Vila Gale Cerro Alagoa - Albufeira, Portugal 

Not for teenagers
Posted: Thu, Jul 24 2008
My partner and I stayed at this hotel with our 4 teenage children (age 12-16) after booking with travel agent and reading the rave reviews. We were not dissappointed in the quality of the hotel , the beautiful pool and sea views. However.... if you want company and poolside entertainment for teenagers forget it ! Background music was played for 6 days in a row, the same CD over and over. This hotel was certainly superior in style but lacked personality. Night time entertainment was a wee guy on a keyboard. Couples and families with small children seemed to be the predominant guests here, as well as Germans. The indoor pool was pictured beautifully and looked enticing but remember to bring your trendy swimming cap or you wont get in. We got up around 8.30 to ensure we had sunbeds together. The breakfast had a great variety of bread , fruit and hot stuff. The site of the hotel was great with a 5 minute downhill walk to the old town. The pavements can be slippy so flat heels are better. The strip is a straight road along and takes 20 minutes to walk to Linekers Bar ( bit dodgy inside) or 4 euros in a taxi. Fantastic cake shop , very reasonable pricewise,next door to hotel and McDonalds straight across the road. Glad we had each other for company, we had a great holiday overall.

Pure Bliss
Posted: Thu, Jul 24 2008
My boyfriend and I stayed in this hotel for a week in June and it was fab! The hotel was very modern and welcoming. The rooms were of a good size, with comfortable beds and plenty of storage space. we also had a balcony which was hot pretty much all the time. We stayed on a bed and breakfast basis and found there to be plenty of choice for everyone. The pool was lovely and felt quite safe, I'm only just over 5ft but could touch the bottom at any part of the pool. We always got a sunbed and didn't come down til after 9am most mornings. We ate out everyday and would recommend the sardines to anyone - they are amazing. As we were in between both the old and new town, we spent time in both. The new town is more for drinking, but we did have nice meals at El Rancho & Chilli. The local lager is also very nice! n the old town the food was lovely wherever we ate. I would recommend trying a stone steak - which is where you cook your steak yourselves on a sizzling stone.. lovely! A trip to the zoomarine is also a good day out. We also visited quaterio market, which is basically a tacky gypsy market - the only good thing was that the coach stopped in Villarmora on the way back! It was my 1st time to Portugal and my boyfriend hadn't been there since he was a child, and we loved it so much we're going back in September!

lovely hotel, excellent location
Posted: Wed, Jul 23 2008
I have just returned from a 1 weeks stay at this hotel with my family and boyfriend and i was very impressed. Upon arrival the hotel was better than expected, the rooms were very spacious and modern, and we all had pool and sea view rooms. The hotel is only a 5 minute walk to the old town which is a great mix of bars and restaurants, we found ourselves a little bar called 'The Beer Corner' which had an acoustic singer on most nights and the owner was very freindly and welcoming. Overall a relaxing and very enjoyable holiday.