Hostel Casal São João

Our stay was great! The host was very friendly, providing detailed information also about the surroundings and places we can visit. We forgot something in the house and he immediately called me and found a solution for us getting our tings back.

The bathrooms and rooms were not clean at all. The floor was dirty. And in the evenings there was so much noise. It was hard to get a good night’s sleep.

Really helpful and friendly staff. Lovely atmosphere in the hostel and a great place to meet other travellers. The kitchen was well equipped. I think you'd struggle to find somewhere else as nice as this for the price! Fantastic view of the sunset!

The bathroom had a small amount of mould but it wasn't an issue for me.

I liked the people there, so kind and helpful

It was quite far away

Very, very nice and welcoming Helder and his family. Interested in people' needs, supportive. They are the only reason why it was possible to manage it there.

Well. It would be fair to tell directly that it's really hard to reach the place without a car from Ribeira Brava. Yes, the bus stop is in front of the hostel, however, you have to be very lucky to catch it, it's really rare, mainly in weekends. The instructions for going on foot provided by the owner on the phone were, let's say nicely, not useful (better said a suicide). So with a car ok, without not really. The place is also, hm.. Definitely not as on the pictures. So don't expect anything nice, cozy or clean. Though the kitchen was ok and kept clean, the showers were just bad. The place is charging extra cost for cleaning, no idea when they would like to start (talking mainly about the showers). It also needs a renovation. I'd like to write 'a good value for the money', but I'm not sure...

Kitchen is unusable because of the dirt. Bathrooms are very moldy. There are no keys for rooms to take away. Our room could be closed only from the outside so we had to sleep in an open room. Very cold, no heating. Impossible to get to without a car, pain to get to with it. The road is only for really experienced drivers even for Madeira and parking is well just right on the street.