ACCOMMODATION IN PORTUGAL
There's a very wide range of accommodation available in Portugal, ranging from deluxe hotels and restored palaces to small family-owned hostels and spacious self-catering apartments overlooking the sea.
Rooms are also available in castles, private manor houses and other historic buildings.
According to local law, accommodation in Portugal is divided into the following categories: hotel, private guest house, motel, pousada, aparthotel, quality inn, tourist apartment, tourist village, rural hotel and boarding house, and each category has its own criteria regarding stars, standards and facilities on offer.

Hotels in Portugal are classified with 5 stars (luxury), 4 stars (comfortable), 3 stars (mid-range), 2 stars (inexpensive) and 1 star (basic).
Aparthotels and tourist apartments are similarly graded minus a one star category, while tourist villages carry three, four or five stars according to Portuguese law. Motels carry either two or three stars.
More modest accommodation can be found in Portugal’s wide selection of boarding houses, known in Portuguese as pensões or residenciais. Also included in this category are albergarias, which are similar in style to estalagens but usually found in towns or cities.

Visitors looking for something more traditional should consider Portugal’s best-known hotel product, the Pousada network, which is run by the state-owned operating company, Enatur. Each property is set in a historic building or a typically Portuguese regional-style building.
Quality Inns (called estalagens) also cater for the upmarket traveller. Estalagens are fine hotels attributed with either four or five stars, often housed in an old building and set in a picturesque rural location.
The ever-growing private guesthouse network comprises a wide selection of properties ranging from converted stately buildings and manor houses to farmhouses and simple family homes.

Each year, leading Portuguese travel publisher Maisturismo S.A. produces the Portugal Hotel Guide, an up-to-date listing of all the various types of accommodation available in Portugal, including the islands of Madeira and the Azores. Featuring more than 2,000 establishments around the country, it is without doubt the most comprehensive source of hotel information for people planning a trip to Portugal.
Also available is aCD-ROM version of the Portugal Hotel Guide, which provides full information in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Copies can be ordered free of charge by e-mail to info@maisturismo.pt.
Furthermore, an online edition of the Portugal Hotel Guide is also accessible in five languages on the Internet at www.maisturismo.com, now powered by the Nethotels real-time reservations system.