Pestana Blue Alvor Beach ALL INCLUSIVE

“Another fantastic holiday”

We had another brilliant stay at the Pestana Blue Alvor Beach. The location of the hotel is really good, short five minute walk to the beach, coming back uphill, so does take a little longer! Board or beach (very clean) walk, you are in Alvor in 25-30 minutes. Alvor itself is lovely just to walk… more

We had another brilliant stay at the Pestana Blue Alvor Beach. The location of the hotel is really good, short five minute walk to the beach, coming back uphill, so does take a little longer! Board or beach (very clean) walk, you are in Alvor in 25-30 minutes. Alvor itself is lovely just to walk around, have an ice cream, coffee or something to eat. We thoroughly recommend Paderia Alvor - good coffee and some lovely, traditional Portuguese cakes. The hotel is lovely and we had an absolutely fantastic room with the most wonderful view, a large balcony and we felt thoroughly spoiled. This was our fifth visit to the hotel and we were welcomed as friends rather than guests, very much appreciated! We always look forward to seeing the latest changes to the hotel. Carlos, the general manager, and his team are continuing working towards improving the hotel and we have been witness to this for the last three years. This time it was the underground pool, stream room and sauna. If you are expecting a spa hotel, yes, you will be disappointed. However, if you view the development as another addition to the facilities, it is good. I enjoyed the water exercise class very much (thank you Cai and colleague). Yes, it would be good if there were more changing rooms but considering what space was available, a marvellous job has been done. Over the last three years we have seen an improved flooring around the pool, small tables for sunlounger areas; drinks station at the adults-only pool, refurbished restaurant chairs, a youth-only club, tortoises and pygmy goats in the area in front of the hotel (we are hoping alpacas will be next on the list :o) ), refurbished entertainment area, a baby room with a diverse range of baby foods allowing for most allergies/ intolerances, improved labelling of food, a robot floor cleaner..... We are very much looking forward to seeing the next developments. The two bars are always busy and staff work very hard. Spirits are all high street brands and the wines in the restaurants are bottled and of good quality. This time it was disappointing to see people taking bottles of wine to their table rather than just walking up to one of the "wine stations" for top ups. On many occasions we saw bottles not having been emptied and this will be thrown away, Unnecessary waste and certainly does not help with keeping costs down! The selection at the snack station was good, Emmanuel certainly made sure it was well stocked. Yes, maybe it was a bit "very much the same" but to do something totally different every day, you are almost running a second restaurant rather than a snackbar. We certainly found enough "snacky bits" to keep us happy. We have always found a wide variety of dishes in the restaurant. Again, some may be more to your taste than others, maybe not every single dish is equally successful but we have always had very lovely meals. The big seafood dishes were delicious, and I must complement Sula (?) the meat/fish station chef. When he was on duty you could not fault whatever he cooked, fish, meat it was all tender, tasty and "just right; thank you! We found staff at the restaurant all very friendly and helpful - happy to answer any questions and being very kind to me on my journey to learn Portuguese! It was great to see Vitor again, always ready to assist, the queijinhos were lovely by the way. We visited Luigi twice, Bernardo and his team took good care of us. there was the usual selection of starters and desserts and the risottos were lovely. The reception/ customer service team were very helpful, Juliana took us on the pygmy goat guided tour (we couldn't find them!). Giovana, Mariana, Christina - they were all so kind and helpful. Thank you. We reported the sink in our bathroom not running away very quickly. The maintenance team resolved the problem within a couple of hours. We also feel we want to mention Rosaria, our chambermaid, she was like a whirlwind and so efficient, but above all - very helpful and kind. Again, during this visit we were impressed with the way the staff are trying to keep the hotel environment (grass areas, the tennis and football courts, minigolf area) as tidy as possible. Every morning we would see Carlos or his two assistant managers doing a round of the grounds and collecting bits of debris left behind. In the evening all the sun loungers were "tidied up" and during the day you saw staff collecting empty glasses, plates etc. What we did notice this time was, it is not only human guests that appreciate the infinity pool. From late afternoon the seagulls would be arriving, although when the pool was used they would disappear straight away. For us the Pestana is just perfect, the hotel is good but it is the staff that make the difference. We very much look forward to seeing you all again, and if not mentioned by name, accept our apologies (memory is not as good as it was!). Thank you Carlos, and your team, for your hard work and you continued quest to improve. We very much appreciate the lovely time we had with all of you. Jonna and Bill Ate Logo.

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