Porto District houses

The Villa was luxurious, with excellent facilities and in a lovely location with fantastic viewsVictor, the host was extremely welcoming He was very helpful and informative and arranged several things on our behalfWe enjoyed a boat trip on the Douro, visiting Porto by train, lovely local walks, wonderful meals and a great art exhibition and piano recital We can’t thank Victor enough for his help and supportA magical holiday

We had an amazing holiday at Casa Marmelo! Everything we needed was in the villa and Helena’s breakfasts were fantastic. Great base to explore the Douro Valley.

The property is magnificent, the facilities are fantastic and the views are breath taking. The hosts were wonderful and we had everything we needed for a very relaxing week away.

We were blessed with the weather and had a week enjoying the fantastic pool and outside kitchen at this very well stocked villa. The kids were in the water all day while the grownups hung around and enjoyed the picturesque surroundings. We had a BBQ every night and sat outside to eat all our meals. The pool table, table tennis, darts and other games made for a great week long competition for all our guests; from the 5 year old through to my 70 year old father. We go away as a family every year and travel to lots of places across Europe - this was the first time we talked about coming back to the exact same place!

Clara’s property was perfect. It was filled with rustic charm . She had obviously put great effort into making sure that guests who stayed, would be comfortable ; great attention to detail . Clara welcomed us so warmly, even providing us with homemade cake and port. She went out of her way to make our stay wonderful.

The photo’s of this property and the surrounding area do not do it justice at all.. it is 100% better than advertised. From the airport just a short 15 mins drive takes you to the warren of streets that is Vila Cha. Without a sat nav though it would be awkward to find first time Saying that, the layout of the village adds to the immediate excellent first impressions. Rui and his wife Christina were waiting at our agreed meet up time and after a long days travelling to get there it was reassuring to have a friendly welcome. We parked the car in its own undercover, secure space and were shown round the property. All the amenities and facilities were very easy to use and was, if anything, over adequately stocked with everything you needed - bedding, linen, towels, kitchen appliances and utensils; in fact probably had more things than our house at home! The plate of fantastic tapas and gorgeous bottle of wine were a welcome bonus to our arrival. The surrounding area of Vila Cha was quiet but busy enough to be able to people watch and get everything you needed from the local shops and cafe/bars that were dotted around the town. The position of the property right on the sea front of the village enabled you to watch the local fishermen (& women) go about their business. I love to see different lifestyles at work. The large balcony makes this the ideal spot to just watch the day go by. Perfect area for great walks along the coast with amazing bits of history all along the coastal area (who knew a Lancaster bomber crashed there and the locals helped the crew survive? Lovely monument there.) The beach is lovely but not really a sea for swimming as fairly rocky coast but that doesn’t spoil anything. Further afield, there is obviously Porto and Vila do Conde and they are so easy to get to. A 5 mins drive away is the fantastic Vila do Conde Porto Fashion Outlet where you can park your car for free and catch the tram. Porto is about 35mins away by tram and at €2 each way it’s far better than driving; and after seeing the traffic in Porto it was definitely the right option. Overall this was the perfect place far whatever type of break you need.. easy to relax or easy to get out to other areas. Summing up (after writing all this) Excellent location Excellent property Excellent hosts Easy to get to although car required Plenty to do locally Plenty to do further afield And, yes, if I could I would buy it.... Thank you Rui & Christina