We chose Alvor for our first visit to Portugal and booked this hotel. The hotel is in a great location by the beach, which is what we wanted. There’s a lift to the beach but we used the stairs, a short walk down. The views from the hotel were fantastic and the communal areas of the hotel are fabulous. Breakfast was good, with a wide selection of choice. The breakfast staff are very attentive - definitely 5* when it comes to breakfast. However, the overall maintenance of the hotel isn’t 5*, the A/C doesn’t work and the rooms clearly need a bit of TLC to warrant the star rating it claims to hold. Overall our stay was great but the facilities didn’t equate to the cost. The staff do an excellent job but are let down by poor investment into the hotel.

We had Superior ocean front view room 538 - we had a complimentary bottle of wine, dessert and nice written card for our anniversary. The parking lot was the best and free right in front of the hotel, fast elevators, lots of English speaking tv channels, wonderful Oceanside view, there was an additional elevator that went clear down to the beach, easy walk to the gorgeous beach. A 5 minute walk to the TripAdvisor travelers choice restaurant with a boardwalk. An orange nightlight in bathroom, many lights to light up the room, very quiet. And in between Faro and Lagos. Nice wood floors in the room, balcony is lovely with nice furniture and very large.
Negative- not a 5 star hotel, 3 star in my opinion, the bed is horrible, like sleeping on bed springs, the pillows were not comfortable either. The shower is basically a trickle of water out of a handheld small shower head, not plush towels,old hotel, a/c didn’t work, thermostat set at coldest temperature and it wasn’t cool and didn’t blow out, complained after 2 nights and they fixed it but it certainly was not a great air conditioner. There is a small refrigerator in the room and the temperature was set at the coldest and wasn’t cold. We wanted ice, said they were sending up, 1-1/2 hours later we called and it’s €5 for room service or you can go to bar yourself and get free ice. Our first night we planned to eat at their restaurant but it was closed and only buffet was open. Huge buffet of not much!!! Very little meat selection, fish, beef cheeks. Chicken legs, sausage, chicken heart kebabs, razor clam stew. We got nestea and 1 glass of wine. The check was €104!!! It wasn’t worth that, the amazing restaurant on the beach was €84. We had free breakfast with our room and again a huge breakfast buffet but not much to pick from in our opinion. They do make pretty good omelets.