Guest House Antero de Quental

The first thing I noticed was the good energy and the very helpful, friendly woman in charge. The rooms were comfortable and clean, and it felt like visiting a friend's home with all the facilities included. We came by motorbike, and the car park was only 150 mts away. It's a lovely guest house, a hidden gem at an amazing price. We'll definitely come back.

The breakfast was great, with jam, cheese, croissant, two kinds of marmalade, coffee and juice, and they brought us some melon too. Our room had a double bed and street views, which made it feel quite romantic.

The owner was friendly and spoke English, and there's an equipped kitchen. Restaurants, food shops and convenience stores are nearby, and it's fairly close to the center, the sea and other places to visit. This is a nice, cosy little guest house with seven places across three rooms and breakfast included. It suits people who are out exploring more than those wanting to stay in.

The bed was the final shock: in the morning, we found fleas jumping on it. After several attempts to reach the landlady, she eventually came over and ran around cleaning crumbs off the table, saying a guest with pets must have caused the fleas. But the room door had been open, and other guests had slept in our bed. She still hasn't returned the money for the remaining nights; we're waiting to see what Booking.com decides. We escaped to another hotel, and I'd avoid this guesthouse. The location is awful, in what seemed to us the poorest and dirtiest area. We'd booked through Booking.com and arrived at midnight. There was no reception, the door was locked, and getting in turned into a whole quest. The owner answered, then hung up, and didn't help while we tried to work out the code. It took us an hour to open the door. Our room was number 3 on the third floor, past the kitchen where other guests were staying. The room door was unlocked, and inside it smelled musty, damp and old. It was cold, with a little heater that barely worked. There were crumbs on the table, dust everywhere, and the bedding hadn't been changed. We couldn't find a private bathroom. The bathroom and toilet were off the kitchen, unlocked too, so getting to the shower meant crossing the living room and kitchen. Most kitchen appliances didn't work, the power kept going out every two minutes, and we had to run downstairs to reset the circuit breakers over and over. There was no hot water, so we washed using a kettle. We called the landlady and got no answer, then contacted Booking and searched for another hotel. Since it was the middle of the night, we stayed until morning, removed the dirty bedding and used towels instead. By morning, there was still no electricity or hot water.