Ericeira Soul Guesthouse Review
I stayed there with my boyfriend during our surfing trip in July 2020. It is a lovely renovated family-owned guesthouse offering all the amenities. I really enjoyed my stay there and definitely recommend the place to others.
Location
The location is brilliant. The guesthouse is located in the centre of Ericeira old town where all the restaurants, surfing schools and shops are located. As Ericeira old town is not too big, you can walk everywhere on foot. The guesthouse also is only a few steps away from the main town beach Praia dos Pescadores.
The purple line more or less represents the old town border, so you can see in how ideal location the Ericeira Soul Guesthouse is!
Parking
The guesthouse does not have its own parking but in the old town, you can park on the streets for free. Within 3 days we stayed there, 2 times we managed to park very close to the entrance of the guesthouse and one time we had to park a bit farther away, but it was anyway only like a 1-minute walk from the hotel. The reception told us that in general only on the weekend it might be harder to find parking as local Portuguese tourists are coming over for a weekend.
Restaurant (Breakfast)
The guesthouse offers an amazing breakfast. It is buffet-style offering all the main foods you usually can find in the hotels for breakfast. I enjoyed the freshly squeezed orange juice and a variety of options.
Unfortunately, the hotel doesn't offer dinner or lunch options, but as I mentioned all the restaurants are within walking distance and you can choose from local Portuguese restaurants offering fresh seafood to Italian restaurants and cute vegan spots and smoothie places. I personally always love to go out for dinner so for me this wasn't an issue but if you are used to having dinner at the place you stay this might be a minus for you.
Coffee and tea are available all day round and you can enjoy it at the reception area or outside by the pool. This takes me to my next point:
Amenities
Also, the guesthouse is not too big, it offers a pool with sunbeds around it. It is located like in an inside patio, so you do not get sun there all day, but it was good to have it and we personally enjoyed having refreshments by the pool.
By the entrance, you can find a board holder which is a small thing but very necessary on a surfing trip. Also, we were allowed to hang up our suites over the night in the outside patio by the pool so they dry for the next days surfing. Something to consider in a hotel if on a surfing trip.
The reception was very helpful and they offer a lot of activities directly from the hotel, like bicycle rental, surfing lessons, etc.
Room
The rooms were very well renovated and our room was very modern and clean and the bathroom was completely equipt with hairdryer and toiletries. The room was quite small but that design was very clean and modern. The room services, aka cleaning, was on point too.
WI-FI
The guesthouse offers free wifi, but it is the reception wifi you use. As we were in the room near the reception we had no issues, but I can't talk about all rooms. When we were actually at the reception the wifi was perfect.
Covid (Influence)
The guesthouse had made sure all the standard percussions are in place - hand sanitisers offered, stuff wearing masks and breakfast tables spread more around. Also, the room cleaning was optional because of Covid.
The only one bad thing I can mention (and it is purely personal) is...
On our arrival, we were offered complimentary drinks (coffee, tea) and at that point, we said no, but then the next day we decided to have some and we asked at the reception for 2 coffees which they kindly made for us bet the reception never mentioned the fact that we will need to pay about them. The coffee machine is like in front of the reception, so it looks like anyone (guesthouse guests) at any time can go and make a coffee. On our last day when checking out, we have presented the bill which included the coffees. They cost only like 1 or 2 Euros, so it is not about the money but it is more of the principal that we thought they are for free and no one at the reception mentioned that we will need to pay. Silly thing, but something that left a bit of a grey dot in our experience.
My Review
Despite the small coffee accident I completely loved my stay there as the location was brilliant and the room was great. The only things I can highlight is the parking, the fact that on the weekend you might need to look for parking around the hotel rather than just to park in front of it and the guesthouse doesn't offer dinner and lunch options, but if you are like me and prefer to eat out then that really isn't an issue.
