Tivoli Alvor Algarve

Great for kids, poorly run for adults — falls well short of 5 star

We stayed here as a family with our 7-year-old, and the holiday was saved by two things: the grounds and the kids club.

The grounds are genuinely lovely and well kept. The kids club is excellent — our daughter loved it, there are plenty of children her age, and she made friends within a day. The cleaning staff were the warmest people on site: friendly, cheerful, and clearly take pride in their work.

Everything else needs work.

Information. Check-in gave us next to nothing. No explanation of the restaurants, no entertainment schedule, no timings. We missed the kids’ evening entertainment for four days simply because nobody told us it existed. That’s a basic failure.

Service. The staff are indifferent. We normally sit in the same spot each day and get to know the restaurant team — that was impossible here. There’s no table service at all, not even for water. It’s near-total self service. You hunt for bread if you want toast, you hunt for a cup if you want coffee, and spoons are a rarity. There’s no salt or pepper on the tables — you have to ask for sachets. Individually these are small things. Collectively they’re exactly what a 5-star resort is supposed to get right.

One exception: Chaudhry in the Italian restaurant. The only member of staff who smiled and was willing to have a conversation. That he stands out so sharply says everything about the rest of the operation. If this hotel is ever looking for a hospitality manager, he’s the candidate.

Restaurants. We tried two of the three. The Mad Med serves chicken and chips — not a special chicken dish, just chicken and chips. It feels like it exists purely to tick a box for the 5-star rating. The Italian is a step up, but not by much.

Coffee. The only morning option is the restaurant, and the self-service machines aren’t switched on until 9am. On an all-inclusive family holiday, that’s a strange decision.

Capacity. The place feels like it takes more guests than it can handle — hence two separate sittings for breakfast and dinner. There’s no supervisor on the restaurant floor keeping standards up, and it shows.

We had a short break, staying at Tivoli for 5 nights. Overall, it was an enjoyable holiday but falls short of a five star experience.

Cleanliness: this is the most unclean hotel I’ve ever stayed at so this was very disappointing. We arrived to our room and found a smear of poo on the toilet seat and the entire base of the toilet covered in yellow/brown splashes. The daily clean was also very superficial - the floor was not properly hoovered or mopped, bedding was not changed (just made). I’m not sure the robe was laundered either since I found a vape in the pocket. Public toilets were also unclean, smelly and lacked toilet roll - one cleaner refilled the loos with hand towels instead. Poolside also had clumps of tissue near it. Really, really poor! We also had NO WATER on two occasions, although this was resolved within 30mins of reporting it.

Room: we had a family room (two twin beds and a queen size). The room was adequate for our needs but fell short of what we expect for 5 star. As mentioned above, there were massive issues with cleanliness but we were also located on the far end of the resort which was a massive hassle. Thankfully we had a pushchair as there’s no way our 3yo would have been able to walk. There was annoyingly no lift so we had to lug our pushchair up and down one flight of stairs which is super inconvenient when you have rubber rings/floats etc to carry too. My 7yo averaged 20k steps during our stay purely from walking around the resort!

Staff: the reception staff, animation teams and chefs were fab. An employee called Joao helped us with a late checkout to compensate for the water issue - so this was great. The chefs were also really knowledgeable about food allergies and were able to go above and beyond for my sister who has coeliac disease (gluten free). The cleaners and waiters/waitresses were mostly miserable and our experience here was quite poor.

Entertainment: admittedly did not make the most of the kids club, but evening entertainment was decent - the animation teams clearly put a lot of effort in. The disco was at an awkward time though (530pm). There were also pool activities and music throughout the day. Games room is ok and there’s also a small playground, football/padel courts and mini golf.

Pools: aside from cleanliness, the pools were great. The toddler pool was excellent for our three year old and the family pools were also great with a good atmosphere. Sunbeds were busy but as expected during peak time.

Food: the restaurants (Mad Med and Italian) were excellent and the staff were great there. Food was really enjoyable. The mixed buffet was also good, some days better than others but very seafood heavy. Chicken was only served at the buffet twice. The kids offering wasn’t great but there were always a selection of pastas available so very manageable. As mentioned above, gluten free food was not an issue at all and the chefs were very knowledgeable - they made GF pancakes, egg bread, pasta etc. which definitely is above and beyond to what we’ve seen elsewhere. I do wonder if this is consistently the case though - the offering improved as the week got busier.

Nearby: the beach is a 15min walk and the shuttle service is also excellent. We ventured into town - there’s not a huge amount there but made for a nice little trip out.

Summary: overall we enjoyed the holiday but the cleanliness/room location put a dampener on our experience. Given that we paid for a 5 star hotel, this was just not good enough and this simply doesn’t compare to other hotels we’ve visited in the past. I know it was very busy but that is not an excuse.