused that all balconies except ours had chairs, but as it only took about 5 minutes until we were also able to sit outside, this wasn’t an issue.

It is a family friendly hotel with the option of booking two rooms next to each other with a connecting door and kids will love the paddling pool.  In an area with many large hotels, the fact that the InterContinental has only 59 rooms was also something we appreciated.

Our room was small, but when staying somewhere like the InterContinental Estoril where you’ve got a pool, the sea and a gorgeous fishing town up the road, you are not really there to spend lots of time in the room.  As I wrote in Part 1, most of the standard rooms are larger than the one we had which was on a corner.

The local area, which is the real reason to come here, is lovely. You have Cascais with its restaurants, bars and shops in walking distance and a train right outside the hotel takes you to Lisbon. Other guests of the hotel told us about a great variety of day trip opportunities in the area.

All in all I highly recommend the InterContinental Estoril hotel for a holiday or long weekend.  As an IHG Rewards Club redemption it is 50,000 points per night.  I saw the more expensive sea facing rooms (€275 in August for Advanced Purchase) available for points as well as the cheaper garden rooms (€213).

You can find out more about the hotel on its website here.

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