Apartamentos Finisterrae Playa

We had a fantastic time, and the owners were very professional. It depends what you're after, but it suited us perfectly, especially as a family with pets. There's a pristine beach right in front where you can walk your pet without any trouble, and the views brighten your morning. It's quiet at night, the beds are comfortable, and the town center is a 10-minute walk away. The apartment isn't luxurious, and the furniture layout may not suit everyone. There are TVs in the living room and bedrooms, plus a toaster, coffee maker, microwave and washing machine in the kitchen.

The biggest problem is getting in. The first stairs are manageable, but the final three steps up to the front door are quite high. That makes entering and leaving difficult and a bit dangerous for an older person, someone with a leg disability or someone overweight. There should be at least seven or eight steps to make access fully recommendable, and handrails would help too. Inside, the apartment has two adequate bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open-plan kitchen with a breakfast bar, and flat-screen TVs in the living room and master bedroom. One bathroom is en-suite, and the other has a shower and screen. The double bed mattresses felt far too soft to me, and I felt like I might roll off. The apartment is near Mar de Fora beach, where dogs can run around, and close to the town center and shops. As it's high up in town, some of the streets are steep, but nothing insurmountable.

The apartment wasn't dirty, and there's a pristine beach 200 meters away, probably because there's no beach bar. That's about the extent of the good points. There was hardly any kitchenware. Someone had bought glass yogurt jars and left the containers, and with four of us we nearly had just one fork and one glass each. No heating of any kind, no toaster, and one light bulb per room. The TV was tiny, 13", and the bed made a lot of noise. The apartment door was like a regular living room door, even though it locked, so you could hear everything outside. Parking was difficult or impossible, since there was no room on the sides of the single-lane road. The phone service was curt, incredibly curt. In summer, it's expensive for what you get.

The hotel is new, though the furniture is poor quality. We booked through Booking.com, but the man who checked us in refused to honor the agreement we'd made with them. He also made us wait even though we'd told him in advance. The service from him was very poor.