Pousada Leonardo da Vinci

A nice place to stay with family or friends.

Good.

A pretty place with an excellent breakfast, though getting there means taking a dirt road. The rooms could have been a little cleaner. Still, an interesting spot.

The meals were tasty, and the room was spacious and very clean, with both a fan and air conditioning. That was about the best of my New Year’s stay from the 30th to the 1st. I wouldn’t go back. Getting there requires a car and a pretty rough road. The location itself isn’t bad. Staff were helpful, but there were too few of them and they seemed to do everything. They didn’t wear uniforms, so I couldn’t tell who was a guest, and it felt like the staff’s whole family worked there, including their young children. That made me a little uncomfortable. I felt more like an unwanted guest at a distant relative’s house. The inn seemed completely run down, with no fresh paint, a nearly black pond, and dirty veranda furniture. It badly needs an update. The bathroom was roomy but very dark, and its only mirror was so short I could only see my face. I missed having a full-length mirror. No one came to clean the room or change the towels while I was there. There’s no game room, just an outdoor lounge area. It was a nice place to sit, but the fabric furniture was so dirty it made me feel sick. The simple pool has no shade, and the umbrellas were in awful shape. On the last day I spent some time under the one tree that shades the area. Anyone bringing children would need to keep an eye on them, since the pool is up on the higher part of the property and has no safety net. The TV reception was poor, apparently because of the Wi-Fi, though Netflix worked and I watched a few things. Lunch came around 1:30 p.m. on both days I was there, which felt very late. There wasn’t a proper lunch or dinner schedule, and dessert appeared long after the meal and wasn’t anything special. The New Year’s Eve supper was served outside, but the food quickly went cold with no heating, and the soft drinks, at least the soda, were only cool. Breakfast was good, with a range of cold cuts and fruit, but there were no cookies, chocolate milk, or sandwich makers like you often find at inns. When we asked for drinks, they were sometimes unavailable or warm. The place had no background music, so it was silent the whole time. There was music once, but I found out a guest had brought it. Even on New Year’s Eve there was no entertainment, and that was the dullest New Year’s I’ve ever had. I got the impression the inn might be for sale and that services were being done carelessly. It felt like the place was just barely surviving.