Casa Grande - Minhos Guest

We chose Casa Grande - Minho's Guest as it was just outside the pedestrianized historic center, but also a few mins walk to all the sights and cafés/restaurants. Our room (Quarto Branco) was on the 1st floor, as my partner had an issue with his knee and we wanted to avoid stairs, otherwise we would have probably gone for the Quarto Amarelo on the top floor. The room has everything you require for a short stay, and is nicely decorated – only thing missing is perhaps a closet to hang clothes (there’s only a chest of drawers). The old wooden floors shake a bit when you walk, but that's part of the charm! The host met us at the door (we were looking lost as the street number we were given also appears on the big main building, which looks closed/abandoned, but a kind neighbour spotted us trying to find a doorbell and called the host who was just walking around the corner, heading towards us, and promptly checked us in. The entrance to the building is beautiful, retaining the old stable features, and there's also a vegan/veggie café, Semente, within the same building (with tables outside), that is a good option if you don't want to walk to the historic center for breakfast. One problem we had was that we told the host that we parked in the parking bays around the square and asked her if it was free, and she said "yes" (maybe she didn’t understand us, as her English was not good and our Portuguese was even worse), but soon after we luckily saw a traffic warden leaving tickets on other cars next to ours and asked him if we were supposed to pay (which we did have to). He showed us that the street next to the B&B (Rua da Cruz da Pedra) was the only free parking street in the area, but in our 3 nights and 4 days we never managed to find an empty spot, so this is something to keep in mind, if you want to park your car close to the B&B and explore the city you'll need to return every 2 hours to put money in the machine (1.60 EUR for 2 hours, in exact change!), or otherwise you'll get a ticket by the very diligent traffic warden. Finding a spot even in the paid parking was difficult most of the time, something to keep in mind if you want to drive and explore Bom Jesus do Monte. One other issue was that, although advertised, there was no shampoo, only liquid hand soap and a bar of soap in the bathroom, so I had to wash my hair with… hand soap. Overall a great place to stay in Braga, close to all attractions and food places, in an old restored stable with loads of character. Air-con: No Fridge: Yes Safe deposit box: No Hairdryer: Yes Free Wi-Fi: Yes Toiletries: Only hand soap Towels: Body, head and bathmat Breakfast included: No Walkable distance from city center: Yes, 3-15 min to reach all sights Bedside tables & reading lights: Yes, on both sides Luggage racks: No, but there’s a chest of drawers and a table you can use