PortoBay Santa Maria

"Excellent clean hotel in a prime position. On the level with spoilt for choice restaurants around it. Staff very pleasant on arrival. Plate of food to room as we were late arriving for dinner. All staff appeared to work very hard to keep this wonderfully efficient. We would definitely like to return."

"Lovely hotel in an excellent location. Madeira is a lovely Island with lots to do and see will be going back again "

"We have previously stayed at the wonderful Portobay Flores in Porto, so had high expectations for our trip to Madeira and our stay at Portobay Santa Maria. Most of the Funchal hotels are a 20 to 30 min walk away from the centre of Funchal and Portobay Santa Maria appealed because it is in the city centre and we were only staying four nights. The positives: the hotel is not only central but right on the seafront. Our sea view room was lovely and it was nice to hear the sound of the sea from our room. The room was a good size, the bed was extremely comfortable and everything was clean. The pool is small but the pool area was well maintained. Reception staff were helpful including booking restaurants and taxis for us. The negatives: it was mainly the food. The breakfast was surprisingly poor. We could have been anywhere. It was at the standard you would expect for a 3 - 4 star UK hotel. Indeed it was remarkably similar. There was some fresh fruit but also tinned fruit. There were frozen and reheated pastries. There was no cooked to order food. The eggs on the buffet were overcooked and unpleasant. There was no local or sustainable produce: individual portions of butter and jam, individual yoghurt pots, bought cereals. The cheese was nondescript. The coffee option was bought to us in a pot. Some staff were curt, particularly when we said we wanted to wait for an outside table. When we booked, the only option available was half board. Had I known the food would be so bad we would not have booked the hotel. Having experienced the breakfast we went to 'have a look' at the dinner. Again, there was nothing freshly cooked. The food was sitting around in the buffet. There was a very limited choice for non meat eaters - pasta with tomato or curry. It was supposed to be a Portuguese night but there was very little that looked specifically Portuguese. The cod was in a heavy cream sauce. The same week last year we went half board in a hotel in Tenerife where the food was infinitely better. The complementary water and coffee pods in the room were not replenished during our stay. We were sent a survey midway through our stay and then at the end where we commented on the poor food. There has been no follow up to our critical comments."