The hotel is nice, though not that quiet as it was during the easter holidays ( alot of toddlers). You can walk all the way to the beach (15 mins walk). The experience was good compared to the price paid. But We left an item in the hotel, so we got in touch with their customer service to arrange the item to be shipped back to France. We paid for the shipping, and we are fine with that. But since then no news of the Item, and it's been 6 months. Despite regularly inquiring about it no one from the Hotel personally took the matter in his/her own hand and try to solve this issue.

I booked this hotel as it was 5 star & seemed to have a lot of facilities plus close to beach. It's in the middle of a golf course/nature reserve so it is very relaxing if you want to get away from it all but as this was out of season only the buffet 25 euro per head not including drinks was open or you had to get room service so it was a good job we had hired a car. The room was very clean & well equipped with comfy bed although I requested a double & it was two singles when we arrived that could not be changed to a double till the next day & even when it was made into a double you could still end up in the gap. I was aware the spa had an additional charge before we went which is quite unusual as normally hotel guests get free use of spa area's in 5 star hotels. It's 15 Euro plus you have to wear a swim hat in the pool so had to buy one a 5 Euro so in total 20 Euro & once in there actually it was quite small & some things were closed so that was disappointing. The breakfast is fantastic such a huge choice. The beach is a mile away & although we were told there was a train when we went to get it they had stopped running it & just had a guy in a taxi who couldn't fit everyone in the car so we had to wait a long time. The beach is lovely & nice restaurant there too.
Outdoor pools were nice & plenty of sun loungers.

We were notified we were being moved to the Salgados Palace less that a week before departure having booked Sao Rafael Atlantico. The reason given was a conference at the SR Atlantico. We were a little surprised, therefore, to find we had been moved to the Algarve Conference Centre associated hotel and during our stay there were three conferences on.
This notwithstanding, it also meant pool area was empty during the day, the hotel was excellent, of same style and service as SR Atlantico. Staff could not have been more helpful and breakfasts were excellent. We were on a B&B basis as we had planned our evening itinery of dining.
This was thrown into disarray with change and our one issue is this hotel is in a complex of resort hotels and suites with no local bars or restaurants. One was quite near at about a10 minute walk, but rest were a good 20 minutes away.
Unfortunately the courtesy bus stopped operating on our 2nd day, so this stopped the ride down to Gale Ouest beach that cut out half the walk. The hotel did run us down in a car on one occassion when asked.

Both the a la carte restaurant and rooftop bar were also closed. Hotel obviously changing from holiday mode to conference mode.

Overall excellent hotel let down by lack of local character in neighbouring area.