Pestana Blue Alvor Beach Hotel

Check in was very efficient. Room was nice and spacious however for a 5 star hotel ,you would expect more than a shower gel for body and hair. No individual containers for , shampoo, conditioner or body lotion or gel. Every morning we were woken at 7 /7.30am by workmen drilling on the roof. This went on until 6.30/7.00pm at night. The pool area was nice but not very clean. & the pool was ice cold. The bar near the pool area was laid out very well but clearly understaffed. The bar staff, generally just 1 at a time , were very pleasant but clearly there was not enough people to help them. More often than not you couldn’t find a table outside which was clean so you had to do this yourself. This was the same in the Bubbles bar. The food in the buffet restaurant was ok and that is being generous. It was very unimpressive and generally what wasn’t used up the day before was made into something different the next day, it was all very boring & just not tasty. If you are lucky enough to be able to get a reservation in one of the speciality restaurants ( we were there 5 nights and could only manage 1 ) the food is no better. My husband ordered a pizza , fairly simple you would think, but the bottom wasn’t cooked. I ordered fish risotto , and the tiny bit of fish I received was stone cold. This could be a very nice hotel but there are serious issues going wrong here. There clearly was not enough staff for the number of people present which led to completely inadequate service. Finally this isn’t just my opinion this is all we could hear throughout our stay. No I wouldn’t recommend anyone staying here .

We enjoyed our stay at Pestana Blue overall. Despite some of the reviews we had read, we found the food to be good, with plenty of variety and something for everyone.

We managed to get a reservation at the speciality restaurant. Unfortunately, my steak wasn’t cooked as requested and was very fatty. However, the staff couldn’t have been more helpful and kindly replaced it with chicken, which we really appreciated. The bar staff were also excellent throughout our stay.

One area that could be improved is reception, as we found the staff unhelpful on a few occasions. We had to ask multiple times for a cot to be delivered to the room. Our baby had to sleep on the bed supervised as this wasn’t delivered till the evening time. We also had an incident where some items went missing from our room, including a charger and our baby’s sleep sack. We suspected these may have been accidentally taken by the cleaners when changing the bedding. Unfortunately, reception were unable to help us locate the missing items and didn’t seem to care which was disappointing.

The hotel is also in a lovely location, with a pleasant walk into Alvor and a nice atmosphere.

As we were travelling with a baby, the hotel suited us well. However, if our little one were older, we probably wouldn’t choose to stay here again, as we feel the food options for children could be better. A dedicated kids’ corner with something like chicken nuggets and pizza would be a great addition for families.

Overall, we had an enjoyable stay, with great bar staff, great room, good food and a lovely location, but there are a few areas where the hotel could improve, particularly customer service at reception, handling missing belongings and catering for older children.

Came from 2nd till 9th October. I can honestly say it is the best food at a hotel I have ever had. Unfortunately most English people want English food and it is disappointing the negative reviews on here. I thought it was absolutely amazing. The location was incredible, the beach picture postcard. Hotel so tidy and all staff were lovely. Enjoyed the meals in the 2 other restaurants. I enjoyed the buffet restaurant and had food I don’t normally eat and thought it was delicious. Thank you so much. Hopefully we will be back