Pestana Blue Alvor Beach - All Inclusive Hotel

It's a 3.5 really. Lots of really good stuff - great pool, immaculately clean communal areas, fantastic rooms (we had a sea view on the 10th floor and it was cleaned beautifully every day), access to amazing beach and friendly hardworking staff. We hired a car (went to Silves, Monchique, Lisbon (long way!!) and Sagres, Lagos) and lots of parking. Paddle tennis court was great and infinity adult pool was bliss. We didn't have young ones but the facilities looked great for those who did. Cons - only one really and sadly it's the food. We agree with the other comments. It's just not four star for food. We were all inclusive but spent a fair bit on eating out as we didn't want to use the restaurant. Queues were crazy for dinner. Drinks also a bit poor - so many single use plastic items (which the blow into the pool). Simple things like a fresh orange machine and salt and pepper would make a difference. It's all inclusive but no way to get a beer in a glass until after 6.30. It's also pretty noisy in the day - all day. Though the sound proofing in the rooms is excellent. It's all solvable and we could see how hard people were working. We had two meals in themed restaurants and they were better. Some guests didn't get a slot due to availability so book when you arrive in reception. We also had a lovely TUI rep - Emma - thank you!!!

Stayed UK May bank holiday week in a superior family room with balcony. The balcony glass was dangerous but otherwise pleasant area with pool & sea view with a nice mat and new furniture. The room beds were comfortable but one of the single beds didn’t have a bedside table or shelf so had to put things on the floor.  Was happy with sun bed availability, there were plenty, some new and some old but could move spare ones around so could sit together as a family. Great guy doing some pool entertainment, the kids enjoyed this. Floor surface around the main pool is a very odd choice, it’s some kind of resin but not smooth and is very rough, and sharp. My son cut his toe whilst walking on it, I saw other children fall and cut themselves quite badly. It isn’t an ideal surface for a poolside. Good easy access to the beach, we did not think the path was steep at all but we are a fit & healthy family. Lovely beach and has plenty of lifeguards. Also has free toilets along the beach. Food truck was not open all week, despite being advertised as open daily 12:30-6pm. Asked the Tui rep over messages in the app but she did not respond specifically to my question (probably didn’t want to put it in writing). Buffet restaurant: food wasn’t very good unfortunately, hot food often cold, food not replenished on a timely basis, drinks machines closed/broken. Tables not cleaned and reset once used. No spare cutlery. Mugs/glasses ran out (plenty of plates), not enough staff. Front of house desk with staff member there but didn’t really appear to manage staff or really do anything. Suggest waiting staff have specific duties:- -Drinks machines maintenance -Clearing/cleaning/resetting tables -Crockery, cutlery & glassware -Replenishing food trays On arrival I reported a drinks machine wasn’t working and got the response “I’ve only worked here for 2 days sorry so can’t help”. Didn’t report anything after that as realised machines were constantly not working. Over the week hotel inspectors were walking around the buffet taking notes but nothing appeared to change service wise other than they limited the number of people allowed in at once so this caused a massive queue - another queue! If they aren’t going to bother opening the poolside snack food truck then they need to extend the main buffet to 12-3 for the amount of guests they need to feed. Braved one night at Luigi pizza restaurant which turned out to be an extension of the buffet, the pizza was awful and was like a cheap frozen pizza, not even freshly baked. We make better pizzas at home on our Ooni. Didn’t bother with the other Surf & Turf restaurant as assumed was just as pathetic. Didn’t eat in buffet restaurant in the evenings, plenty of restaurants around the harbour, can easily get an UBER, about €4, otherwise a taxi is about €8 cash and €10 by card. The beach restaurants were lovely too and no taxi needed! Mini bar consisted of 1 bottle of water and 2 x small cartons of pineapple juice. On a positive

Absolutely brilliant time. 7nights family of 4 Food was great and we made the most of the surf and turf and the Italian restaurants. The kids enjoyed the clubs and the splash area while we chilled out by the relax pool. The room was clean, fresh and serviced daily. Amazing sea views from the balcony where we could relax and have lazy afternoons. Great sandy beach just a few steps away and plenty to do in the evening if you do want to venture out. Reception told me they had just had a refurbishment and from my point of view they've done a cracking job See you again next year

We had a lovely stay at the Pestana Blue Alvor Beach - yes there are certainly areas of improvement - but overall we had a lovely time. -location of the hotel is brilliant, a five minute walk to the beach, yes it is a little steep but this is mentioned in hotel description. -the board walk to Alvor (25 minute walk) is next to the beach and it is a lovely walk, Alvor itself is nice, a lot of the usual tourist shops,, some lovely pastelerias (pastel de nata must be tried). On sunday morning there is a market at the the sea front, lovely fruit and cakes/biscuits and some handcrafted souvenirs. -rooms very quiet, storage space can be a little cramped (depending on which room you are in), we were upgraded to a very large room and both rooms were very clean, bathrooms good and house keeping staff very friendly and efficient, (We had some laughs with the english-portuegese dictionary and lots of "sign" language.) -food/restaurant, breakfast was really good, good choice of food, yogurt, seeds, walnuts, bread, cheese, meats, cereals, lots of lovely fruit (kiwis were fantastic), cakes, pastries, porridge, pancakes and one of us had a cooked breakfast so all bases covered. Lunch and Dinner, there was variety - maybe not always your favourites but every country has its own specialities, meat or fish and one day risotto was freshly cooked. Dessert consisted of a wide variety of cakes, lots of fresh fruit and several flavours of icecream. Wine was of a very good quality, coffee machines, especially the coffee only one, produced a very good cup of coffee. In the bar area there was a snack table with a variety of foods, enough to keep you happy if you felt peckish. -pool area, swimming pools were kept clean, plenty of sun loungers (in the second half of our stay the "reserve a lounger at 8 and start using it at 2") had arrived. Why this was done ??? there are lots of sun loungers. Music around the pool was sometimes a bit loud for us but then maybe we are getting old. infinity pool around the corner was very quiet. Cannot really comment on entertainment as we were not really there for it. -bars: drinks available very good, and branded drinks (Gordons, Baileys, etc); wine and beer (including stout) were enjoyable. -Luigi's, starters very nice, pizza a bit "shop bought" and desserts nice, atmosphere lovely with in the middle of it all a lady who started to sing with staff joining in. -Staff, the greatest strength of this hotel, everybody from the moment we arrived (glass of prosecco while checking in a lovely gesture) from reception, bar, restaurant, room - everyone was so friendly and helpful - they really contributed to our holiday being great. Now the areas where we feel there is scope for improvement, sort of 10% effort to make this hotel perfect: -food to be correctly labelled - in the restaurant we often found inaccurate labelling/ ingredients missing, i.e. pork with banana without a banana in sight, risotto with parmesan without parmesan........w

When I booked the hotel for my Birthday, my elderly mum was coming so I requested a adjoining room, we couldn't of been further away on the same floor. Our room had a bed and a place to hang a few clothes, no Drawers, no seats. The bathroom had not been updated there was black around the taps etc, on the 5th night I started to run the bath and the water was brown, I went to report it at reception and he said that's not good for your health we will move you, the room we moved to was lovely had everything. One day in the restaurant I went to get a coke I put my glass under and started to pour it was frothy and I wondered what all the bits were, to my shock there was 15 to 20 ants in, I went to the manager at the door and told him he said oh yes we know about that problem, we will switch the machine off, it put me on one the rest of the holiday. We were going to the beach one day, walking around past the pool my mum nearly tripped in a hole which had not been filled in, my husband got a big pot and put it over the hole and reported it again to the manager when we left nothing had been done. We went in to the restaurant one evening and it was filled with smoke from the chef who was cooking she had not switched the extractor fan on, it was stinging people's eyes, and making people cough, a member of staff was asked why the smoke detector had not gone off and he said they had switched it off. There was a practice fire alarm for the staff when we were there, the alarm could not be heard by many elderly people and some people thought it was there mobiles. Don't get me wrong the hotel is lovely the staff are lovely, but the management are diabolical, they have a young man working behind the bar in the entertainment room on his own all day and night yes he had ques but he was so good at his job, also in the bar opposite the reception a young man on his own serving, again ques but he did a dam good job. The Restaurant staff what there was of them not many at all were lovely and hardworking but there was not enough staff, tables not getting cleared, glasses and cups not being replenished, soft drinks machines either not turned on or running out, same with the hot drinks machines, the food was barely warm, not a great selection, I like my food hot and kept having to bother one of the staff to put my food in the microwave in the kitchen, I did speak to the manager about them having a microwave out, then people could use it, he said great suggestion but nothing was ever done. The Entertainment was not brill but the staff tried there best, not alot of people went in due to them having a very strong smell of sewerage, it was there 8 out of 11 nights of our holiday. One of the nights my mum slipped in the shower banged her arm and head and lay there for half an hour as she could not get out due to being no hand rail, there were holes where it should of been, thus made her quite unwell. Now to me this is the worst thing, I would take my mum up to her room about16:

Hotel lovely, rooms spacious & clean. Waiters, waitresses, cleaners etc all lovely, friendly but hotel very under staffed, workers over worked. Biggest letdown by far is the restaurant, the food is the worst I have encountered in a all inclusive. Food was cold a lot of the time, things were not topped up, so depending on what time you arrived for your meal was dependent on what you got! Tables were not cleared but that was due to not enough staff. Salt was limited to one salt cellar for the whole restaurant! No teaspoons only wooden sticks!! The positives are there are lots of sunbeds, the hotel is clean, the staff are lovely however I will not be visiting again.

Lovely hotel needs improvement. For the most part, the hotel is lovely. Bar staff amazing though under staffed and overworked. Clean hotel and great location. Restaurant is its biggest let down. Did not see the food and beverage manager once in the restaurant. They know the issues, but seem reluctant to fix them as the reviews are all the same. No organisation. Not enough basics. Difficult to get drinks. Food not replenished. Labels bad. One of the worst things about this hotel unfortunately is the TUI rep. 15 years of holidays with TUI and she did not care. Was rude and basically told us we should have paid more if we wanted a better holiday, apparently has said this to others, and dismissed complaints. Real let down. After care from TUI also terrible. TUI web page has inaccurate info also about the hotel , which they need to change or they should compensate for false advertising.

Stayed in better three stars We paid for the upgrade to sea view but you could just see the sea, it was in fact a pool view and noisy all day and evening. The room was lovely and spotlessly clean. the bathroom was horrible. The Lou seat was so old and full of cracks it was uncomfortable and unhygienic. The bath was disgusting, the surface had gone leaving a brown under layer you could not sit in, so no baths for the week. The surround to the bath had significant mould in the corners, this bathroom had obviously not been renewed. The toilet bowl was covered in black scratches.We complained and it took three requests and two days for the Lou seat to be changed. One day our bin in the bathroom mysteriously disappeared and two requests and again two days for another to be provided I will try to attach photos of the bathroom .On one occasion when we complained we were offered to view another room with a view to moving but we were only there for one week and losing another half day moving and reorganising a new room seems daunting when you are elderly. Replenishment of tea, coffee etc was hit and miss and we ended up taking it from the restaurant so we could have our early morning cup of tea. Pools, sun bathing areas were large and well kept. Towel service good. The restaurant, what can I say, On arrival I informed the reception that I am coeliac (cannot eat wheat) they told me my meals would be provided from the kitchen . The only offerings where plain whitefish, white rice and a piece of lettuce. I may have been able to eat other things but the labelling was so poor and never any staff free to ask . One night they did offer me gluten free ice cream as I had no t been able to eat any of the other deserts , we waited 40 minutes it never arrived! The food was either tepid or cold and I am surprised we only met three guests who had had bad stomachs from it. The choice of food was very poor. The tables were not cleared and reset so it was difficult to find a clean table to eat at. Most evenings we were on desert before any pots from the previous courses were cleared which made it difficult as the two person tables were so small. Every morning there were never any bowls to eat cereal and it took on average ten minutes before they were replenished. They were constantly running out of wine glasses and one evening we had finished three courses before we could have a glass of wine. The drinks machines were constantly empty and we had to go from machine to machine around the restaurant to find one that had what we wanted. One night the restaurant filled with smoke and should have been cleared. I could not breathe One evening the bubbles bar did not have any whisky which is all my husband drinks plus they had to close half the lounge down due to a leak so there was nowhere to sit, it remained closed for the rest of our stay. TUi description stated we could eat at each of the two themed restaurants during our stay, we could not ge

This is a lovely hotel with really nice rooms, staff, pool area and location. It’s sadly let down by a very poor standard of food and lack of service in the restaurant - we are regular travellers and this was a huge disappointment towards the enjoyment of our holiday - lunches were ok - breakfast would have been fine if not cold - evening meals were very poor apart from the themed surf and turf restaurant. Hopefully they get their act together in the restaurant as would be expected of a hotel of their rating.