HotelChatter

The lounge is filled with fine wood furniture, an ornate tiled table, the sound of running water from a small fountain, and soft sofas for lounging on elegantly. Original paintings and cute statues everywhere. It's heavenly. An honesty bar in the corner - just pour yourself a drink a make a note of it to pay later. There aren't many honesty bars in hotels these days.

Outside, a tiny garden terrace and tables for breakfast, spotted with sun and shade from an overhanging tree. And upstairs, a fine wood-floored library filled with leather armchairs and books (yes, some in English) and a telescope for romantics who want to pretend to star-gaze.

What wins the prize for us is the staff. You ring the bell to get in and for once get a smiling, friendly receptionist who invites you to look around "with pleasure, take your time."

The breakfast lady clearing the buffet from the garden offers you a homemade pastry. Upstairs, the guy in the library asks if you'd like to sit and read, even though he knows you're not a guest. It sounds corny to say so, but we've never felt so at home in a hotel before.

Perhaps it's homely because it was once a real home - that of Portuguese novelist Eça de Queiroz. He's the most famous Portuguese novelist you've never heard of. An illegitimate child, he clearly spent too long in the northern British city of Newcastle: "Everything about this society is disagreeable to me," he famously said about the English, "from its limited way of thinking to its indecent manner of cooking vegetables." We don't think much of him (yours truly being English) but he certainly had a fine place to stay.

The downside? It's a 20-minute walk to town. But there are buses and trams passing by every few minutes and it's right near Lisbon's Museum of Ancient Art and the river.

And if you're looking for a nice meal one night, just pop over the road to As Janelas Verdes' rival hotel York House, whose restaurant is top notch and even more top nosh.

Prices run from €220-€350 ($340-$542) per double per night. Splash out on your lover - if he or she is worth it. As Janelas Verdes certainly is.