RIU Hotels in Santa Maria

Firstly I would like to say Thank you to all at Rui Funana, It wasn’t the the smoothest of starts but the staff of Rui Funana were first class. After a 4 hour delay at Gatwick we arrived at Rui Funana just after midnight, we were checked in & offered for someone to take our bags, we declined thinking that it would just be quicker & less hassle to do it ourselves. We were given our room number. It was a short walk to block 8. Once we found our room we opened the door to find some guests already asleep in there. We closed the door quietly and laughed to ourselves how we must have got the wrong room, after double checking & the other guests locking the door for no more interruptions we proceeded back to reception to report that there were already occupants in the room. The staff on reception were very apologetic & upgraded our room which was a bit closer in block 9. The room was lovely, but after a couple of days we woke up on the Monday morning to a flooded bathroom, the air con system had leaked through the ceiling, we reported the fault & were told that it would be fixed (no stress) we went out for the day & came back to the room all cleaned up & decorated for our anniversary we went to one of the a la carte restaurants to celebrate our anniversary, we were made to feel special & we thoroughly enjoyed the meal & especially when the staff then sang happy birthday to my wife 🤣 great night. That night & the next we had the same issue with the air con system flooding our bathroom in the end the staff moved us to another room which had 3 bottles of Prosecco in the fridge. The staff were great they made our room up everyday with different towel arrangements & decorations. I said to my wife that you can tell how good a hotel is by the way they deal with problems, Rui Funana were first class ! We would like to thank all the restaurant staff, especially Jacira Cruz who made us feel very welcome and was so attentive, she is an asset to your hotel. Everyone works very hard at the hotel & are always happy & friendly. I’ve rambled on enough, I’ve even bored myself. Thank you for a fantastic holiday even with the adventures, we will be back xx

Can’t complain! Was a good beautiful hotel with plenty of food and drinks for all guests! Very easy to get there from the airport and everyone speaks English if you don’t speak the native language or similar. Most requests are done via their handy app which is easy to navigate and all inclusive is true to the name! You only pay for anything extra such as treatments in the Spa or items from the shop located on site otherwise everything else is included in the cost of your stay! I would have preferred more options for the 24hr “snack/food option” but this was only used out of hours so not many times for me.

We travelled from oct12 to 26 First impressions were great. Only 2 story's but spread out over a large area with block 1 being near the restaurant and block 5 being near the beach. The room was lovely if not a bit dated . It was clean and the mini bar and coffee were restocked when asked. Also towels and sheets were changed when asked .TIP If you like milk in your tea or coffee take a small bottle to the restaurant and fill it with milk to keep in the fridge. At first glance the main restaurant looked amazing with every kind of food you could wish for,however the breakfast was never hot and I was very concerned about salads and fish being left uncovered for many hours .The 3 special restaurants were lovely in the evening but the Steak restaurant was awful at lunch with flies all over the salad. After eating at the Italian restaurant in the second week my husband band was vert ill will diarrhea and stomach cramps . TIP keep an eye on the app and book restaurants as soon as possible.Another tip is to avoid breakfast at 7 30 and eat when the fresh food is cooked . The pool and the beach leave a lot to be desired. As other people have said you really struggle to get a bed near the pool. If you put your hotel towels on the beds the staff will move them . Unfortunately this is the only way to get a be .TIP if you must safe a bed use your own towels.. The beds on the beach are old and most are broken, there are no tables and the only shade is under the trees . The bar only serves beer or soft drinks and water . Be careful in the see as the waves are very strong. Trips out..We booked 2 trips with Mr Africa on the beach,he gave us a good price.if you don't want to use these guys just say no thanks .Also went into Santa Maria at night, bars ,restaurants are OK and we saw an amazing dance group on the street. We also went to The dead she'll beach,not a tourist place but interesting, taxi there 7 euros and walked back TIP if shopping try the supermarket as its cheaper than the small stalls.TIp take euros, the hotel reception will change large notes into smaller ones. We tipped 3 to 5 euros everywhere we could as the staff work so hard and earn very little money. You won't be able to change escudos when you come back . We gave ours to the staff . Finally to finish we travelled back on a Saturday night, the airport is full of flies . When arriving home I was very ill with diarrhea and stomach cramps . This was the same as a lot of people we spoke to whilst staying there. All I can say is watch what you eat. Although we had a nice time we wouldn't go back and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. This is a 4star not 5star hotel .only good thing is the amazing staff who work so very hard.