Quinta Mae Dos Homens Garden Village

"We have stayed at this hotel a few times, as we use it as a base to visit family who live just down the road from the hotel. We have never had an issue with the hotel - great location, beautiful grounds, great pool area and generally clean rooms with great views. However, this time I think will be our last stay at this particular hotel. Family of 4, always request 2 rooms close by (sharing toiletries etc so makes it easier), and generally this is usually granted and we have had some great rooms in previous stays. This time though, we were given a room on floor -1 and a room on floor 1. It was slightly annoying having to walk up 2 flights of stairs if we needed anything from each other, but this was manageable on this occasion. My parents room on floor 1 was great - very clean and amazing views of the harbour. My room however on floor -1 had to be shared with ants. And quite a few of them. Which was a shame, as the room in general was clean. The worst thing was, they generally gathered by the beds, on the chairs and in the bathroom. On a few occasions, we even had ants on our beds and on our clothes. The housekeeping staff were lovely, and did try to keep them at bay (as you could tell by the corridor as it had white stuff on the floor to try and get rid of them) but the general consensus was there wasn’t much else they could do to get rid of them. This, and the fact that the room got so warm with no fans/air con - just made for an uncomfortable stay for some of us. We appreciate ants get everywhere, and they can’t always be cleared completely. A couple here and there wouldn’t have bothered us. But there was a fair few, every single day. If the hotel could sort this issue, and possibly update rooms with fans or air con, I would consider staying there again. Or, if I could be guaranteed (not just request) a room on a high floor even. But as of now, I think I would think twice about staying again - which is a shame."

"There are lots of positives to this place - the grounds are beautiful and really well kept. I personally loved that there was a little shaded area for reading (with bookshelves and everything!) that was above the poolside with amazing views. The little club house that offers food and drinks is cute and the staff are so friendly too. There are no members of staff onsite after office hours. They do provide an emergency contact number though. Our apartment was great in a lot of ways with amazing views from our balcony and the space but it does need some updating. The location of this accommodation (a 15 minute walk downhill into Funchal) means that you get the spectacular views and the cooler climate (which is very welcome after spending the day in Funchal where it is always hot) but we used the Bolt app to get a taxi back up as the hills are incredibly steep. We knew that Madeira is of course a very hilly place but we were not prepared for just how steep those hills would be! There is also a bus stop nearby as another option to avoid a sweaty hike back up! There is no air con in this accommodation either but they can just about get away with it as it is noticeably cooler up in the hills. It would be nice to have the option of air con but they do offer to provide a fan. As it is located in a more residential area, a big issue for me personally is that pretty much every night there is a barking competition amongst the neighbourhood dogs - lots of other reviews have also mentioned this. We appreciate that there is nothing the hotel can do about this but it's something to be aware of as it is very loud (one of those noises you can't really ignore or tune out) and it does go on for what feels like forever. Unfortunately, this ruined our attempts to relax out on the balcony quite a few nights. Overall, we did enjoy our stay here - my husband says he would stay here again but I think I would need a bit of persuasion."

"A lovely, relaxing quiet hotel set in beautiful gardens which made the perfect base for us to explore the Island. We had a ground floor room with a small outdoor terrace. The room was spotlessly clean and had all the amenities we could require for a self catering stay. The walls were slightly thin so there was a bit of noise travelling through from adjacent rooms, but this did not significantly disturb us. The hotel itself is situated a 20 min walk from Funchal Old Town (down hill), and we found it took approx 30 mins of walking up some steep hills to get back. There are plenty of taxi/uber/bolt options if you didn't want to walk and there is a fairly regular local bus service which drops off just outside the hotel. The pool was the perfect place to relax in the warm afternoon sun following a day of hiking! The small cafe offered nice lunch / snack foods and a range of hot and cold drinks. All the staff were very friendly and professional and on arrival we were given all the information we could possibly need to ensure a wonderful stay, including information about buses and the location of various supermarkets. We would certainly stay here again if we are lucky enough to visit Madeira again in the future."