Real Marina Residence

We have recently returned from Olhao in Portugal where we had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Real Marina Residence on the waterfront. Firstly the appartment was huge! There were only the 2 of us but we had 3 double beds, an en-suite, a family shower room and a separate toilet. The kitchen was fully fitted ( the oven looked brand new) although we only used the fridge and sink for washing up. There was a tea towel and a tablecloth, complete with washing up liquid and sponge type scourer. We stayed a week and the maid service went in halfway through our stay, tidying up and sweeping floors. They even polished the balcony hand rails?? Using the hotels facilities was a chargeable sum but we didn't use anything. The pools are on the rooftops. They are small and in the height of the season may be overcrowded, especially as there were only 14 sun loungers. Having said that each appartment entrance has their own pools, that made 4 pools in total as far as I could tell. The swimming water takes a little time to get used to as it is a little cold. There are bars and shops on the ground floor of the appartment block and as it wasn't main season not all of them were open. That could be a blessing as it wasn't noisy in the evenings at all. In summary, was it good value? I thought so yes. Would I stay again? Yes I would because it makes a great base to see more of the Algarve with Ubers providing cheap transport.

My husband & I stayed in apt 596 for a week earlier this month. The apt was 2 bedroom which we didn’t really need but was all Jet 2 had available at that time. It was a spacious area & very well equipped in a good area close to most amenities. We did miss a supermarket close by just for water, milk & few necessities as we didn’t cook in the apt at all but it was a 15 min walk at least each way to buy a bot of water. The rooftop pool was bit of a letdown. First few days it was ok but by midweek there was lots of dirt lying in the corners & around the edges had a layer of green scum. A lady there for 2 weeks told me it had been like this the previous week. We did complain at the hotel reception twice but was only cleaned the night before we left which meant we had no pool for half of our week. It’s not a big pool & sunbeds are in need of a refurb but we would’ve used it had it been clean. We got the impression the hotel didn’t really want to be bothered with the residence guests as we enquired about using the pool there but even we had paid 35 euros each for a day, we weren’t guaranteed a sunbed as the hotel residents got 1st choice we were told. All in all the apts themselves are great if you don’t require a pool but with no beach at Olhao I think a pool is a necessity!!