kristine t.
Yelp
The brusque, dismissive service we received here soured an experience that could have easily been extraordinary. My boyfriend and I stayed here for two nights, in a "superior room" with a view. First, the good: the grounds and the room were both absolutely stunning. The room was way more spacious than I expected, and had two patios (including a very private one overlooking the valley), a fireplace, and big corner tub large enough for two. The breakfast surprisingly had every option you would want, from eggs made to order to croissants, fruit and cereal, and the food we had at dinner was great.
The first disappointment was the response I got when I asked about the hot tub, which was the deciding factor in why I chose this place over the many others in the Duoro Valley. We were looking forward to using the hot tub and sauna in the evenings, and found upon our arrival that the hot tub was cold. We were told that the temperature of the tub "depended on the sun" (we didn't understand what that meant, and was given no further clarification), and that we couldn't use it at night. We were a little disheartened, but still excited about our stay, until we got to dinner.
We opted to have dinner there on our first night, since it's a 10-minute taxi ride to the nearest restaurant. Dinner was served at 8 pm (and only 8 pm), and included 3 courses with wine for €38 per person, which is a very steep price in Portugal. The food was delicious though, and the portions were very large, so were fine with the price. We hardly made a dent in our arroz con pato, so we asked the owner nicely if we could save it for later. She said no, because it would attract ants into our room (even though there a bottle of sweet port in each room, and of course no policy against bringing food into your room). Since they had a large kitchen, we asked if they could save it for us to have for lunch the next day. Again, no. The next morning at breakfast, my boyfriend tried to order eggs for me, and the chef simply said no. Wtf??
When we checked out, we asked the owner to call us a taxi, and she summoned the chef to place the call for her. Ten minutes later, a taxi van comes, but another couple was also waiting for a taxi, so we weren't sure whose it was. Since we were all going to the train station, we thought it might just be one large taxi for all of us. The driver loaded our luggage, and as we were getting in, the chef comes outside, and starts to rudely *yell* at us to get out of the taxi and wait for the next one. Again, wtf??
We couldn't figure out why we received such unwelcoming service here, especially compared to how well other guests were treated. Was it because we were the youngest people there? Was it because I'm brown (and he's white)? Was it because we're Americans? Whatever the reason, I was expecting better treatment (indifferent but polite would've been just fine), especially since this was by far the most upscale place we stayed in Portugal.
