Backpacking In São Tomé🇸🇹: My Writer’s Lair At Casa De Ferias, The Coolest Place To Stay In The Capital

Backpacking In São Tomé: Casa De Ferias Is The Only Place To Stay In The Capital!!

“Everything in its right place” – Radiohead.

You don’t study international tourism and hospitality management for nothing, and you’re not the coolest hotel owner by chance. Some things are meant to be. Fate, fame, life and love intertwined, I was blessed by God finding this place and my host, Bernilda, was destined to manage it and ensure I would love my time here. My welcome to Casa De Ferias was the sweetest entrance into a country that I could remember. This is Bernilda.

Let’s put it straight and blatant here, for all time: Casa De Ferias is the coolest place to stay when backpacking the capital city. São Tomé is the capital city of São Tomé E Principe. Stay here. Just do it, nowhere else needs considered. This was both within and beyond my wildest dreams.

This was a fantasy and a dream of a place for me to stay when backpacking 🎒 in São Tomé. Especially since I was travel weary, tired, knackered, shattered and ready for drowning. Flight mess ups became commonplace in Africa for me. On Easter Sunday 2024, I arrived into São Tomé. I had booked this hotel about 6 minutes before boarding my flight from Libreville in Gabon. This is not fake news, and even wee Bernilda (see later) laughed at a long term travel blogger booking something late notice and looking like a shipwreck on arrival.😅

I was a late entry, but they were ready for my backpacking bandwagon as I rolled the beast into Casa De Ferias. Here are 5 reasons to stay here, let’s make it fast…short and sweet, succinct.

1.The Host, Bernilda.

The host here, Bernilda is larger than life. Of that you can be sure. I arrive tired, too early, without energy and I’m given the warmest welcome in years of backpacking. Just wow. Bernilda oozes customer service priorities with aplomb.

I’m invited for a Polish style Easter breakfast with the staff and customers from Galicia, Spain, São Tome, Angola and Poland. I’m too tired for it all. Bernilda dishes me a coffee and lets me rest without qualms.

I’m revitalised. Then I’m checked into my room which can only fulfill my dreams, I’m in a “writer’s lair” again. Is this God granting me all this magic? What’s going on here?

2.My Writer’s Lair.

Lacking energy but having kipped for a bit, my writer’s lair is booked for one night. Yeah right. Flight issues, bank card problems and I’m forced and enthused to extend my stay.

One night becomes 5 nights, 6 days. In the same wee writer’s lair. If Bernilda issued dreams, we’d all buy them. Like Noel Gallagher, I don’t keep the receipts for the friends that I buy. Maybe that girl from my nightmares does; but she wasn’t here.

This self-proclaimed “writer’s lair” was akin to my previous stays at Hotel Keto in Poddy, The Hemingway Inn in San Jose, Encuentros in Panajachel and the wee Noclegi Rekord in Poland’s Starogard Gdański.

3.Fellow Guests

Friends for life. My neighbour is Marek Bladowski. I’m in the “writer’s lair”; he’s kind of more exquisite, he has a balcony and invites me up the stairs for a red wine. He is opposite my mini writer’s lair, my annex.

After one sip of such red wine, his taste is clear for all to see. He knows life. Marek backpacked the world more hardcore than I ever will. Wallis and Futuna, Hutt River, Sealand, Belfast City. Now that’s a proper backpacker. I’m staying here, I’m not going anywhere. One wine, we are best mates and head for a downtown beer and bite.

“If there’s a God, would he give another chance an hour to sing for his soul?” – Noel Gallagher.

More on Marek to come. I met him here and we toured, chatted snd drank together for 4 days.

4.Location

We are downtown. We are city centre! Main sights are walking distance. The offy is 1 minute walk and the staff are cool, local cafe a 3 minute walk. Cathedral, seafront, football stadium all walkable for even less hardcore backpackers. That said, Marek hired a car and we drove around a lot together! On this trip to Sao Tome, I also backpacked all the way to the equator in the centre of the world! More on that to come.

5.Wi-Fi

I’m a travel blogger remember. I rely on the online. It worked so well here and that was a surprise and something I needed to book my onward trips.

Here are the details for booking a stay at Casa De Ferias in São Tomé:

https://www.facebook.com/accommodation.casadeferias

Here are my videos from my stay in Casa De Ferias in São Tomé: