Casa de Mendiz — Hotel in Alijó

We went to Portugal for a birthday and rented Casa Mendiz for 9 of us. The location is in a village, Val D Mendiz about 10 minutes from Pinhao. The village is lovely and the locals were very kind, which is not typical in a very small town. We ate one night at the Café where the owner made us a delicious meal of Feijao (bean salad), Bacalao fritters and bread. We had local wine that was about 3 EU a bottle. Lovely! The house is in the middle of several vineyards where we took daily walks. For dinners we took a cab that we arranged at the train station in Pinhao that was reasonable. For grocery shopping we went to Ajijo, another town about 15 minutes away. The surrounding countryside is exquisite and loaded with vineyards where you can go wine tasting every day. I imagine this is what France or Italy was like in the early days before the tourism took over. While there are probably many tourists here, we didn't run into any during our stay. The only down side was it rained quite a bit which allegedly is common this time of year....

This is a fascinating property. Four or five bedrooms so perfect for bigger groups. Beautifully restored villa with antique furniture everywhere....very medieval feel to the place. Good functional kitchen and all the glasses, plates and cutlery you'll need to cook at home...and you'll need to because there's not much close by. Didn't try the pool but it looked nice. Parking on site for three cars maybe...garage might fit two then a pad out front. Only negative would be the barking dogs next door...two across the lane, one next door and countless others in the neighbourhood that seemed to get all worked up in a community barkfest at the...

A casa é bonita, inserida numa paisagem fantástica, os habitantes hospitaleiros mas...! Descuidada com teias de aranha em quase todas as divisões, o frigorifico sujo e com pacote de leite estragado, restos de bebidas e tinha uma taça com vinagres (cheiro horrível) para segundo a empregada tirar o cheiro. (O frigorifico necessitava mesmo era de uma boa limpeza) A louça principalmente copos todos baços e as frigideiras com uma camada de gordura tal que fazia confusão.||O relvado por aparar, chegava às cadeiras que estavam sujas e nem sequer tinham as almofadas que aparecem na fotografia, do outro lado da piscina que também estava cheia de Lixo no fundo e a água não aparentava boa cara o relvado estava completamente seco com muitas folhas das três árvores que se encontram praticamente em cima da piscina. Segundo os habitantes a casa já teve melhores dias!||Pelo valor que cobram não esquecer que no Douro faz muito calor, embora a casa seja de pedra o calor à noite para dormir é muito e não tem ar condicionado.||Para acabar depois de já lá estar com tudo pago reclamei com a dona enviei fotografias( que disponibilizo a quem quiser) disse que eu estava a exagerar e que estava tudo muito bem!!!!!!! (A dona que me pressionou que teria de pagar tudo antes de entrar na casa ...