Vila di A dos Cunhados

We arrived on Saturday, ready for a week in paradise. By Sunday, the villa had transformed into a live set for Attack of the Flies—200+ swarming the kitchen, living room, floors, sofas, and even the bedrooms. Nothing says “relaxing getaway” like playing fly assassin at 1 am and still waking up to find your room crawling with survivors. We get it: sometimes nature has other plans. What we don’t get is how the hotel staff’s solution was to hand us some spray cans and a shrug. Their “excuse”? Fertilized crops nearby. When we pointed out that the hotel itself was blissfully fly-free, they admitted it gets regular treatments. Villas, however, are apparently left to fend for themselves. They even let it slip that this particular villa is known to have fly problems. So why no effort to help? They flat-out refused to visit the villa or offer anything beyond, “Here’s some spray. Good luck.” Here’s the kicker: it wasn’t the flies that made us leave early—it was the lack of service. A good hotel or reputable villa rental company steps in when guests need help. Here, the staff showed zero interest in ensuring we felt comfortable. The villa was left entirely to us, including cleaning up after a problem we didn’t create, and still had to pack up and go because being completely ignored isn’t what we signed up for. To add insult to injury, when we politely informed the owner, their response was to assume we left the villa in chaos. They even suggested the mess was our fault, making wild claims about food stains and dirty dishes in rooms we never used for eating. Sure, blame your paying guests instead of acknowledging the real problem. This wasn’t just disappointing - it was infuriating. This could have been paradise, but bad management turned it into anything but. A stunning villa with terrible management is worse than no villa at all. Service matters—and here, there wasn’t any.