Villa Achada da Mouca by Homie

L’accueil, la surface de la maison avec le barbecue, et la baby un vrai plus

The location in Pico das Pedras was perfect for us as we could walk direct from the property along the Levadas and also up Pico Ruivo. The pool table downstairs in the games room was a bonus!

The bathrooms could do with a revamp. The shower worked fine but the shower area would benefit from a proper, larger shower cubicle rather than the current curtain. Also, as it was relatively cool at night when we were there and the AC unit in the main room struggled to heat up the area.

The property was set in a beautiful location. Perfect for hiking and also easy access to Pico Ruivo

The parking situation in the surrounding area was terrible. The parking at the property wasn’t great either with a very steep slope making entry and exit tricky.

The house looks really nice and has a great atmosphere. The garden is amazing; however, since the place is situated at such a height that there's a cloud almost always, it's very cold outside, which makes it impossible to enjoy the garden and the terrace. The place definitely has a character, but sometimes the decorations are a little too much. There's also a fireplace in the living room, but you have to buy your own wood, as they said, which I found strange, and they didn't even mention where to buy it.

Tricky parking, old appliances (including stove, where I could only find 1 cooker that worked), bad shower... But the thing that left the worst aftertaste is that at some point, we were left without hot water (and without gas). It was in the morning, and we were in a rush and had to leave before I could talk to the host about it. We also thought that it might be a temporary problem and it would go away on its own. Upon our return home at around 11 pm, there was still no hot water. I talked to the host, the lady assured me that if I turn the gas heater off and on, then wait 30 minutes, it would start working again. I did that 2 or 3 times, it didn't help. I called her again and asked if it was possible that we simply ran out of gas, she said it wasn't possible. Soon I realised that it would be really easy to check if that was the case, so I tried turning on the cooker on the stove. It didn't work. There was simply no gas. I called her again to say that, she said it wasn't possible, but promised to send a maintenance guy first thing in the morning (their office opens at 9, so he could be at our place at 11). When we were leaving at around 11am, the maintenance guy still hadn't arrived, which meant we were unable to even cook some breakfast. I think this is completely unacceptable. If you're wondering how we were able to take a shower that night, well... we had to spend 1.5 hours heating the water in a small electric kettle to then pour it into a huge pot and mix with regular water. Then splash it on ourselves with a jug. Oh, but that's not all.