Vila Sol Spa & Golf Resort - Vilamoura, Portugal 

This review does NOT concern the hotel, merely the golf course at Vila Sol. Essentially a lovely place of course but our group of 12 had a very bad experience there last week so it's only fair to warn other potential golf groups considering a visit. 12 of us played the Vilamoura courses last week and had a week long competition going. First of all, they had no buggies. Unbelievable in this day and age. Apparently they were all out on the course as there was a practice round in progress for The Bobby Robson Classic. Luckily, 2 buggies came in and we grabbed them but the others were unlucky. Pace of play was not quick but also certainly not slow. After 9 holes a rather stroppy ranger stopped the second group and essentially banned them from continuing on the main course. This would have been OK...up to a point...but the other 2 fourballs were allowed to continue on the main course, without the ranger telling us!!! This meant that our competition that day was null and void. This 4 ball were all experienced golfers with me playing for 25 years and handicap 11 so no real hackers. The most important part of this was that we were lied to by the ranger who told us that the trip organiser had agreed to the swap. Needless to say, we found out later that he hadn't. When we were shunted onto the secondary course we realised that we were the only ones on it and the condition was well below what we expected. Nevertheless we finished our round....before the 3rd group finished on the main course and 2 holes ahead of the following group showing that we were not playing slowly! I am not trying to put anyone of the course but it's essential that bad experiences are aired. I organise golf holidays, 2 a year with large groups and we will never return there! The other Vilamoura courses, all of them, could not be faulted so it's a shame that the week's golf was spoilt by an over zealous ranger.

Just back from a week's stay and the previous reviewer's comments about where all the guests go at night made me laugh...I thought exactly the same thing! On the plus side, the staff were all lovely, without exception, and nothing was too much trouble. The gardens are beautiful. We had a garden "suite" which consisted of a bedroom with little terrace, and a sitting room, where we also had a rollaway bed for my son. Trouble was the sitting room was completely dark, even with the lights on. It had a window but it faced the covered courtyard entrance, so no daylight could enter! It was ok as an extra place to sleep but horribly depressing otherwise. The air conditioning was quite funny too....wind from it (even on low setting) blew directly onto my son's face as he slept.... Ice Station Zebra came to mind although I've never seen the film!! Overall the room was ok but definately not 5 star. I would expect sumptuous from a 5 star and this was not sumptuous. Bathroom was quite big and pretty good though. The bed was very big, dominating the room, but as mentioned by someone else, it was SOOO hard....think my hips are bruised from lying on it! Thr Pines restaurant was lovely for breakfast and dinner. Staff again were faultless and the food was pretty good, if fairly limited choices available for dinner. (They said they would run nightly buffets soon...I think they meant when the hotel got a bit busier!). It was indeed very quiet and there was hardly anyone in the bar either in the evenings. The restaurant has a lovely terrace though, which is great for dinner....and you hardly notice how few people there are!. The pool was fine, but you have to hand in a token for a towel and collect the token back when you leave the pool area....one towel each...not very 5 star! Pool bar/ restaurant was fine, but very limited service round pool itself. Can't comment on the golf, but we used one of the 2 tennis courts on site which was fine. Also used shuttle bus to the Marina during the day which ran as planned. Had planned to have a treatment in the spa, but as that involved a shuttle bus trip to the entrance of the resort, I couldn't be bothered! So yes, pleasant but not wow. Probably could do better for 202 euros per night (that was with Marriott Rewards 20% discount ). Would we go back.?.....probably not