When is a hotel not a hotel? When it's an apartment, of course! A normal hotel room is more than adequate for a couple, however, when travelling with another couple, you have a choice (particularly when travelling to Spain or Portugal, it seems) between renting two double or twin rooms in a hotel, or sharing a two bedroom holiday apartment. In September, my husband and I visited Portugal (near Lisbon) with another couple, and chose therefore to stay in a two bedroom apartment at the Clube do Lago in Monte Estoril (near Caiscais, about a half hour cab or train ride from Lisbon). We were there six days and five nights.

Once in the room you see a small corridor ahead of you leading to the kitchen, sitting room and balcony, with a shower room and bedroom two (with two single beds) off to the left. To the right was another corridor leading to the master bedroom, which contained a bathroom, the safe, and loads of closet space. In the closets were only around four hangers, and extra blankets and pillows. The bed was a double - for the size of the room, it could have accommodated a queen or even king. The bed was not terribly comfortable - it was very, very hard, and the pillows made of foam and also unyielding (but then, I like a very soft, down pillow). The master bedroom had a door leading to the large balcony. The bedrooms were pleasantly (if blandly) enough decorated, though the carpet was not as clean as it might have been, and did look a little bit tired. Not dirty (although, as I mentioned, the carpet did have some fairly old looking stains) ... just tired.

The kitchen was reasonably well stocked with utensils, pots, pans, cutlery and the like, and had a dishwasher and sink. However, there were no consumables - no washing up liquid, no dishwasher detergent, and no supplies. We had to bring or buy our own tea bags, sugar, coffee and so forth. Whilst the cleaning staff would do you washing up for you, they charge for the privilege, so we never took them up on that kind offer.

The apartment was, by and large, pleasant. It was light and airy, and clean. However, it was a little tired, and ... well ... adequate. For example, although there were two bedrooms sleeping in total four people, the 'comfy' seating really only had room for three, despite the fact the room was of an ample size for another chair. There were no consumables in the kitchen. The kitchen counters had burn marks, and there was no iron. Hangar provision was stingy. There was, in short, in the room, a failing of attention to detail. Broadly, everything was there, and ticked the boxes of things you absolutely needed,

Pictures of Clube Do Lago, Estoril

Ain't it blue?!

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We never ate dinner in the restaurant though we did spend some time in the bar. The bar staff were unfailingly friendly, and the prices were typical of a hotel bar - somewhat more expensive than the equivalent drinks elsewhere (having said that, they recognised Joe, the 82 year old, from the previous year - he received obscenely large measures of red wine. Joe is a character). The bar had seating inside the bar area, a pool table and a television. You could also sit in the corridor by the window sort of underlooking the pool (the bar was right on the ground floor - almost lower ground, so you couldn't actually see very much). The lighting wasn't brilliant, and for the seats by the window, was solely florescent, which gave me a bit of a headache.

The hotel is a 7 or 10 minute walk from the beach at Monte Estoril, and Monte Estoril is but a 7 or 10 minute walk from Caiscais (lots of shops, restaurants - touristy and quaintish), and the same again in the other directon to Estoril (home of Europe's largest casino, apparently). The train station is also beachside, and relatively frequent trains can take you to Lisbon in around 30 - 40 minutes.