L'And Vineyards - Relais & Châteaux

Located closely to Lisbon, nice hotel, amazing cafe on the lake.

We visited L’and in Winter looking for a romontic hideaway in Alentejo. The hotel exceded clearly our expectations . The spa was excellent . The big natural lake is beutifull on the morning. We swam there evryday. The two restaurants were great. Wine amazing

L'and Vineyars is a fantastic concept. The architects clearly went out of their way to build a lovely property and offer a relaxing spot in the middle of Alentejo, with magnificent views to the city and castle. However, it fails in execution in multiple aspects. Everyone in our family felt the stay was below our expectations (even the kids!), especially when you compare with the hotels we stayed at right before and after (Epic Sana Algarve and Octant Douro). The rooms are large but are not well kept / cleaned. There is a funny smell around the hotel grounds. Our family was separated into 2 rooms distant from each other (the checkin person said "1 min walk" but my Health app actually considered it a "walk" whenever I went back and forth between the 2!). We arrived after checkin time and the rooms were not ready - we were not even offered and apology or a small token. In the bedroom, there was a menu where we read "complimentary tea by the pool at 5 pm". We arrived and it was poorly setup, basically it was cold tea in large jars and some grapes. We ordered from the menu toasts with butter for the kids, and they took ages to bring them. "Café de Viagem" has a poorly chosen menu, without consideration to the local roots, food is average at best and chairs are uncomfortable. The hotel does not try to cater to the needs of children at all. Breakfast was good, but eggs took forever to arrive and came not properly cooked. The swimming pool has little space for guests and we could not find any chairs. Overall, we left with zero willingness to come back, even though it is a beautiful property. Definitely not 5 stars service.