Hyatt Ziva Madeira

"Very helpfull, proactive and friendly staff. I planned my proposal here and the guest experience team was amazing! Compliments to the staff and special thanks to Sandrine for helping me with organizing the proposal!"

"This is a lovely hotel, but you cannot prepare for how hilly and steep it is if you’ve never been to Madeira before. The website doesn’t show the countless steps around the resort, and super steep hills. The location on the island is fairly remote and very quiet, it’s not really near anything so if you want to explore you can hire a car, or like we did jump on the shuttle that runs daily to Funchal. The suite that we had was absolutely beautiful, far bigger than we expected. The views over the sea and the marina were just lovely. The hotel over all is exceptionally clean and tidy and very well maintained. We didn’t see any areas that need TLC. The staff were generally friendly and helpful. The food, whilst tasty and a good choice, was only ever warm, never hot. In England it would be returned to the kitchen in a restaurant. That was disappointing. The hotel in general lacks atmosphere, everywhere. There’s hardly any music played in restaurants, or the bars, I think we heard music in the buffet restaurant once. We didn’t see any management anywhere in the hotel which we thought was odd. We would recommend this hotel to couples that are older but still mobile due to the hills and steps. Definitely not one for younger couples or families with children. The beach is man made which we knew in advance, but the pebbles are huge and not easy to get in and out of the sea at all. The main pool is nice but there are no cushions on the sun loungers so it’s not the most comfortable place to lie for a relaxing holiday. They do play some music which lifts the atmosphere a bit. There is an adults only pool which does have cushioned loungers, but no music and a huge lack of atmosphere. We only managed to get into one of the speciality restaurants, Sabor, but it was hugely disappointing with poor service, small portion sizes and the drink my husband ordered when we first got there didn’t turn up until dessert! So I really wouldn’t recommend that one. I can’t comment on any of the others though. The coffee shop is a lovely place, the female staff in there were super friendly, the males not so much. The drinks were very consistent though and there is a good choice of pastries and cakes, all of which are brought over to your table. The main lobby bar is a bit of a disaster. It’s nicely decorated and comfortable but we only saw 1/2 bar staff at a time and there is no table service so at times the queue was 15-20 people long! There is a nice village square sort of set up outside with tables and chairs, which is a nice place to sit in the evening. But again in a 5* hotel of this level I would expect staff to serve you at your table. Overall we wouldn’t go back to this hotel, but are pleased we went and had a relaxing week."

"TL;DR: The resort is modern, the rooms are clean and the resort in general is nicely set up, but the food and services are not 5 star. Review would be 4/5 if not for a very loud Zumba weekend midway through the stay that made things difficult for us. Room/accommodation We had a preferred junior suite which was great with the separate living area, and we had a good spot - right on the front by the water. I think we would have been very disappointed with any of the rooms with a resort view - would strongly recommend only going here if you can stretch to preferred club + ocean view if you expect to spend a significant amount of time in the room. Having said that, we were very disappointed that for 3 days of our stay a 'Zumba weekend' was laid on at the hotel, which in itself wasn't a major issue although it was much busier, but meant that they erected a huge stage just outside our room which played *very* loud music all afternoon through to evening. We had our baby with us and had to move indoors from our balcony due to the volume, and had trouble getting her to sleep in the evening. The 'fully stocked mini bar' was underwhelming - the contents were: - 2 local lagers - 2 cokes - 2 fruit juices - a snickers bar - water For any families traveling with infants - the cot provided was a standard travel cot with a comfy mattress and good sheets. I think the room location is the main benefit of the 'preferred club' bit. The lounge is okay and is a nice spot to grab a drink in the evening with slightly better spirits and wine offerings than the rest of the resort, but the rest of the 'preferred club' benefits were either gimmicks (a pillow menu) or intangible and vague. Food & Drink There are 5 restaurants (Sabor, Club De Fado, Oishii, Nouvelle and Carvao) + the buffet ('World Cafe'). Sabor and Club De Fado are in the same place, so it's really just a menu switch and only 2 or 3 were open a night when we were there, which made getting bookings difficult for some people. Fortunately because I had read this was an issue on TripAdvisor we were able to secure bookings for all but the first night. The buffet dinner was not good. I would put the food quality on par with something like a Travelodge dinner in the UK, certainly not 5 star. All the food in the buffet sections was at best lukewarm and was generally disappointing in quality. The only exception was the attended meat grill. The buffet was similarly poor at lunch, but the breakfast was slightly better. The restaurants were an improvement but nothing to write home about in terms of quality. We generally found at each one of them, one of us was happy with their choice of main dish, and the other a bit underwhelmed. One issue that with the resort is that the same food and drink is re-used all over the place and it's obvious once you start seeing bits of food from the buffet used in different restaurants. But the bigger issue is the drinks - there is one beer available, one cider and 3 wines of each colour (dry, semi dry and fruity) available on the AI package, plus a raft of cocktails and standard soft drinks. They're the same at every restaurant and bar which becomes very repetitive - particularly as someone who likes beer and wine. With the above in mind, the food and drink are more what I would expect from a 4 star resort. Service The staff were nearly universally friendly and good natured. If we needed something (we kept asking for more water in the room) they obliged. I wouldn't say there was any proactivity (we asked for extra water every single day individually, and it never meant that they just gave us more water as standard). There wasn't a vast array of services on offer, but I was surprised at the extremely expensive laundry service. Typically hotels have a charge per unit weight on laundry or per-bag, but this one charges per item, with socks costing 2EUR a pair, shirts I think were 10EUR each. Facilities The main pool above the buffet restaurant was moderately busy, and the one next to the spa was packed. If you don't get there first thing you won't get a lounger which is a shame. Same goes for the beach. Again, it doesn't feel very 5 star to be getting up at 7am to put a towel down and leave it there all day. The sea pool is a great addition and the beach bar is a great spot, it's a shame it shuts at 17:30 when it would be lovely to have an evening drink there. The spa is probably the most 5 star element of the whole place but it's an extra expense."