Pousada Estrela Do Mar

The room was a great value, with a big sea-facing window and an excellent breakfast. Just be ready for a lot of stairs.

The place seems to be going downhill. I’ve never seen so many guests running out...

The room was tiny, barely suitable for one person, despite being described as a triple. We couldn’t even open our suitcases, and there was nowhere to put clothes or towels. The windows were so small we couldn’t open them. The floor was lowered, which made it uncomfortable for anyone over 1.70 m, and the broken wooden boards were full of splinters and covered in sand. The double mattress was badly warped and left my back and shoulder hurting. The beds were pushed together. Getting into the bathroom was like an obstacle course, with a tiny door and a little staircase to climb. The old, filthy flush had a worn cord you couldn’t really touch, and it barely worked. You had to wait ages for the tank to refill before flushing again. Breakfast was average. The place is across from the sea, but it doesn’t look like the Google photos. It’s very basic. I’ve never stayed at a pousada this bad, and it was hard to find. I don’t recommend it.

The only good thing was the location. Everything else gets a zero from me. The breakfast was very poor, towels were changed every two days and sheets every three, supposedly to save water. They asked guests to keep quiet from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., but nobody did and the staff said nothing. Worst of all, they left garbage in the entrance corridor under the rooms. It stank from far away and attracted dozens of blowflies. My room had two beds, one double and one single, and was much too small. There was a strong mold smell and nowhere for luggage except the minibar or three wall shelves. The bathroom was awful, smelly, old, and dirty. The plastic faucet turned when I tried to open it, and the upstairs apartments’ sewage pipes ran through my room, so I could hear water flowing through them constantly. There was no window in the shower stall, just ventilation through hollow bricks. The broken folding bathroom door was noisy. Half the room had a wooden floor that echoed whenever someone passed in the corridor. There wasn’t even a basic mirror over the bathroom sink.