Vila Elena

It was okay.

The location was the one decent part, but it was much farther from the beach than the listing suggested, about 600-700 m rather than 0.5 m. Nothing in the description mentioned how close it was to the station, either. The train passed so near that the whole house shook. Inside, the room was tiny, almost like it had been made out of a former hallway. The plaster was rough, and there was nowhere to put luggage. Dust covered the floor so badly that walking barefoot turned the soles of my feet black. The bathroom was dirty, with spiders, and the toilet seat was smaller than the toilet itself. The mattress was shorter than the bed frame and squeaked so loudly it was impossible to sleep. The towels were old and worn, all different colors, like they didn’t belong to a set. I stayed just one night, and that was enough to make me want to leave straight away. The only good thing was that I didn’t stay longer. I absolutely don’t recommend it.

The room was clean and adequate, though the shower felt cramped because there was hardly any space. I knew the railway was right next to the place, but the train seemed to be going through the room. I stayed there 2 years ago, and across the street you could only hear the trombones...

I knew beforehand that the place was close to the tracks, so we expected some noise and figured we might not sleep well. Still, I thought I’d be fine since I sleep like a log, but we had trouble. I wouldn’t recommend it to light sleepers, especially people who sleep like rabbits. The room had the basics for staying overnight: a bed with pillows and a blanket, a bathroom with a window. We didn’t use the TV or air conditioning. The toilet tank was nearly always empty, though, so when my morning coffee took effect, good luck finding water. The worst part came after we left. We checked out Tuesday morning at 09:00, then on Thursday at 18:30 the host got in touch and told us to pay for the sheet and mattress protector because they were “damaged,” or asked us to hand-wash them. The stains looked like they would come out in the wash, and we had no way to know they were even ours, since someone else could have stayed in the room during those 2 days.