AHR - Casa Criptomeria, maison de vacances de rêve, piscine, AL 177

Casa Criptomeria is a very attractive and well equipped house set in a large colourful garden. It is close to most of the sights on the western end of Sao Miguel island and is about 30 minutes drive from Punta Delgarda. Maria and Sergio are great hosts and made us very welcome.

Casa Criptomeria is a bit out of the way, 25 minutes for down town Ponta Delgada, however well worth the drive. After a busy day it was great to be able to return to a comfortable and quiet place. The house is lovely and the size is more than adequate for four people. Kitchen was well equipped, beds were comfortable, bathroom a bit small, no tub, not a big deal for us as we like to shower. The house is exactly as shown in the pictures and very clean. The property is nicely landscaped. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice bottle of wine and some treats for us to enjoy, such a nice welcoming. The owner's Sergio and Maria were absolutely wonderful, we were treated more like good friends than just guests. They were always there if and when we required their services but never intrusive. Big highlight of our trip was a sightseeing tour that Sergio treated us to in his dune buggy, so awesome! Oh, we must not forget to mention their dog Lord, he was always there to greet us when we arrived at the guest house, enjoyed having him around. We highly recommend this place and if ever we return most definitely would stay here again. Thank you Sergio and Maria for making our holiday so memorable.

You won't find a better property or host than here. The house is incredibly well equipped, beautifully clean and extremely comfortable and Sergio and Maria simply cannot do enough for their guests - from collecting us from the airport,

filing the fridge for us on our arrival to hiring us their car for the week. Honestly.... Look no further than this place. We had such a fantastic week and it was easily the best placed we have stayed in and we have done a lot of HomeAway venues!

We will be going back!

Sao Miguel is a real magical discovery - a beautiful island that you have to see to believe.

We have just had an 11-day stay at Casa Criptomeria and from being picked up at the airport by Sergio, whose focus on customer satisfaction is second to none, we had an amazing holiday. The house is only a short drive from the airport and São Miguel’s traffic is very light so there were no problems in getting anywhere. Casa Criptomeria was spotlessly clean on our arrival and we were greeted by a welcome pack including bread, butter, milk, cheese, ham, fruit and a bottle of wine.

The house is kitted out with everything that could be required, including laundry facilities (detergent provided), a generous supply of towels and a lovely coffee maker. Fresh bread can be delivered daily if required and is extremely reasonably priced. The house is quite small but doesn't feel at all cramped - there was plenty of room for four - and the lovely criptomeria wood interior makes it feel very cosy. The garden is beautiful and a lovely place to relax, although the pool was a little on the cold side at the end of March (only our 10-year old son was brave enough to try it)!

Sergio's famous buggy tour around the rim of the caldera at Sete Cidades more than lived up to expectations from previous reviews, and having a car provided as part of the package was brilliant. On the morning of Easter Saturday Maria brought us some delicious freshly baked sweet bread, still warm from the oven. Both she and Sergio were really helpful and friendly, and Sergio went out of his way to encourage us to see as much of the island as we could. The other member of the family who contributed to our holiday experience was Lord the dog, who loved playing with the children.

We had several day trips, including one spent whale watching from Ponta Delgada (amazing), a drive around the eastern coastline visiting places such as Nordeste and Povoação and a day at Parque Terra Nostra in Furnas, where we enjoyed the lovely gardens before swimming in a wonderfully warm geothermal pool which turned our son temporarily orange! Here, we also had the opportunity to experience the local speciality dish, Cozido das Caldeiras, which is a mixed-meat dish cooked for several hours in Furnas volcano. The location is ideal for visiting all the western coast including the volcanically heated tidal swimming pool at Ponta da Ferraria, as well as the famous crater lakes at Sete Cidades. There's still much more we could have seen so the only thing for it is to return for another visit - in summary, fabulous!

Brilliant house. We wanted for nothing. Sergio and Maria are very helpful and friendly. They organised a car for us and picked us up from the airport. They also bought a cot and high chair especially for our little boy. On arrival we found a well stocked fridge with lots of local produce which was fab. The house is exactly as it looks on the pictures - spacious, very clean, comfortable and amazing views. Would thoroughly recommend it!