Pestana Miramar São Tomé

Nice room, good swimming pool, good breakfast, receptionists always nice and available, location is good near restaurant and the sea

Nice hotel location and very peaceful. Staff make you to feel at home with a warm welcome and always on hand to help. Restaurant and Bar with a good offers food and drinks great selection of local cuisine. A fantastic pool and public areas. A place to return for sure in a near future.

It took a mere ten minutes to reach the Miramar from the airport (taxi 10 EUR, payable in euros). I was greeted by a friendly receptionist, but her English was almost as non-existent as my Portuguese. She got me checked in, but when I tried to request a room with a good wifi connection, she didn’t understand me. Some receptionists spoke English well, others only managed a greeting. That was a big problem because there was only one person working at a time. However, I found all staff members very friendly and well-intentioned although I can’t praise them for being professional. The manager, Carlos, was an exception; he was professional, corteous and spoke excellent English. The room was a sad affair. Two narrow beds, a chair. No desk. No wifi. A small fridge with a complimentary 0.5 L water bottle, not replenished. Direct access to the pool, which was nice. The room screams 1986 all over, and the ”renovations” my Bradt guide tells me they’ve done seem to consist of thick coats of white paint, and that’s it. There was a safe in the room, but it didn’t work. They changed it the next day. There was a socket between the beds at floor level, so after some crawling I managed to charge my phone. The AC was efficient. The bathroom came with a bathtub&shower combination, but no plug so bring your own if you want to take a bath. Hot water was ample most of the time, and water pressure was fine. Toiletries included soap, shower gel and shampoo in wall-mounted containers, that’s it. However, the shower gel container was empty on arrival and was never refilled during my five-night stay. Wi-fi worked fine in the lobby, and there was a router in the hallway close to my room, so I suppose it should have worked in the room, too, but after repeated attempts to talk to reception and different explanations heard, I just gave up. This was a major inconvenience as the was no AC in the lobby, and there were mosquitoes there in the evenings. The breakfast buffet was served from 7 to 10. The omelettes were made to order and were tasty. Otherwise, it was a very basic buffet with a narrow selection; a few local items as well as imported cheese and ham, a few fruit, toast, and dry, tasteless pastries. I had dinner in the restaurant on arrival. The menu was extremely limited, pizzas, gnocchi and a breaded chicken cutlet. That’s what I ordered and it was visibly half-raw when I received it. When I pointed this out, the waiter didn’t see any problem with it so I had to use google translate to have them fry it properly. Be careful! Dinner is served from 6:30 to 10 and the menu was expanded during my stay to include some italian dishes, like tomato soup and pasta. The swimming pool is large but about the pool is too shallow for actual swimming. It was, nevertheless, a joy. The hotel was very empty during my stay so I had the pool all to myself. The water was refreshing and warm enough. There was a sign saying pool hours are from 8 am till 8 pm, but this was not enforced in