Captain's Log House

Perfect location, cheap dorms, casual vibe! Some staff were friendly! I have been coming to baleal every year for 4 years now and had a great experience every time but this time the hostel let down Baleal a little.

The adjoining bathroom to our dorm room hadn’t been cleaned or even checked before we arrived so it was a mess from the other person staying in there; rocks, shells and sand all in the sink blocking it. Of course there’s going to be someone’s stuff in there as it’s a shared dorm room but there’s basic checks they could’ve done, at least wipe the sides and empty sink etc... I asked before if they could accommodate some sort of gluten free items for the included breakfast, they said they would buy me something gf which was nice! However we got there and the breakfast staff had no idea what I was talking about, in the end she found what was meant to be the gf cereal they had bought but I checked the packet before eating and it wasn’t actually gluten free... bit strange! Luckily they had boiled eggs so had some of those and there was fruit, a couple bits of ham and cheese which was fine!! Departure: when checking out of the property and paying before going for a final surf I asked the reception man about buses to Peniche coach station; he said it wasn’t reliable so advised getting a taxi and offered to book us one. I said ok great please can you book it for 2.15 and he said yes and so we went off for a surf! I also told them at this point that the cereal wasn’t gluten free they bought but it was ok I had some eggs and they just sort of shrugged awkwardly and didn’t say anything. We came back an hour before our taxi was due to arrive and, bearing in mind they don’t have staff working/reception open between 1pm-6pm, we waited with our bags at the front of the hostel and no sign of the taxi by 2.15... we waited 5 more minutes and we were looking around for one of the staff to see what they thought because they hadn’t given us the number or anything. It got to 2.25 and our coach was leaving peniche at 3 and it’s a 15 minute drive...