Quinta do Monteverde

The hostess’s welcome is kind and VERY (too?) detailed, but a tad too directive and overbearing. At times it makes you feel like a little child who needs to be taught house rules. Too much content is imparted upon you, whether you find it useful or need it at all in the first place. The room we had was a “suite” and thus featured a little anteroom with a kitchenette hidden in a large closet. The bedroom itself was nice, spacious and well appointed, although in that category, the bed could have been at least queen size —and wasn’t. The real downside is that there was NO WINDOW! The walk-in door was glass but needed to be curtained against the heat of the blazing afternoon sun (and the passing other guests!), and there was a minuscule vasistas around the walkway to the bathroom, but no window at all in the bedroom itself, which made it cavernous and claustrophobic. The room was not in the main building. Not one free power wall socket in sight! Don’t those hoteliers know that their guests have smartphones, tablets, cameras, portable computers, and all manners of assorted electrical appliances that need regular recharging? I had to unplug a lamp in the anteroom to recharge our things. No air conditioning, except for a very small unit in the bathroom, useless to cool the bedroom. The only appliance available was one of those column-type fans that worked more or less OK, except that it was on a 2-hour timer that forced me to get up several times during the night to get it started again! Unacceptable in that price range. The WiFi worked... until it went down, and couldn’t be restarted until the morning. You must avoid this place if you depend on a fast WiFi connection, for example for work purposes. (Read rest of review below)

The bathroom was good and in general well provided, but there are no red and blue markings on the taps, so you don’t know which way is hot and you’re kept wondering for quite a while as hot water takes that long to come on... Shower products are in quantities adequate, yet not overly generous, but strangely only shampoo and a strange little plastic bottle labeled “body lotion”... but no obvious shower gel in sight! Had to use an old one taken from previous hotel. Finally, the breakfast is good but nothing to really write home about as the hostess seemed to think: for example, no smoked salmon or other fish, eggs scrambled but not otherwise cooked, etc. AND you cannot have it before 9am, which is again unacceptable for an establishment in that price range: not all guests are on vacation, and even those who are may need to have an early start now and then! One last word to the wise: hotel owners and managers sometimes reply to guest advice and critique, and sometimes quite sharply. Remember then that I have no vested interest in saying good or not so good things about the places I stay at, while owners and managers do have a vested interest in selling you theirs products and services...