Quinta da Casa Branca - Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Beautiful grounds. An oasis of calm . Lovely room with a veranda. Great location.

The grounds were gorgeous.

I missed not having ocean views, but the gardens were breathtaking. I was really stressed pulling in and not finding parking. Finally after circling a few times, I was able to find a spot due to someone leaving. The front desk representative came to room to repair phone, and while he was in the room we requested more coffee. We never got the extra coffee. We read where they charge you for extra coffee pods. I woke up early the next morning to catch the sunrise at top of the mountain and my car was blocked. Also, one morning I had to wait about 10-15 minutes to eat breakfast due to a crowded space and I guess everyone wanted to eat at the same time. Overall, I don’t know if I would stay at this property again due to the stress of parking, breakfast, etc. The room, dinner at the nicer restaurant, and grounds were fantastic. The staff were great too.

Manor house suite had nice private terrace with morning sun. The bar bistro was nice with some good food and friendly staff, but after a few days we missed variation. Friendly cleaning lady.

We treated ourselves with the expensive manor house suite, as we thought it would be the center of the hotel with reception and breakfast in the house, but it turned out this was detached from all, with much walking and no natural passing by the reception, which was in another separate building, so there was not really communication here. Parking and breakfast was quite far from our house, much walking up and down through the garden. Garden lightening not good, lit up the trees, blinding, but not the paths and pavements we had to walk. Rooms cold the first night, as the heating had not been turned on before our arrival, but it improved the following days. However, the bathroom floor cold and no heating there. Layout of room very unpractical, much walking around no place for clothes/suitcase close to bed, a chest of drawers close to bed suggested with space for suitcase. Separate beds and mattresses worn down, we suggest a new large double bed instead. Breakfast in yet another house with few spaces outside and barely sun, inside noisy. The restaurant turned out to have only fixed menu's of 6 or 9 courses, not possible to have a la carte when we arrived needing good food, but not "fine dining". It was in the manor house, but the central part with outside terrace was not accessible when we came, so there was only one room that smelled a bit moldy with only few people there, which did not attract us. But after the second night we could have used variation from the bar menu. We thought "small luxury hotel" meant we were in for a treat, but were very disappointed.

The bedrooms are so outdated and in disrepair. They have not been touched for over 20 years ! They have a very unloved and tatty feel about them. The price does not reflect this .