Alto Lido Hotel

"We just returned after spending Xnas and New Year here. This was our second visit to Madeira having stayed at the fantastic Enotel Lido the previous year. Alto Lido is nowhere near as good as the 4 star status suggests, and the customer facing management and reception staff should not be in customer facing roles. The rudeness and eye rolling any time you approach them is not something I would accept at a basic hostel, let alone an apparently 4 star hotel. The ethos of the hotel is to provide as little as they can to all inclusive guests, with the aim of charging extra seemingly randomly for various basic things that any decent all inclusive happily provides. I have to say that the waiting staff in the restaurant and most of the bar staff are excellent and extremely friendly and helpful. They are unfortunately let down by incompetent management and poor organisation and leadership. I find some of the positive reviews of this hotel baffling, the standards are so obviously inadequate for a 4 star hotel, even in comparison to other hotels in the area. Pros:- - decent outdoor and indoor pool - pool bar - friendly and helpful waiting staff - fairly good choice of food options, although varying in quality and freshness -clean rooms and very cheerful and friendly cleaning staff -good location and decent rooms, although paying for a deluxe premium sea view and being put on the 1st floor initially was disappointing. Managed to get moved to the 3rd floor, but in reality it is a busy street view with the sea only partly visible behind the excellent neighbouring Enotel Lido Hotel Cons:- - aggressive and defensive reception staff -all inclusive feels more like part inclusive. Despite having a wristband indicating all inclusive, repeatedly staff ask for your room number and refuse to provide certain basic items without wanting to charge extra -safe in the room is charged extra. This is surely a basic provision in a premium deluxe room on an all inclusive basis? -even soft drinks like fruit juices, mocktails etc are charged as extra -sauna can only be used by pre booking in advance, who plans in advance to pop in the sauna after the gym or a swim? Seems to be a money saving exercise -the spa receptionist was even more sour faced and unhelpful that the staff on the main desk, so she had no interest in doing anything other than the bare minimum - the gym is tiny with very limited equipment and no working aircon -no aircon in the room, as they had switched the centralised system to heating mode, despite night time temperatures not dropping below 16°C -very difficult to sleep as with a boiling hot room you have to open the door for ventilation which means being disturbed by the constant traffic noise and people on the street below at all hours -reception staff were unable or unwillng to switch the system to cooling, or even provide a fan, so for 2 weeks we either had to sweat all night or be kept awake by street noise -there is absolutely nothing for kids to do other than swim. A snooker / pool table was supposed to be available, but it was "away for maintenance". Even if it was available, yet again it would come with a separate charge of €10 per hour -hotel seems to be mostly elderly guests, most of whom are from Germany. This was advertised as a family hotel, there were a handful of kids, but with nothing to do and very limited facilities -only entertainment was in the evening in the small bar area, which consisted of pretty mediocre lounge singers, zero atmosphere and nothing again for the kids, and nothing going on in the day time at all -breakfast was very busy and a bit of a bun fight to even get a cup.of coffee or plate of food without it getting cold, due to the queues for popular items -An empty fridge is provided in the room, which the hotel does not even stock with bottles of water, let alone soft drinks. There are no water taps for drinking water in the hotel, so you have to keep asking for bottles of water to take back to the room. Really basic again expecting drinking water to be readily available. In conclusion, there are many far better hotels in Funchal and 2 weeks here was far too long. I was bored and exhausted by the end and glad to get home to catch up on some sleep."

"We returned yesterday from a wonderful week at the Alto Lido. It was our first time spending Christmas abroad and it’s definitely something we would do again. We honestly have nothing negative to say about the hotel. It was spotlessly clean throughout and the staff were super friendly and welcoming. We stayed half board and found there was plenty of choice at every meal. We also took advantage of the Christmas Eve gala dinner and the Alto’s sister hotel. This was excellent with stunning food and service. The sun terrace is lovely and we never once struggled to get a sunbed or parasol; there were also comfortable day beds available. The pool bar opened from 10am and there were clean toilets and shower facilities nearby. I had read some comments about the lifts before arriving, but during our entire stay we never waited more than a few seconds, so this really wasn’t an issue for us. There was entertainment provided every evening, including good singers, a magician and traditional dancers. These were great fun, especially with the audience participation. The location was excellent for us. There are lots of restaurants nearby if you want to eat out, a supermarket next door, an ATM, a park, and lovely walks in both directions. The Forum shopping centre is also well worth a visit and is less than a 10-minute walk away. Funchal is an easy walk too, and although the hotel provides a shuttle bus, we didn’t use it as Bolt taxis were readily available and only cost around €5. The guests were a good mix, predominantly English and German, with some Polish and American guests as well. We would have no hesitation in recommending the Alto Lido and would happily stay here again. In our opinion, it fully deserves its 4 stars. Madeira itself is absolutely beautiful and truly an island of contrasts. We did a full-day 4x4 tour of the north and eastern side, which we’d highly recommend to really experience the island. We loved Funchal — the old town with its painted doors and cobbled streets, Monte Palace Gardens, the cable car, the basket toboggans and the marina area. The Christmas market was a fantastic experience, and the Christmas lights were unlike anything we’ve seen before."

"Having stayed here before we weren't disappointed when we arrived. We had booked a side sea view room which meant we would be in the tower block. On arrival we had been upgraded into a studio in block 1 where we had stayed previously. Breakfast can seem chaotic and was always busy and we don't really like the canteen style layout although we always found somewhere to sit. The food was generally good with plenty of choice. Its a very clean hotel good facilities and plenty of sunbeds. We would return to this hotel next time we travel to Madeira."