Horta do Zé Miguel

Lovely host, great view, and a beautiful kitchen. The room lighting was another story: those white energy-saving bulbs made it feel like a horror hospital room, almost like a photo taken with a super-strong flash. Really unsettling, with absolutely no chance of a romantic mood. Bring candles.

The countryside setting is beautiful and peaceful, but our stay was badly let down by the host and how little care seemed to be taken of the place. We arrived after sending our expected arrival time, but got no reply or confirmation. Nobody was there when we arrived, and we had no information or anyone to ask. We waited more than half an hour and tried calling repeatedly. On about the tenth call, someone picked up and angrily said, “WHAT?” The room didn’t feel properly checked before we arrived: there were four dead flies on the floor, and it didn’t seem very clean. The balcony wasn’t clean either. Breakfast was listed as included in the Airbnb price, as shown in our screenshot, but we weren’t given any. We had to ask the host, who didn’t live there, for basic things throughout the stay. There wasn’t enough toilet paper. After the first two days we raised it, since it didn’t seem anyone would replenish it. The host replied rudely, as though it was our fault nobody was taking care of the place. We then got just one roll, with the explanation that “people steal it.” Two days later we ran out and had to use tissues we’d brought. We also had to request fresh sheets and towels after three or four days. New sheets arrived the following day, along with a towel that was dirty and smelled bad. The communication was awful, the host was rude, and the place wasn’t clean. We didn’t feel welcome and won’t be coming back.

The location was very nice. A lot of the facilities are shared with other guests and the owning family, so the experience depends quite a bit on who else is staying there. We got reasonably lucky for the first few days, less so toward the end...

They were very helpful, and the setting and views were lovely. They even had gluten-free bread. Highly recommended.