Hyatt Ziva Madeira

"Excellent time at the Hyatt Ziva Madeira. Our second time after first going in low season last year. This year we went in high season. I thinks it’s reasonable to expect things may take a little longer to be served in high season and that was the case here. The staff are working really hard and are very friendly. We were checked in by the wonderful Ludovina who sorted our restaurant bookings at check in, and this was invaluable as a party of 8. Restaurants and amenities were great and the food was excellent all in all. Voce and the sports bar on the marina was great for lunch everyday and in the evening all restaurants were fantastic. Breakfast in the buffet was mired by a lack of staff meaning the tables were left with plates and food on them - really just needs a little extra investment here and the evening bar and most of the problems and bad reviews will go away in my opinion. We will be back - in low season 😂☀️"

"We were an extended family party of 11, from grandparents to grandchildren and overall we had a lovely week at the resort. The hotel location is excellent with a lovely Madeiran village feel. It is easily accessible from Funchal airport and the road to the Hotel gives an excellent view of the unique landing area stretching out over the sea - not for the faint hearted. The rooms were spacious and comfortable with great views over the Marina. Make sure to book the speciality restaurants as soon as you check-in as they are relatively small and fill very quickly. Initially there were difficulties in trying to get reservations for our family group of 11 but following an intervention by the Customer Experience team we did manage to secure booking on most nights. In particular the food and service in the Oishii, Carvao and Nouvelle Brasserie restaurants was second to none and I would like to compliment the teams working in those restaurants. Sadly this level of service was not reflected across all the restaurants & Bars with some long delays and poor service experienced elsewhere. In particular the World Cafe (Buffet) at breakfast time seemed to suffer from a lack of staff with tables being left uncleared for long periods of time. We all went on a whale / dolphin watching boat trip - bookable at the quay side. This was well worth the money with close up sightings of pilot whales. Some of our party also went on an organised walk along one of the many Levadas - these walks can be booked via the Customer Service team. On our last night in the resort, our 2 young grandsons began suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea. After an extremely stressful journey home, the sickness bug subsequently swept through the rest of the family in the following days. We appreciate that these bugs can be picked up in many different ways, however, one of the children in our party who became ill is autistic and has a very restricted diet. During the holiday, this child ate only food that we had brought with us from home and did not eat the hotel’s food. This leads us to suspect that the source of contamination could be the swimming pool or communal areas such as washrooms. In particular, we were concerned about the condition of the swimming pool towards the end of our stay. We did report these concerns to reception prior to our departure. From comments on Facebook, we note that other families may have experienced similar episodes of sickness at the hotel in recent weeks. Overall we genuinely enjoyed our stay and thought the resort was excellent in many respects - the holiday was unfortunately marred by illness and a lack of attentiveness / resources in some of the restaurants & bars."

"Advertised as 5 star but far from it. I have never had to write a bead review before but so much was wrong with this place to avoid writing a bad review. Certainly avoid if you have food allergies. They do not label their foods with allergy information here. Most of the time the food doesn't match the signing."