Well what can I say about this rental property. It was just amazing, we were blown away with it when we arrived, the rooms were all bigger than they had seemed on the website pictures (which is always a plus but given they looked big anyway this was just a bonus). There is ample room for 2 people which is how this property is advertised (but to give you an idea of space 4 people would be more than comfortable in this property). 2 bathrooms was an added bonus and kitchen was fully equipped with everything we needed (only thing was there was a coffee machine but no kettle, however we got round this by taking the filter out the machine when making tea and certainly did not change our very positive opinion of the property).
The property is up the hillside about 5 minutes drive from Calheta town centre, and about 40 minutes drive from Funchal, so a car would probably be necessary. The road to access the house is narrow by our (British) standards but my huband assures me it was easy enough to drive up. The garage is an added bonus as it takes away worry of the rental car being parked on the road (although takes a little bit of practice it is easy enough to park in, especially if you have someone see you in. To give you an idea we had a Renault Clio estate car which my husband was able to park with not too much trouble).
The added benefit from being outside of the town centres are the peaceful, local setting with STUNNING VIEWS. At night, apart from the occasional car and dog, all you could hear was the crickets. Views over the valley were beautiful day and night and the fact you could see these from the kitchen, living room, bedroom, balcony and patio was just so lovely (definitely a well designed house). We also felt we were experiencing a little more of the local culture which was nicer than the "tourist traps". One of the cultural highlights is the bread van than comes every morning (except Sun) at about 9.15am. He drives up the road sounding his horn and if you go out when you first hear him you can flag him down on his way back down the road (again sounding his horn). If you do this you will not be disappointed as you will have a wide choice of lovely, fresh, bread and cakes (cheap too, a loaf of bread and 4 small cakes cost just over 2 euros).
Silvia the host was just amazing. Starting before our trip she answered all my questions and helped point me in the direction of some good websites for looking at local festivals etc. She also gave me contact details for Whatsapp which allowed us to communicate quickly and easily before and during our stay. The response to EVERY message was incredibly quick and no question or request was too much, she is very knowledgable and gave lots of good pointers of things to try - including a dolphin and whale watching trip in Calheta (see my review for On Tales it was amazing, Thank you Silvia for pointing us in their direction). On arrival in Madeira she asked us to message her and we agreed to met her in Ponta do Sol, enroute to the property, so that we could follow her to the house. This made it so much easiler to find (once we knew where it was it was easy to find on each subsequent journey). During our stay she also checked in with us every few days (by a simple Whatsapp message) just to check how we were and if there was anything we needed which we found really thoughtful as it meant we felt she was genuinely keen to ensure our stay was as perfect as possible.
Thank you so much Silvia, this property is wonderful and so are you. We will definitely be singing your praises to everyone who will listen and will 100% be staying with you again sometime in the future.
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