Alvor Boardwalk Tours and Activities

Right by the beach, staff was friendly and apartment hotel was ideal

Queues for everything here. Checking took nearly an hour, queues for sun beds, for food (I’ll get to the food), for drinks (you can get only 2 drinks per person, so a family of 4 need 2 members to go to the bar). Always running out of drinks around the pool. The food was terrible. I stayed for 6 days and ate in the hotel only 4 times. The worst cuts of “meat” used which resulted in mainly bones. Oh and the “kebab hut” took 30 mins to queue up for and 1 per person. So again, if the family want to eat from a snack bar they all need to queue for half an hour together. Really not what you expect from a hotel billing themselves as 4 star. Staff didn’t want to help with anything. Bars closed at 11, but last orders at 10.30 and lights turned off and kicked out at 11. You can then head to the piano bar, but must pay for the same drinks that you were just consuming in the beach bar. Additionally a security guy (PSG logo on T-shirt) would come around the pool each day at 4pm and aggressively “police” what was happening: people messing about in the pool, throwing a ball in the pool (yes! A ball!), sitting on the side of the pool drinking. All things that people were allowed to do for the 7 hours that not a single staff member was there, but at 4pm suddenly there were rules. The staff were predominantly not Portuguese and there was a huge language barrier. Don’t stay here

The hotel was lovely and clean, it also discourages partying groups which did not happen as there were several groups of young guys from all different countries who partied hard at the pool and in the night. Rooms were great sized but could do with a bit of soundproofing due to hearing everything from side rooms and upstairs rooms. Staff were all amazing and we had a favourite desk guy who helped us book our 'a la carte' restaurants. The buffet if lovely but food lying in the open and lots of men used fingers instead of tongs provided so that put me off the food. We also felt there was an issue with a guy panjeep due to getting a table inside as he would always put us outside which looked lovely but you had people smoking which put us off our food too. The a la carte thing offered is a set menu for each restuarant and best one was the Italian terrazzo for variety. The grill house meat was gorgeous too. We had an amazing time and noticed you only get 2 drinks per meal so hopefully you dont get too thirsty when eating as it is really salty food. We had a Thai massage down at the beach which was phenomenal and one of the best massages I have ever had. So dont pay for one in the hotels. So get your a la carte booked at the reception desk when the books open and you can also book a shuttle from hotel to hotel. It was an amazing experience and we felt very safe also as everywhere gated with access from your card. Each hotel is different and beautiful in its own right. Enjoy.