Our stay at the Rio Gaia Santa Guesthouse was fantastic! The girls, who live in the mainhouse, made us feel very welcome. They offered lots of advice and tips and answered several questions about areas we wanted to visit. We felt that anything we needed would be offered, even some oil and salt from their kitchen while we made breakfast! One of the girls even organized a taxi for us on the day of departure.
In addition to their expertise, they had several guidebooks available that we ended up referring to quite often. The rooms were perfect for us as two couples. Plus we had the whole pool and kitchen area to ourselves. The house is situated in the quaint neighborhood of Santa Theresa, which we enjoyed walking around in. It's one block from a great bar which was featured in Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.
The only complaint was that the shower's hot water was not consistent. We were told on arrival to be patient with the hot water because it takes a while to get hot, but what we found was that the water would be extremely hot for about 30 seconds and then warm for 30 seconds. This went on for the whole shower and there was no way to adjust this. Besides that, we truly enjoyed our stay.