Tivoli Marina Vilamoura

"My wife and I spent a week at the Tivoli on a bed and breakfast basis and overall it was a good experience. However we had a number of issues which detracted from the enjoyment of the holiday. Firstly the positives. The hotel is in a good location as previous reviewers have described. Our room was good overlooking the marina with very comfortable beds. Nice shower and fluffy towels. Breakfast was good with plenty of selection although the bacon and sausages were "continental" and not to my liking. Staff generally good and attentive. The pool area was nice and relaxed and close to a nice beach area. My wife used the spa and gym which she thoroughly enjoyed. She availed herself of a message which was excellent. Unfortunately there were a few negatives which I would not expect in a 5 star hotel. Firstly our safe wouldn't work and had to be replaced. However the maintenance man could not remove the failed safe and had to give us another one which was placed high up on a shelf making it difficult to access. This safe was not secured so could easily be removed. The door to the room was difficult to close and had to be slammed shut and the patio doors were not a snug fit. On one particular evening I could hear music from a marina bar and it was because the patio door was ill fitting. Throughout our stay only two lifts were in operation. This only became a problem when a conference was taking place and the lifts were busy. On our third day we returned to our room late afternoon and work was being conducted in the neighbouring apartment with a lot of banging and drilling. When I opened the patio door there was a distinct smell of cannabis. As we were on the second floor I could only assume that it was the workmen responsible. I did complain to reception but did not expect this in any hotel let alone a 5 star one. In fairness customer care contacted me the following day asking if there had been any recurrence. The only other thing I would mention is the pool which is very shallow. At no more than 3 and half feet deep it was more akin to a kiddies paddling pool. Overall on balance this hotel just about deserves it's 5 star rating but it is not exceptional and I have stayed in better hotels at a cheaper price. Nevertheless a good holiday was had."

"Beautiful hotel right on the marina. Facilities in the hotel are excellent and the rooms very comfortable. The price of the food in the hotel, for what was a very average lunch was extortionate. Hotel reception staff were not interested in whether you had a good stay or not. Hardly spoke to me when checking out."

"Very impressive hotel that's where it ends, definitely not a 5 star hotel. The rooms are tired and dated. Can't book in on arrival as an event on even though 4 receptionists doing nothing. Then you are told room not ready go away and we will text you, but you are in your travelling clothes and we arrived from England so dressed for English weather. When we were given the door key for the room no one told us you must use the key to operate the lift (in fact we were given no information as where to eat or where anything was) we had to work this out for ourselves (we met one man in the lift one day and he said he had been in the lift 20 minutes the 1st day trying to get to his floor). The balcony in what was supposed to be a superior double room with sea view was no more that a shelf with just about room for two chairs and a small table. There was water in the bottom of our fridge, and I was sure they would notice this as they checked it every day in case you used it, and they could charge you for even the water so was sure they would notice but nothing was done about it. Fortunately we took our own tea bags and its a good job as there was only two tea bags and sugar in the room anyway, we don't drink coffee. When we booked this holiday we made our travel agent aware the main thing we wanted was a buffet menu in the evening as my husband is gluten intolerant and we mainly eat vegetarian so the travel agent rang and spoke to the hotel and the woman who's name I have, told him that they could cater for both and there was a buffet restaurant in fact he rang again on the 2nd of October and this woman assured him again the buffet restaurant would be open, but in fact they couldn't cater for us at all and knew nothing about my husband being gluten intolerant . When we worked out that the only place that was open to us was Peppers a steak house restaurant that didn't cater for vegetarians at all NOT ONE veggie meal on the menu at all and exactly the same menu every night of the week, that's two soups either pumpkin or mint pea soup. In my life I have never known a so called A LA Carte with such a poor menu. It was so pretentious you couldn't believe it, they charge six euros for a bottle of still water plus a 7.5% gratuity charge outrageous. We asked for the bill every evening so we didn't have any charges when we booked out and they asked us to sign every evening and guess what when we went to book out they asked us to pay 76 euro's we asked what's that for they said the drinks in Peppers but we paid every night, no you didn't they said you signed THEY ASKED US TO SIGN EVERY NIGHT. Fortunately, the last meal we had was so bad the manager Megel wavered the bill as he was so embarrassed with what we had been presented with but he asked us to sign the bill so they couldn't argue with that, but it took them 40 minutes of arguing to realise we were telling the truth. There is a lot more I could write about this hotel, the charges for a comfortable Lilo, only one lift working half the time, monotonous music played round the pool every day, chiller noises that keep you awake all night, etc, etc., but I would be here all day. This hotel would charge for the air you breathe if they could (shouldn't have wrote that it will give them ideas). If I can save even one person from the hoilday from hell that we endured my work has not been in vain."