Nossa Senhora do Desterro Convent Tours and Activities

The property was beautiful, beautiful scenery. Majority of staff interactions was positive but it was obvious they were short staffed. We made a few requests and we had to ask a few times to get these. We don’t think it’s the staffs fault that there were these issues, these were due to insufficient staffing by the proprietors. Restaurants were overpriced for the food available. We didn’t feel it was of British 5 star standards.

Stayed here in August with my husband and 6 year old for 12 nights. The rooms are modern, clean and beds very comfortable. The pool was the highlight, it's huge, with 2 smaller kids pools. Plenty of sun loungers and nice fresh towels every day - so no need to bring any. The breakfast was fantastic! We paid for the buffet one evening which was very expensive and I wasn't impressed with the food at all. The Italian restaurant was nice but overpriced. The hotel is located next to the beach which is great but we discovered all of the sun loungers had reserved signs on them so we couldn't stay long with no shade. There really isn't much around the hotel at all, we ended up paying quite a bit to go into albuferia in the evenings. Overall we loved the hotel itself but wouldn't go back due to the location and very overpriced food and drinks.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Grand Muthu, and it’s somewhere we would come back to. However, it’s important to know what to expect. We would be coming back for the atmosphere, but essentially nothing else. Positives: - The pool was the biggest highlight, it was large enough that even when it was packed there was plenty of space. (Just make sure to grab a spot before 9am) It was also very clean. - Proximity to the beach was great, we were able to end our days with a beach walk, which had beautiful views. - Excellent air conditioning. - The location was great. New town was a quick walk, old town was a quick taxi as well as the Albufeira Marina. - Looked better than surrounding hotels. Negatives - This hotel shows its age, a lot of damage and not updated spaces. While it was reasonably cleaned, it still felt old. - Housekeeping was okay, we came back to a messily made bed, or only one towel instead of two. We ended up buying our own soap because even when requested it was not replaced. - We did see several cockroaches both outside and inside the hotel. As well as lots of ants inside our room. - The absolute worst thing was the food. The aquabar had decent food, but the listed partner restaurants were horrible. A lot seemed like microwaved or store bought packaged food. We did enjoy ourselves but we would not get the food package again, and our expectations would be to relax and enjoy the beautiful pool / beach as well as explore the nearby towns more.