Casa de Goios - House w / pool surrounded by spacious gardens -Ideal for relaxing

Our party of ten stayed at Casa de Goios for 9 days in August whilst visiting Portugal for a family wedding. We had a fantastic time and could not recommend this villa highly enough. The accommodation is well presented and extremely well equipped. The lay out is ideal for large groups or extended families (we were three generations including 3 children under 6) The gardens and pool area are particularly spectacular and the pictures online do not do them justice. The small shallow pool (off the main pool) was ideal for the children who also delighted in the ‘secret’ vegetable garden with swings where they picked plums and lemons and peeked through the fence at the neighbouring sheep and chickens!! The pool house/games room are brilliant with shower and toilet so you never need to tread wet feet from the pool into the main house. There was some noise from the nearby road but this did not really impact our stay. The two kitchens are equipped with everything you could possibly need - kettle, toaster, blender and lots of crockery and cutlery. On a practical level there was ample parking space for our 3 cars and the washing machine worked well with plenty of racks to hang out wet towels etc. There is a lovely crib for a small baby and a large travel cot with good quality mattress which was ideal for our one year old. There were lots of towels for both bath and pool and comfortable loungers and hammocks by the pool. Beatriz and her family could not be more welcoming or obliging. They greeted us with local wine and pastries and we immediately felt at home. When we enquiries whether there was a high chair for the baby Beatriz appeared later the same day with one newly purchased as well as two raised chairs for our other children to eat at the main table - an example of her exceptional kindness. We were visiting the area for a family wedding but the town of Esposende really surpassed our expectations. It is about a 30 minute walk from the villa (though not suitable with a buggy or young children as no pavement for most of it) but very easy car journey with plenty of free parking easily available, taxis also readily available too. As well as all necessary amenities there were some very good restaurants including a pizzeria which the children loved and a remarkably good champagne and sushi restaurant for the grown ups night off! There is also a huge supermarket and petrol station just 2 minutes by car from the villa.