We recently stayed at Casa Semaphore in mid September 2019. We were excited given all of the positive reviews -- until we arrived. The setting was lovely, the view is gorgeous, and the pool was very nice - and our group of 6 adults had plenty of room. However, the house was a little run down. We're not that picky, and perhaps other reviewers less so, but we were terribly disappointed that the house didn't match the 5 star reviews. This lovely house has potential, but needs some tender loving care -- it is definitely not 5 star review in our opinion. We quickly discovered two broken kitchen cabinet doors, dirty coffee pots and kitchen appliances, a living room curtain rod that fell off when we tried to close the curtain, a broken pool umbrella, broken back deck light, and black mold and mildew in the showers, but otherwise clean. You also may get introduced to the all-night barking dog just down the hill - I'm sure he is friendly but he sure is loud -- and, lastly, you'll be greeted by an invasion of local Algarve mosquitoes -we were bitten all night long. Unfortunately it was such that we found it uninhabitable (possibly a health risk) in our opinion and left after the second night. There are no screens on the windows provided and no air conditioning. On the second night we followed the owner’s suggestion to use plug in mosquito repellent gadgets, which we purchased to manage the mosquitoes, and sprayed insecticide before retiring and they didn't work very well. Casa Semaphore has some real potential but until they do some updating, buy some new sheets and pillows, put screens in the windows, and fix all of the little broken items, we won't be visiting any time soon. Enjoy the pool and sunsets, but beware of the mosquitoes, the barking dog and the kitchen cabinets
