Hotéis perto de Lagoa Negra, Ribeirinha

I stayed 3 nights in this hotel as part of a group. The location on the coast, opposite Pico, is good, the (unheated) pool set in gardens looks nice. The rooms are small but adequate. It seems that the hotel is divided into two parts: those that have views over the pool, with coffee/tea facilities and those which don't (have views of the back of the restaurant and a bit of garden with some building works on the wall)! You can tell I was in the latter! This hotel prides itself on its breakfasts, with lots of home-baked goods (cakes, pies, pastries, biscuits). Unfortunately that is not much good if you can't eat gluten. It does not offer dinner in the evening. Since our group trip involved full board, we were sent to a pretty basic cafe up the road with formica tables and a very limited menu (vegetable soup, then grilled tuna or meat, then desert - which included tinned fruit salad one night). We had the same offer for 3 nights! The fish/meat was cooked freshly and well, at least! One big downside was that I slept with my window open rather than using aircon and got many mosquito bites - the only place this happened in the Azores. Maybe to do with the garden. Two things really annoyed me/us. On the last morning we were leaving early, as was another larger party. Our guide negotiated at length to get us a partial breakfast (excluding cooked items) before we left. We were told this would be in reception. Again, since I can't eat baked goods there was further negotiation to get me an apple and an orange set aside, as a special favour. When we arrived at 6.30 that morning, there had been dry sliced bread, sliced cheese and ham and coffee. I say 'there had been' because the previous group had eaten most of it (see picture). There was about 1 cm of milk left a jug to go with the remains of the coffee for our group of 9 and, of course, no fruit for me. That was very poor given that both the ferry and the flight out of Sao Jorge leave early so guests must regularly need to leave before breakfast opens at 7.30 am. The final insult was that I went to take my extra supplies of cheese/ham (because I couldn't eat much of their food) out of the room fridge when I left, only to find that it was warm. The fridge had been unplugged and the plug tucked behind the bin. This is a hotel with notices, if you know what I mean. There was a notice on the fridge whose English section said ' This refrigerator is for your use and is empty. If you wish to fill with any of these items, please contact directly the reception or ask for the room-service.' 'These items', was not explained/specified. So why unplug it if it is for my use? My food was ruined.

Passing through the island of Pico with friends for two days to get to know the island and experience the ascent to the mountain. The space has the essentials, however the stay was marked by the inflexibility of the hostess. We questioned the possibility of having breakfast earlier on the day of our ascent to Pico mountain, however we were told by the hostess that the only possibility would be to leave some food in the room, which we agreed. However, at the end of the afternoon we were informed by message that it would not be possible, so we started the climb without a decent breakfast! On an island where the main tourist attraction is the climb to the peak mountain, this type of behavior is incomprehensible. A place to avoid for those who want to climb the Pico mountain!!!

At first I wasn't going to put such a low grade even though I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone and because I thought that at least the staff was saved, but just after checking out I get a notification that the establishment informs booking that we have not stayed so that I do not have the opportunity to leave a review. What a coincidence! We had to change rooms but it turned out to be very unpleasant too. Installations without maintenance, humidity in ceilings and walls, noise from other rooms, poor hygiene, cobwebs under the bed and in the corners, cockroaches and centipedes (we killed 5) and they also left us a gift behind the bed, the bathroom extractor fan It didn't work but it made a lot of noise and humidity, it only increased after each shower which also smelled like residual water. We could not leave the windows open because more insects entered. The shared dining room, which is where he also has his office, smelled closed and when it came time to go use cutlery... there was none. Anyway... all nonsense, I would be ashamed to have accommodation like this.