"The Oceanus is a great little spot just outside of Olhos De Agua, near Albufeira in the Algarve. It’s about half an hour from Faro airport and costs €55 in a taxi each way.
The hotel is clean and modern and has a 24 hour staffed reception. We were welcomed by a really friendly guy who made check in a breeze. All of the reception staff across our stay were helpful and pleasant. They helped us book trips, taxis and hotel based queries (like beach towels). Louis Miguel was genuinely great.
The rooms are spacious enough, having a bedroom with two (moveable) single beds and two beds in the living space that fold out from the sofa.
The storage is ok. There isn’t a lot of shelf and drawer space, and it could do with more hangers available, but it wasn’t terrible. The bathroom was well equipped with a walk in shower, sink unit with marble surround (with space for toiletries) a hairdryer, bidet and toilet. Cleaners came every day to change bedding and towels, and they provided the loo roll!
The balconies are very small. A table and two chairs and it’s full. We couldn’t sit and eat outside as a family. You can access it from both the living space and the bedroom though, meaning it’s accessible when the kids have gone to bed.
A little warning, half of the rooms face the road, which is busy most always. It’s loud and continuous. You can hear it through the double glazing at 4am. The rooms on the other side (facing the restaurant) are massively better.
The restaurant and the pools are across the road behind the hotel - which in reality is just a turning circle for hotel drop offs, so you needn’t worry about it if you have kids.
The restaurant is grand and sells drinks, snacks and meals. It has a pool table and a selection of kids machines.
The pools are great. Kids pool and a bigger adult pool. Warning being that the adult pool is very deep from not very far in. It drops to 2.5m at the end. I’m 6’ 3’’ and could touch the floor after about 10ft.
The pools, pool area, toilets and restaurant are clean and tidy. It’s a nice place to be. The sun loungers against the buildings opposite the restaurant are in shade completely in the afternoon.
The main hotel has a gym and spa and as part of this there is an indoor pool. It is also in great condition and it clean and tidy.
There is a bar downstairs that has entertainment on across the week. The music can be heard on floor 1. I’d imagine the higher floors wouldn’t be affected. The entertainment we saw was good.
The location of the hotel is great. Close enough to the airport, a 5-10 minute walk to the beach. Alhos De Agua is a lovely village and has a selection of shops and restaurants. The beach is clean and the cliff views are amazing. There are freshwater springs on the beach which you can see at low tide. We spent two days on the beach as it’s beautiful. The sunloungers on the beach are for rent at €20 for two with a sunshade for the day.
Outside of the hotel there are half a dozen or so restaurants that are really very good. Pizza, steak and seafood. Generally speaking, feeding a family of four, with drinks for €80–100.
There is a supermarket 3-5 minutes walk from the hotel that sells basically everything you can need, so don’t worry and overpack. You can get shampoo, sun creams, moisturiser… anything you might think ‘I’ll need to take that with me’. It also has a daily fresh bakery.
The hotel is half an hour in a taxi to Zoomarine. Highly recommended if you have kids. It’s not cheap, but it’s great value. We booked a second day while we were there for €12 each. Bringing the total spend for the two days, for 4 of us, to €300 and, in honesty, I’d do the same again. It’s great.
The only thing to be a little wary of is the roadside balconies. If you request a pool side room you’ll be grand.
9/10, would stay again."
