Melia Tortuga Beach Resort and Spa

"Unfortunately one week for us was not enough. Beautiful place, Lovely people. Everything was perfect since check in that was so smooth to the check out when 2 members of staff gave us the most emotional farewell. The hotel is very clean ( our room was cleaned daily, fresh towels and bottles of water). The food in the main restaurant Spices was very tasty and varied, every evening there was a section offering roasted meat (chicken, turkey, suckling pig, veal), grill area, pasta, local food....everything you need. And for someone if that's not enough the hotel offers 4 a la carte restaurants.We tried 3 of them. Pasta Nostra: lovely place, the food was good. Recommend it. La Cabana: to be honest that was the place that always had our lunch and last night we had our last supper. Amazing...next to the beach with incredible view,food and the greatest service that you can get...Eileen..love you girl ❤ Secret Garden - an absolute disappointment. There is 5 bars in the hotel area, the service is very fast and friendly, our favorite was Sway bar. The cocktails are varied, but for me they were quite sweet, so I stick to my favorite red wine. The local beer Strela is great. The evening entertainments were good, we really enjoyed the Mama Africa night, great performance 👏 The hotel offers a free shuttle to Santa Maria every morning at 10 and 11 a.m. and taking you back at 4 p.m. Overall everything was great, we have absolutely no complaints. We'll definitely come back. Thank you for everything ❤"

"I would only rate this hotel a 2 star, 3 star at a push and definitely not a 5 star as it states. On arrival the hotel looks lovely. The check-in was slow and not much info given only told to download a couple of QR codes which would give us the info needed about the hotel and the restaurants. We were pointed in the direction of our room and told our bags would follow. This took a while but eventually they arrived. On first glance our room looked great. 2 bed suite, kitchen, bathroom. Then we started noticing the let downs, along with overall grubby walls throughout: - the stairs up to the room had a piece of a tile missing and the walls needed a lick of paint. - the kitchen had 2 cups, 4 glasses, no cutlery and otherwise the cupboards were bare. The kitchen sink tap was heavily scaled and the blind looked grubby. - the lounge pictures were not hung properly all different heights and poor spacing. The padding on the dining room chairs had all but disappeared so you just sank into them and they were very uncomfortable. The TV didn't work. The curtains were grubby and didn't close properly. - the balcony was okay but again had cracked tiles and a broken ashtray (although we don't smoke so didn't really bother us too much). There were only 2 chairs even though the room was for 4 people. - the double room blackout curtains had slashes in it and again the curtains looked grubby. The throw on the bed was not only grubby but ripped. The wardrobe doors weren't hung properly so not only made a noise when opening and closing but also were a struggle to open and close. The safe had 3 different types of instructions so it took a while to work out which ones actually worked. The bedside tables were old, scratched, dirty. The bedside lights shade looked like they had seen better days (stained and very grubby). - the twin room had the blackout curtain missing and the curtains were grubby. The wardrobe had the same problem as the double room. The socket behind the bedside table was broken and hanging off. The bedside tables were the same as the double room. - the bathroom sink tap was scaled and the silver was peeling off. The bath was grubby with black marks on the bottom, a bit of wood held on the side with some painted over mastic that also had rust spots on it. The shower door over the bath didn't have a rubber on the bottoms if you used the shower waterfront all over the floor. The walls in the shower over the bath had black mould. There was never enough hot water so we mainly had lukewarm water. There were shampoo, shower gel and conditioner provided but the bottles had seen better days. The towel rail was hanging off the wall. - the cleaning of the room leaves alot to be desired. The kitchen sink was never cleaned (we weren't provided anything to wipe down ourselves). The kitchen sides were never wiped over. The tables didn't get much of a clean either. The bed was made but the change of sheets didn't seem to happen until the day before we left (we were there for 10 days!!) - fire alarm went off in our block at 12.30am. Staff just wandered past with not a care in the world. We went up to reception and they had no idea it was ringing!! They said they would send a technician. The guy turned up turned off the noise without even checking there were no fires in the empty rooms and started to walk away only for the alarm to go off again. He fiddled with it again then just took the battery or fuse out and walked away!!! The grounds are beautiful and well kept. The pools had lots of tiles missing so didn't appeal. The beach beds were broken as were the sun shades and there weren't enough wind breaks so the beds were upended to use as wind barriers (probably why they were broken). The restaurants: Spices - the main buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food was always cold. The staff were miserable and acted as though you were an inconvenience to them. You could be eating your food and they would try and take your plate away. There is a microwave but always a queue to use it. Also who has sprouts for breakfast?? Aqua Nikkey (fusion) - you have to download the menu from a QR code on the salt. All the starters were versions of tuna. They got the order wrong and my meal had to be redone so everyone else were over halfway through their meal beaming turned up with no apology. One person ordered a curry and ended up with sprouts on the side?? Two of us ordered crispy pork and ere looking forward to crackling etc but ended up with some ribs. Pasta Nostra - food excellent no complaints. La Cabana - lunch menu great and food hot and tasty. Evening menu poor, food poor, steak chewy and full of gristle, chicken came with a hard whole baked potato and when I asked for some butter they said they couldn't provide any but I could have oil, ketchup or mayo!!! The banana mousse was gloop and the brownie (sorry no ice cream available!!) was dry and tasteless. Secret Garden - Bars: Sway Bar - in a corridor with people walking through to go to Spices, not enough seating, staff rude. Late Bar, Shisha Bar, VIP lounge - always dark and gloomy and no-one seemed to use it as it never looked open. Did venture in one night but sat in the dark whilst the staff ignored us. Entertainment - can't say much about the day stuff as not really for us but the evening was very poor. We stayed to watch the jugglers who kept dropping stuff and a singer that turned all songs into ballads and totally ruined them after that we didn't bother. The entertainment booth was in the walkway between the villas (big wind tunnel) and not much seating unless you wanted to sit in rows. Watch out for the staff on the buggies they use to get around the resort. They have no thought for those of us walking on the paths and hardly ever slow down you have to get out there way and quick. Things to do: - visit the Lemon Sharks. - go see the Blue Eye. - go visit the mirage in the desert. - go for a walk to the Eco-park from the hotel. Lovely and maintained area where they rescue animals and birds and there is a lovely cafe to have a drink in. I recommend the pink lemonade. - Don't bother with Santa Maria, nothing there really and what there is is overpriced. Watch out for the men that hassle you on the beach to buy their t-shirts or other cheap stuff at extortionate prices. Someone got fleeced for 2 shell bracelets for €25 which we saw at the blue eye for €5 each. So overall would we stay here again - a definite NO. Would we come back to Cape Verde again - a definite NO. Such a shame as we were so looking forward to it. There were lots of other people that we spoke to that felt exactly the same as us. If you do go all wrong can hope is that your experience is so much better than ours. Good luck!"

"We stayed in this hotel for 8 days in January. Pros: - the spacious rooms - friendly staff in the main restaurant and the cleaning ladies - help with the luggage - the location of the hotel Cons: - The entertainment: tragedy, all the activities are either delayed or cancelled without any reason or explanation, the animators look constantly bored and I felt unwanted on the activities, they shorten the duration of physical activities from 1 hour to 20/30 minutes, on the warm up they danced with the guests only for 15 minutes, later they started dancing with themselves - the guests in the hotel want to dance in the evening but there’s no space, in my opinion the party like the white party warm up should be every day - the rooms aren’t very clean, the sheet was dirty on our first day - sometimes the food in the main restaurant is cold - in la cabana we were waiting 40 minutes to order - there are security guards but they don’t help with beach sellers on the hotel beach who are constantly harassing the guests - in order to close the main door in your room you have to slam them really hard Overall the hotel is not so bad, we are not saying never to coming back but it’s not a 5 star hotel and it’s not luxurious. I hope that my review will help the hotel improve their experience."