This studio flat was PERFECT for us! We absolutely loved having a base so close to Cascais (and Estoril) to explore this beautiful area of Portugal. We met Ricardo's mother to check in who was very sweet and then left us to it (which is exactly what we wanted as we were keen to set off exploring!). The flat is just as photographed and we had a brilliant stay.
Accommodation Pros:
- Uber rides into town are about €3 making this a great location (especially for anyone looking to reduce cost of accommodation which would be much higher in town for this kind of property!)
- Host provides bikes with keys for access to them attached to your flat key - town is not far away so you can easily cycle if you prefer
- Affordable
- Clean
- Comfy bed
- International TV channels which made for nice familiar background noise while getting ready for the day (though there is too much to see and do to be watching much TV!)
- The shower is great (it doesn't photograph well on airbnb, but it is actually a brilliant shower!)
- Constant hot water in kitchen and bathroom
- Bottle of local wine for arrival
- A great spot for a couple to vacation together
- Great hosts (we needed a pen each so they provided 2 brand new pens for us, we left some washing out to dry on the available line which wasn't in the sun and when we returned Ricardo's mum had placed it all out onto a new line in the sun for us so it was actually dry when we got back! Ricardo was available all the time on WhatsApp and answered all of our questions throughout our entire stay about all sorts of queries!)
Accommodation Cons:
- The flat does smell/feel a bit damp on occasion. A dehumidifier would I'm sure go a long way to resolve the issue, so we recommended this to the hosts so they may have even sorted this out by the time you read this review. It didn't ruin our stay.
Other Pros to Take Into Account:
- Cascais is such a beautiful town with lots of interesting shops and plenty of amazing places to eat and drink for all different price ranges. Get the pasa del natas from Bijou in Cascais, and remember to ask for cinnamon on top!
- Lisbon is only 40 mins away on the train and is also stunning with plenty to do.
- Estoril is the other, smaller town which is slightly closer to the flat. Cascais and Estoril kind of blur into one when you're walking along the promenade from one to the other. There's so many lovely seaside restaurants and bars along the way!
- The electric scooters which can be picked up and dropped off in multiple locations made for SO much fun to get around - we were really surprised we hadn't seen more people talking about this in their reviews. We'd thoroughly recommend downloading the scooter app (using the QR codes on the scooters themselves) and getting about that way. It was so much fun!
- Give yourself a full day in Sintra, the palaces and surrounding gardens are incredible, you'll want to stop and refuel (with espressos and pastries!) so you can keep going and see all of the beautiful town of Sintra as well which in itself is worth just walking around and taking it all in.
We had an amazing time, thank you Ricardo, Marta and Ricardo's mum! :)