Dona Emília Guesthouse

We have stayed in numerous types of accommodation from luxury hotels to hostels in Spain and Portugal in preceding weeks. Dona Emelia was our favorite on many levels. A small scale guest house that has been a labour of love, with great architectural value and highly thoughtful amenities. They have guest comfort and experience at top of mind. Clean, central and very stylish and unique. Do yourself a favour and stay here.

first the pros: After spending nearly 1 1/2 hours completely lost and trying to find the guesthouse ( Google and Apple maps fail miserably) The proprietor Nuno graciously brought his bicycle down to meet us and guided us to the house. he then spent at least 30 to 45 minutes orienting us to the apartment explaining in technical detail all its many quirks and idiosyncrasies. The apartment is large but is festooned with shabby, mismatched "mid century modern" furnishings and appliances (ie the passé retro 50's & 60's look). This may appeal to certain "hipsters", but most older guests I believe prefer modern tasteful furnishings To our chagrin, the highly touted "free breakfast" was completely do it yourself with a loaf of stale cake, three raw eggs for two people, a couple of bananas, two small juices in a box… You get the picture. Of course you had to cook it yourself and proprietor kindly asked us to clean up the kitchen after we finished. So the question we asked each other was why bother? Most people on holiday prefer to leave drudgery of kitchen chores behind. On the plus side, the bed was comfortable and the entire unit was very quiet. We specifically asked for a quiet room prior to our arrival. A small space heater kept the living room area warm but it was quite cold in the bedroom. Apart from small retro "Edison" lights above the bed, there were no night lights in the apartment. It was a treacherous journey in the middle of the night to the bathroom!