Maria Nova Lounge Hotel

We stayed at the AP Maria Nova Lounge Hotel for four nights and had a really enjoyable stay. It’s a luxurious, comfortable hotel with a lovely relaxed atmosphere and is in a great location for exploring Tavira.

Our room was a good size, with very comfortable beds, good air conditioning and was kept exceptionally clean and well made up every day. The only real room criticism was the fridge, which didn’t really cool anything. On our final night we unfortunately had a leak which resulted in the room flooding. These things happen, and to the hotel’s credit, they moved us to another room very quickly and dealt with the situation well.

The location is excellent. It’s only a short walk into Tavira, with plenty of lovely restaurants nearby, and there’s a fantastic little bakery just about three minutes away.

The pool area was one of our favourite parts of the hotel. It’s a good size, with plenty of sunbeds, and we found everyone’s etiquette really good — no sunbed hogging during our stay. The hotel also has a no towels to reserve sunbeds policy, which is a big positive. The Balinese beds were a particularly nice touch. They can be hired for €20 a day and give you a little more shelter and comfort — a lovely little bit of luxury. A couple of extra hooks to stop the sheets flapping around and perhaps a few extra pillows would improve them, although Hugo was more than happy to go and get extra pillows for us when we asked.

The atmosphere throughout the hotel was very quiet and relaxed, which was exactly what we were looking for.

The drinks were a real highlight, particularly around the pool. A special mention absolutely has to go to Hugo and Tiago, who were both incredibly friendly, attentive and easy to chat to. They remembered our orders and genuinely made the pool experience better. They both seemed to be everywhere, but particularly around the pool, making sure people were looked after. And the mango frozen daiquiris were fantastic — easily some of the best drinks we had during the holiday!

Breakfast was another major highlight. There was a fantastic selection, with excellent bacon and sausages, fried and scrambled eggs, veggie omelettes, ham and cheese omelettes and boiled eggs, alongside plenty of other choices. The sweet treats were great, as was the fresh orange juice. The staff were consistently friendly, and having a pianist playing throughout the morning added a really lovely touch.

We had lunch at the hotel once. It wasn’t amazing, but it was perfectly serviceable and convenient when we wanted to stay around the pool. We also had dinner there, which was pretty good overall. If you want to eat on the rooftop, reserve early, as we couldn’t get rooftop seating during our stay. The Algarve pudding was particularly good and well worth trying.

All in all, we had a great four-night stay. There are a few small things that could be improved, but nothing that took away from what was a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. The combination of the location, comfortable rooms, excellent breakfast, lovely pool area and, above all, the fantastic staff made it a hotel we’d happily return to.

A particular thank you to Hugo and Tiago — your service and those mango frozen daiquiris were a big part of what made our stay so enjoyable!

We stayed with AP Maria Nova at the end of June - booked with Jet2 and as per usual everything was excellent ! Hotel is beautiful - very modern and everywhere kept clean. We were allocated a room on the 1st floor overlooking the pool and cannot fault the room. We were B&B and the breakfast was excellent every morning. Hotel is a 5min walk down a steep hill to loads of restaurants - Mehfil Indian, Astor Argentinian Grill & Ai Mae being the best. Obviously not the hotels fault but the Tavira area was swarmed with mosquitoes during our stay and we were literally eaten alive - bring spray, cream, antihistamines and whatever else Amazon sells as it was bad !