casa nina

We've been sitting on this review for two weeks and discussed it every other day, how to keep it honest and fair, as it is going to be very different from all those 10-score reviews. So... 1. The hosts are kind, friendly, informative, and from time to time come bearing gifts. The owners' daughter speaks good English. 2. There are bikes available, which we used to go breakfast shopping. 3. The apartment has two yards, the front patio, shaded and with a table and chairs, and the backyard, a jasmine smelling nice little space for hanging laundry and washing off sand after the beach. 4. The kitchen is fully equipped, including a coffee machine (and coffee) and a corkscrew, among other necessities. 5. There is a lot of wardrobe space.

Now, for the negatives. 1. First and foremost, there is no airflow in the flat. However hard you try, airing the flat, with or without the aircon on, with all the doors and windows open, is not possible. And there IS an unpleasant residual smell in the apartment, every time you get back. 2. Only the living room is air-conditioned (very efficiently), and that leaves the master bedroom with stale air all the time, and temperature rising throughout the night. 3. The apartment is sunken, only three stairs below the street level, but it makes it dark and gloomy. There is no window in the master bedroom and the kitchen requires artificial light most of the day. 4. The living room sofa is super uncomfortable to sit on, and I would imagine impossible to sleep on. 5. There are a lot of little things that would need maintenance, like the dangerously loose toilet seat, falling off door handle (the backyard), nail endings sticking out of the door frame (bathroom), hardly opening drawers (living room), etc, etc. We did not bother the owners about it at the time of our stay there not to (potentially) be disturbed by people working on things. All in all, however kind the hosts may have been, it is ultimately the apartment that mattered most.