Vita Portucale ! Almada Balcony

Casa acolhedora e confortável, bem equipada com tudo o que é necessário para o uso diário.

O WC do quarto tinha um cheiro a esgoto um pouco desagradável. De resto, nada a apontar.

Tudo muito limpo e organizado. Uma pena não ter elevador e isto não era informado na pesquisa da acomodação.

Falta do elevador

For those in the know, there is a secretly affordable and convenient way to visit Lisbon. Just across the river from the heart of Lisbon sits Almada, a residential area featuring local restaurants, groceries and other daily needs all easily accessible on foot. Best of all, there is continuous ferry service across the river from early morning to late at night, putting all the magic of Lisbon at your doorstep within just a 10 minute ride (and for only €3.30 round trip!). New to Booking.com is the Vita Portucale property, just a 10 minute walk down to the ferry. This Almada Balcony apartment is a fourth floor walk up (62 steps up with no elevator) in an older residential building on the main avenue in Almada, with several markets and restaurants just across the street. This is a 2 Bedroom / 2 Bath apartment, though only one of the bathrooms was operational during our visit in May 2023 (the other was locked off). The apartment is completely modernized and extremely livable with excellent wifi, a clothes washer, and even a dishwasher. We grew to love it in our 5 nights there. We had our lunches in Lisbon and our dinners back near our place in Almada, and were able to save significant money that way too, without sacrificing taste. The Tasca d Avenida featured amazing seafood (directly across the street from the apartment), and Damasqino was a delectable Syrian restaurant a bit further down the road.

The one thing that they were a little cagey about during our booking inquiry was the air conditioning, and, as it turns out, the apartment does NOT have any AC (again, as of May 2023). It does now have a fan though, as we bought one across the street for €30 and left it there at the apartment. The good news is that the weather we experienced was sublime, with breezy, mild days and cool nights, so it turned out to be no problem at all for us. The layout of the apartment provides for simply stellar cross-ventilation, but be careful of the very heavy solid wood doors that can be windblown to slam with a pronounced authority that no typical American interior door could ever achieve (even to the point where one of the older ladies who lives in the building came to our door to complain to us about the noise, to which I apologized profusely). As always with Portugal's lack of window screens, we saw a fly or two come in to the apartment, but no big deal. Also, only one set of keys provided, so my wife and I had to coordinate access if we planned to arrive back at different times. Also note: the Uber back to the airport was just €21 -- one third the price of the cab we took in during our arrival.

Access to tram

A toilet was broken, smelling awful, and the connected room could not have been used