REGUEIRA I APARTMENT

We just got back from a 3 week Portugal/Spain trip where we spent 4 nights in the ESTEVAO I apartment.

The good:
-Great location, many different restaurants and cafe's all around. We especially enjoyed the side street places, really good food and incredibly cheap prices.
-Friendly neighborhood, we didn't speak Portuguese but didn't have any problems ordering food or asking questions. Between most people speaking a little english, us speaking some Spanish, we always seemed to be able to get our point across.
-Comfortable bed, relevantly quiet neighborhood. You might be woken up every once in a awhile but the fan or AC drowns out most street noise.
-Had a little miscommunication on where to meet, but once our guide met us with us, he was really good. Helped map out where some stores and good restaurants were for us.
Functional Washer/Dryer combo unit, we used it several times and hung on provided rack to finish drying. Worked Great.
Internet provided and had no problems with access.

The Bad:
-Kitchen did have cockroaches, everything was sealed up when we got there, not sure if there is a messy neighbor or if this is just to be expected.
-Only one Small window AC unit downstairs, doesn't work that great. I'm familiar with the EU AC units from the other apartments and this one didn't work as well as the others.
-Really narrow spiral staircase, if you are a larger person this might not work for you.

Tips:
-Use the Tourist Information booths and center downtown, by far the most helpful of any city we visited on this trip.
-You have to take the 40 min train ride to Sintra to see the Moorish Castle and old Royal Palace, that ended up being the highlight of our trip.
-Eat dinner in the little alley restaurants, then get desserts/wine at the Prado places. The Prado (singing) restaurants charge way more for dinner and the food isn't as good. We always got great food and I love the wines, which were only 4-8 euros a bottle!