Alto Lido

The Alto Lido Hotel enjoys an excellent location on the western side of Funchal in the Lido area. It's bright, it's contemporary and it's within a 10 to 15 minute commute by several local bus lines to the marina and central area of town. It's also located a 10 minute walk from the Forum Shopping Centre which hosts retailers such as Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Zara, C&A and a large Pingo Doce supermarket.

I travelled with Jet2 Holidays and stayed in a Premium Deluxe room on an All Inclusive basis. These rooms occupy the street frontage and are arranged on 4 stepped levels. They have the best views south, towards the water, and the balconies get sunshine from about 9am until 7pm. Try and get one of the higher levels (2,3 or 4). Level 1 doesn't get quite the same sunlight and it's a bit too close to the pavement if you are security conscious. I managed to negotiate a room change from Level 1 to Level 4 and it was much better.

The room was spacious with two very comfortable single beds (not too firm and not to soft) and the bed linen was pristine. There was a separated bathroom (with a door) and with a large walk in shower which was both powerful and hot. Thankfully, this hotel has not followed a growing trend to have showers located in a corner of the room where all and sundry can watch your ablutions!

There was a large wall mounted digital TV which carried multiple international channels but only SKY News for UK visitors. There was no BBC/ITV etc. That said, the portuguese channels show a lot US content (films and dramas) and it's broadcast in english with portuguese subtitles - so not a problem to watch.

Standard rooms are located within a 12 storey tower that occupies the remainder of the site. From what I could see, their outlook is not as good, but it all depends on which floor and which direction the balcony faces.

The outdoor pool is located on Level 3 and is surrounded by s small sundeck with loungers and parasols and is where the poolside bar is located. The pool is rectangular but quite narrow, best suited for swimming lengths. That said, it never seemed to be too crowded. One thing I would say is that the unfortunate colour of the tiles (dark blue and grey) gives it a cold and uninviting appearance which is a bit of a shame.

There is an attractive and much more extensive sun terrace accessible by stairs from Level 3, but you could easily be unaware of this and hence the reason why it didn't appear to be very busy. It's a bit of a hidden secret, albeit in plain sight.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are all served in the ground floor self-service restaurant and this was operated very efficiently. In fact too efficiently. On five separate occasions I returned to my table to find that my place settings and drink had been swiped away by over zealous waiting staff. Once was funny but five times?

The choice and quality of food was adequate and certainly no worse or no better than you would expect to find in a typical 4 star hotel but nothing to write home about.

Breakfast had something for everyone - hot and cold - and I don't think anyone would find much to complain about.

Lunch was however most disappointing. It just seemed a very half hearted affair with very restricted choice and not such great quality. Personally, I'd have preferred to have been able to eat at the poolside bar but that was expressly not allowed. Given the very low attendance I suspect it would have actually been more economic for the hotel?

Dinner featured the usual array of salads with perhaps 10 'hot' main course choices which regularly featured a lot of fish and pork. I emphasise 'hot' because it really wasn't. It's a major bugbear of mine but I have yet to find a hotel that operates self service dining to have perfected the art of keeping food properly hot. It's a real pity because it renders what is probably not bad food in itself a tad unappetising. Tepid stodgy pasta and cold sauces just ain't nice! Desserts were also a bit disappointing and far less extensive than I've come across in similar hotels. Still, less pounds to shed after the holiday.

I suppose you ultimately get what you pay for. If you're looking for a finer dining experience then best stick to B&B and eat out. There are many options close by.

Finally, a word about All inclusive at this hotel. I felt that it was pretty mean. You can't get any drinks before 11am, you are restricted to local beer, wine and spirits and soft drinks only, no cocktails and it doesn't even include tea or coffee. You can't eat from the Poolside Bar menu for lunch and the only other available 'food nibbles' is an hour long window in the afternoon together with a bizarre 'ice cream hour'. This is not genuine All Inclusive and I wouldn't recommend it as an option.

In conclusion, I had a perfectly good time at the Alto Lido hotel and would probably stay here again, notwithstanding the one or two issues I've identified.

Time and motion person would Have a field day

Just returned from 10 nights at Alto Lido (with Jet2). I'll admit we were worried having read some of the reviews but I am glad we ignored them! We had premium deluxe rooms with sea view. We were on the first floor which does pretty much look onto the road, so if you get the option go for a higher floor! The room was lovely, comfy, clean. There was a mini fridge but nothing in it - I assume they only fill it if you're not all inclusive!? We bought water and milk (there's no milk for the tea in the rooms) from the supermarket next door and kept it chilled in there. Beds were comfy, tea bags were replenished daily (there's no coffee in the rooms though). The shower could have done with a bit more water pressure but it was a nice, spacious bathroom.

Lifts are a bit of an issue, there are two one end that go up to floor 5 I think, and two the other end that go to the top (floor 15?). You can spend a long time waiting, or as we experienced, get in and press to go down to 0, but first it goes all the way up to 14 to collect whoever has pressed the button there, and then stops multiple times on the way down. You can only fit about 6 people in at a time though. I expect it could get very tiresome if you were on a high floor. We were only on the first floor, and discovered the stairs (the door looks like it's just a fire escape, but they are nice, clean stairs and plenty of other people were using them) which would definitely be the better option if you are on one of the lower floors.

The food is fine. Breakfast was good, a good selection of fruit, meats and cheeses if you want continental. Cereal, yoghurt, croissants, pastries and hot food, including an omlette station. Lunch is not great tbh, there are always burgers and hot dogs and then a small selection of other dishes that changes each day, including basic salad stuff. But there's ice cream, plenty of fresh fruit and a small selection of desserts. However, there is also a sort of buffet that appears in the pool bar around 4pm each day. We were not told about it and I have not seen it advertised anywhere. All inclusive can definitely eat from it, I don't know if you have to pay if you are BB/HB. Dinner was fine, plenty of options, freshly cooked and replenished regularly. The atmosphere in the dining room is a bit canteen like but all the staff we encountered were helpful, friendly and efficient and were always on hand to sort us a table (family of 5) even if that meant moving place settings etc.

The main bar on the ground floor has plenty of seating, including outside, and there is live music in there every evening, plus plenty of tables if you want to play cards with family whilst listening.

There are two pools, one indoor and one outdoor. Neither are huge but we enjoyed both of them and if you pick the right time they are very quiet. Plenty of loungers, especially if you take the stairs up from the pool area, there is a huge roof terrace which we never saw full. Always loungers free, and not too much sunbed hogging either, not many towels appearing at dawn and staying on unused loungers like you get in a lot of resorts. We were able to get loungers whatever time of day we went up there, even early afternoon.

The hotel is in the Lido area which is lovely, There are plenty of bars and restaurants around if you want a change from the hotel, and you can walk to a shopping centre easily and several small supermarkets. You can walk into Funchal Old Town in about 40 mins or you can get the complementary bus from the hotel (book at reception the night before) which drops off and picks up by the Ronaldo museum in the marina. If you walk the opposite direction out of the hotel there is a really cool tunnel through the rock that comes out at a stony beach with several bars, and I believe you can walk all the way around to Camara des Lobos if you fancy a longer walk.

We had a fantastic stay, admittedly there are limits to the drinks included on all inclusive but we found plenty that we were happy to drink and didn't buy anything extra. The hotel is clean (we enjoyed watching the robot vacuum :-D ), comfortable, well situated and all the staff we encountered were friendly and helpful, I would stay here again.