It is doubtful that this is a currently licensed rental property as there were no child safety covers on the electrical sockets, no smoke detectors, no gated or fenced access to the swimming pool and no complaints book as required by the licensing authority. The photograph used by the owner in the advertisement for the property is very misleading. It shows the property and later states that the property is one detached house when in actual fact it is a semi detached property with the gated driveway in the photograph and the door and window facing you and to the left being the permanently occupied connected property. What you rent is through the pedestrian gate and in the section to the right. The entire property is not wheelchair accessible as stated. It is not a 10 minute walk to the beach, it takes 45 minutes. The house was dirty on arrival, the fridge/freezer was not clean and was leaking water onto the floor and the kitchen smelt of leaking plumbing the whole time during our stay. We had to wash all crockery, cutlery and cooking utensils before we could use them and not enough unbroken crockery and cutlery was supplied for four people let alone the seven people that the house is supposedly meant to be able to accommodate. The kitchen was without cutting boards, kitchen knives, frying pans, spatulas, serving spoons and other basic equipment which we ended up buying along with plates and cutlery for our stay. The switching was broken on the cooker extractor hood and also on the electric kettle. There is no sitting room/lounge and we found that the easy chair shown in the photograph of the kitchen was not at the property, which left only the two seater settee for the four of us to use. There are two small bedrooms both with en-suite bathrooms, one has an old wooden cot. Each has no room for either of the two single folding beds found at the property. We had to buy three pillows and a light bulb for one bedroom. The bedding and towels were old and worn out.

The double beds had well used mattresses and the wardrobe in one bedroom was unusable as it stank of damp and mold which permeated the room. There are no curtains in the bedrooms only shutters. Unfortunately to keep the bright street lights out of the room at night the shutters have to be closed and to achieve this the windows also have to be closed. So no ventilation and no air con in either bedroom, this is only supplied in the kitchen. Five days prior to our departure we were upset one early morning to see the owner arriving without warning, to drop off “clean” laundry in bags into the dirty and smelly garage where they would have to stay for many days, soaking up the garage aroma. The shower holder bracket in one bathroom was broken and was falling off the wall as was an electrical wall socket. Despite what the advert says, no bathrobes were supplied or a bidet. The garden was scruffy and uncared for and covered in metallic silver and gold circles and cigarette butts from the party held by the previous renters. The outside dining terrace and it's furniture was dirty and the lights did not work until we bought new bulbs. There was a wooden sun bed lying on the ground in bits along with broken chairs and a flip flop on the bungalow roof. The pool cover was not present as shown in the advertisement and we had to request the pool to be cleaned and the grass cut on several occasions during our stay. There was a large bag of cat food with some of it's contents scattered over part of the terrace and grass. The owner claimed the previous renters had left this, but we were soon to understand that the resident three cats were the owners and she would return regularly without warning to feed them along with the resident chickens. A chicken coup with approximately eight chickens along with chicks was sited at the bottom of the garden, with the only access to it through the garden. The BBQ was in a disgusting state and took half a day to intensely clean.

The property is lovely and very well located for Espinho, the beaches and is well served by local restaurants, shops, cafés and petrol station. Great access to motorway into Oporto and beyond.

Sadly the area has a great many cats roaming around which means that the property may not be suitable for all pets.