Melgaco Youth Hostel is Portugal's newest HI Hostel, just opened in April 2006. It's primarily for people attending football matches or signing up for Melgaco Radical (a white-water rafting adventure outfit), so it can be very, very quiet when there's no football scheduled. During our stay, we were the only singles who arrived by bus. All the other hostellers were families, sometimes several generations, who came in their own cars, stuck to themselves, and disappeared all day.
The facility is dazzling in its cleanliness, its comfort, and its modern design. Movement sensors turn on lights and flush toilets. Fresh mountain breezes flow in through floor-to-ceiling windows. But unless you're prepared to walk the five kilometers uphill to the village, there's nothing to do but watch TV, chat with the nice folks at reception, swim in the pool, ramble around the mountains, or gaze out the window at the pine trees. There's a spa next to one of the stadiums, but we didn't check the prices, which we figured are pretty high.
Fortunately, this hostel not only offers the usual HI breakfast of ham, cheese, cereal, and rolls, but it also offers lunch and dinner for seven Euros each. The food is good and worth the money, though there's no choice -- there's one dish offered at each meal, no alternatives. If you don't want what's on offer, you can stroll next door and pay ten times that amount for a pretentious four-star gourmet meal with a wine list the size of some towns' phone books. We tried both and preferred the lack of pretentiousness at the hostel. This place is really set up for families and people with cars, but it offers a haven of peace and quiet if that's what you need.
The town, should you have the energy to get up to it, is charming -- small, gossipy, with several bars that attract locals and several restaurants. There's a small fort, but not much else but the grandeur of the mountains and a miradouro with one of the widest and most stunning vistas in Europe.
— Informe exclusivo de Hostelz.com
August 2006
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