Quinta da Fonte is a beautiful historic house with a lovely garden and spectacular views. We stayed for a week in room 3 and found it comfortable, cool and quiet (other the barking of the local dogs in the evening, something beyond the owners control!) Towels and linen were changed frequently and the room serviced. There is just a hand-held shower over the bath so if power showers and high water pressure are essential to your holiday, this is not the place for you. The shared balcony in the first-floor communal area is good to sit on to enjoy the sun and the view, and we bought some food to eat out there on a few occasions. Wine, beer and water can be purchased from the communal sitting area which has a useful fridge. A PC and WIFI are available but I found that I could not connect to the internet on several occasions so don't rely on it. There is also a shared TV if you feel the need, plus some tourist information etc.
Our hosts were friendly and keen to please but conversation was limited as sadly we do not speak Portugese or Spanish. This was not a problem when booking as this is dealt with by a very fluent daughter.
Breakfast was taken in the impressive formal dining room furnished with the antiques. I think that because of these the doors and windows are kept closed, excluding...Quinta da Fonte is a beautiful historic house with a lovely garden and spectacular views. We stayed for a week in room 3 and found it comfortable, cool and quiet (other the barking of the local dogs in the evening, something beyond the owners control!) Towels and linen were changed frequently and the room serviced. There is just a hand-held shower over the bath so if power showers and high water pressure are essential to your holiday, this is not the place for you. The shared balcony in the first-floor communal area is good to sit on to enjoy the sun and the view, and we bought some food to eat out there on a few occasions. Wine, beer and water can be purchased from the communal sitting area which has a useful fridge. A PC and WIFI are available but I found that I could not connect to the internet on several occasions so don't rely on it. There is also a shared TV if you feel the need, plus some tourist information etc.
Our hosts were friendly and keen to please but conversation was limited as sadly we do not speak Portugese or Spanish. This was not a problem when booking as this is dealt with by a very fluent daughter.
Breakfast was taken in the impressive formal dining room furnished with the antiques. I think that because of these the doors and windows are kept closed, excluding the lovely sunshine, but we did have our own chandelier, not something you get every day! Breakfast was individual portions of cheese/salami/ham, bread rolls, jam, yoghurt and a banana or apple, plus orange juice and tea or coffee. Some cereal would have been appreciated.
As noted on previous reviews one has to use a car, taxi or bus to and from town, the road is steep and even if you are tempted to walk there is the danger of being run over. The buses are reasonably priced (multi-day tickets can be purchased from kiosks in town) and usually frequent but there are some intervals at weekends or mid afternoon. Construction work on the harbour means that the bus route in town has altered so make sure you have up-to-date info.
There are a couple of shops/snack bars within walking distance which come in useful and had helpful staff, but quite reasonably they are not tourist-orientated in this area which seems authentically Madeiran.
We enjoyed our stay in this quiet, peaceful but relatively formal establishment, and would recommend it unless you want an airy open-house atmosphere and casual chit-chat in English.More
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