"We have just arrived home from a 10 day stay at this hotel and wanted to help others by giving a detail review :)
We don’t normally go back to the same place twice but would happily come here again!
Arrival and check in process was extremely easy and informative. We were assigned a room on floor 3 which is the same level as reception.
Room:
Lovely clean and spacious! Shower is excellent and always had hot water, very powerful. Cleaners were efficient and always honoured the ‘do not disturb sign’ beds are comfortable but the pillows are very bouncy and it feels like you’re sleeping on a bag of air. USB-C charging ports in the bedside lights. We only noticed this and hour before we were due to leave! Small fridge included in the room however no tea or coffee making facilities.
Check out was at 12:00.
Pools:
Pools are a great size and varied. It was a bit of a long walk downhill to the splash park especially with a toddler and all the bits we needed to take. We only went there once. There could do with being a lift down to this part of the resort for buggies and wheelchairs. There pools were ice cold and my 2 year old could only spend a short amount of time in them. But as an adult you get used to once in and moving around. Pools were throughly cleaned every day. No issues with obtaining sun beds around the pool.
Entertainment:
We only visited the entertainment once, it’s on far too late for children - 8:30 for mini disc & 10:00 for the main entertainment. It was more catered towards the French guests. I didn’t see any entertainment in the main pool during the day and never really any music playing. Would have been nice to have this.
The entertainment was the same every week, I’d imagine this would get boring and repetitive if you were here for longer than a week. Arcade on site but expensive.
Food & Drink:
Before arriving we saw lots of poor reviews regarding food. The food is nice but isn’t anything amazing. It did become repetitive. Breakfast was plenty of choice - cooked breakfast, pastries, fruit, omelettes and cereal. Lunch and dinner generally consists of 3/4 meat dishes, 2 fish dishes, pizzas, chips, potatoes and then the usual salad bar etc. There was a small station for children which consisted of chips/rice/plain pasta/ pasta sauce & chicken nuggets or fish fingers.
Pudding was nice and varied each night. We didn’t have any problems with cold or luke warm food and found it to be of a nice temperature.
The 24/7 snack bar was lovely. We ate here often instead of the main restaurant. They always had toasties, burgers, chicken, wraps, cold meats and cheese, fruit, biscuits and pastries. The only improvement that could be made to this is the location, it’s nowhere near the pools or splash park.
The lobby bar was nice and airy, the bartenders were lovely. Please note they will only serve you two drinks at a time regardless of them being alcohol or soft drinks - which is a bit of a pain when ideally one of you needs to sit with a child.
Cocktails varied each day and were all tasty (and strong!!)
Coffee out of the machines was absolutely vile. I would bring sachets from home, there is a hot and cold water machine available just outside the main restaurant.
Location:
The hotel is fairly isolated in a small village which consists of a couple of restaurants and a shop. If you are fully aware of this prior to arriving and know what to expect you’ll be fine. I did my research and made sure I had sufficient funds put back for Ubers in order to get to the places we wanted to. There is a land train that stops outside the hotel and takes you to a neighbouring village for €5. Despite the hotel being out the way we did multiple trips out to the new town, old town, marina, Zoomarine, Jeep safari and to a local gipsy market in quarteira. I would advise booking these prior to travelling for the best deals. We used get your ticket, they were friendly and gave us a discount.
Cons -
Some improvements could be made to food. It was edible but repetitive.
The hotel felt like it was being taken over by the French travel provider ‘Lookea’ all French guests had different coloured bands and some of their own entertainment that other guests were not allowed to get involved in! They were quite rude on occasion and had no manners when taking food, mostly using their hands to grab food instead of tongs. English were the minority during our stay, which isn’t a massive problem for us but I feel the hotel needs to take this in to consideration to make sure all of their guests are receiving the same treatment.
Shop on site is pricey! Selling drinks and supplies that have clearly been purchased from Lidl (freeway) for 4 x the price! Cash only if purchasing cigarettes or tobacco on site.
Overall id rate this hotel a very good 3*!
Thank you for our lovely stay!"
