Hotel Rural Quinta do Silval

This is a lovely spot with a wonderful staff, located up in the hills above the Pinhão River in the Douro Valley. It is perched about 2/3 of the way up the hill with about a 220 degree view of the valley. The hotel is also an active winery and you are surrounded by the vineyards. The room was lovely and the breakfast and dinner service were great. We ate breakfast and dinner out on the balcony with many other guests. We stayed for three nights. The only issue that we had was that the air conditioning in our room was not working. As the hotel was full, they were very accommodating and offered us a reasonable accommodation. The pool and surrounding lawn have an incredible view and there is s shower house and toilet next to the pool. We did not take the winery tour and tasting as we were gone during the day, but other guests liked. The hotel is run by the family and they also prepare and cook the meals. As they have a small staff, they ask that you give them your dinner order by 5pm, so plan for that if you are away for the day. Breakfast is a wonderful and typical European spread of everything from Muesli to granola to fresh fruit. They will also prepare eggs and pancakes. There is a tasting room with a food service area down by the pool, but it does not appear to be in use right now. While staying there we hired a car for the day to take us on winery tours and then a Michelin restaurant for lunch. It was a wonderful choice as we didn't do any driving.

Outstanding location, friendly service, needed more staff to keep up with demand.

The morning my wife and I woke in the hotel we were both covered in linear clusters (3-5) bite groups of insect bites. We had sprayed the room with insect icide last thing and the window was shut. We had more bites the next night despite the same precautions. Linear clusters of insect bites are typical of bed mite infestation - I am physician. The hotel pool has multiple missing tiles and is stained around the top. There are inadequate pool loungers for guests around the pool. Service can be very slow and erratic. All a big shame as lovely location