Pousada de Angra do Heroismo Castelo de S. Sebastiao

I saw this in my guide book and thought "Wow, staying in a castle, definitely!" It is quite modern, the room we had was a good size with a small balcony and sea view. The only thing that was a little annoying was that the doors that would have offered direct access to the pool area were locked. Breakfast was very good, a lot of choice. We had dinner once as well, which was also really nice.

The hotel is in a beautiful ancient fort where pirates were fought in the 16th century. The surrounding property has a gorgeous view of goat Island. The most impressive part of the hotel is the historical nature of it. We stayed in the modern side of the building and the room was fine, not fancy, bathtub was great, bath amenities were fine for us and it was clean and housekeeping was excellent. Bathroom lighting is a little dim if you're into makeup. They even dried our clothes for us after we got stuck in a huge downpour and came into the hotel drenched. Breakfast was typical, we wish they had had some of the Portuguese specialty pastries. They did have cakes,eggs, beans, bacon, cereal, croissants toast coffee and tea. Service was nice and it came with the price of the room. Special tip: you can rent a car right from the desk of the hotel. The rental fee is $35 a day for a standard to try and, automatic vehicles are more expensive. It was very convenient and we enjoyed renting a car for a day. Carlos was very helpful. Second important tip: if you arrive from Boston on a flight arriving at 6 AM you will arrive at the Fort when it's closed and it's dark outside. You'll have to ring the bell and they will check you in, but you will not have a room till three in the afternoon. So the management recommends adding one night of room rental to your package. You would need to ask for this upfront as nowhere on the tour or in the hotel is it suggested. It's a great location for walking the city but it's uphill a good bit. You can tour the grounds of the fort which is fascinating and you can see whales out in the ocean during the right season. This is a UNESCO world heritage town, so there is much to see. Dinner was as good as any of the other restaurants we went to in town, but we only ate here one night. We were in room 108 and had a good view. Best room for views is 111 in the old part of the building. The time of year that we were in Terciera , it was around 65° most of the time lovely for walking and seeing the sites. A little chilly for swimming in the natural pools, and several things are closed after October 15, so you might want to select a date before then if you go in the fall.