Solar Do Castelo, a boutique hotel belonging to Heritage Hotels, has been just been voted the hotel with the Warmest Welcome 2009 in Portugal by the Karen Brown Reader’s Choice Awards. This is yet another award for the Portuguese group of small hotels that are becoming increasingly popular as high-quality alternatives to large hotels for those seeking comfort and personalised service.

Solar Do Castelo is located inside the walls of São Jorge Castle, in the middle of a traditional Lisbon quarter. The readers of the Karen Brown travel guides have selected this Heritage hotel as one that makes its guests feel so welcome that they never want to leave. This 14-room unit is in the old 18^th-century Palacete das Cozinhas and boasts all modern conveniences. It was designed by the Portuguese architect Vasco Massapina and decorated by Atelier Graça Viterbo, and still has many period features.

The Karen Brown travel guide readers chose their favourite hotels in four categories on the www.karenbrown.com website. In addition to Warmest Welcome 2009, they also voted for hotels in the Greatest Value, Most Romantic and Splendid Spurge classes. The first Karen Brown guide, on France, was published 31 years ago. Today there are 17 in the collection, covering western Europe, the United States and Mexico.

In addition to Solar Do Castelo, Heritage Hotels Lisbon also include As Janelas Verdes, which is in a small late 18^th-century mansion on a street with the same name, Hotel Britania, located only 50 metres from Avenida da Liberdade in a 1940s building designed by the famous Portuguese architect Cassiano Branco and recently restored to its original art deco style, Hotel Lisboa Plaza, in a building designed by Lucínio Cruz with interiors by Graça Viterbo located between Travessa do Salitre and Avenida da Liberdade and the latest, Heritage Av Liberdade Hotel, which was designed by the renowned Portuguese architect Miguel Câncio Martins.