Pestana Delfim Hotel

We have just returned from 11 nights at the Pestana Delfim Hotel, Alvor, Portugal. We booked through Thomson - half board - cost just over £1200 for both my husband and myself. The flight was quite cramped, and we hadn't prebooked seats, so were unable to sit together, but as the flight was only 2 1/2 hours quite bearable. We also didn't bother with food on the flight, we ate at the airport before we departed. The transfer to the hotel was not too bad, it took just over the hour, luckily we were the third drop off. We were on the 7th floor, there are 15 floors in all. Our room was 716 which unfortunately was next to the lift, but didn't cause us to have any sleepless nights, as we left the AC on all night, which covered up any lift noises. For the duration of the stay only two out of the four lifts were working, which proved a little annoying especially at peak times, (breakfast and evening meal). I haven't stayed in a half board hotel for quite some time, and was therefore very impressed by the food on offer. There was all the usual things for breakfast, fresh fruit (well normally only oranges and melon) the rest was tinned, yoghurts, cereal, cooked breakfasts, cheeses and hams, and croissants and pastries etc. The only thing that I didn't like was the tea, so I had to settle for Cappacinno's most mornings. The evening meals were also very nice although, it was a bit "ground hog day" after the fourth night! I was very impressed at how many different ways they cooked potatoes, I never saw any chips on the menu. The deserts, which were laid out on a table titled "Temptation corner" were lovely, although they were not replenished. If you love your puddings, I would suggest that you eat early rather than later. Evening meal is from 7.30 till 9.30pm. The only down side was that drinks were quite expensive in the hotel, a bottle of white wine (very nice & dry) called B.S.E was 15 euros in the hotel restaurant, 10 euros in most restaurants in the village, we actually saw it in a shop for 3.29 euros!! The nicest thing without a doubt was the beach, if you wander down to the beach through the hotel grounds and turn left, there are the nicest little beaches I have ever been on. You do have to be aware of the times of the high tides as it would be quite easy to get cut off from the main beach. One of the other nice things was that you were given a towel card, which meant that you got a clean pool/beach towel every day to use. We ate out three times, we went twice to a restaurant called Casa di Rio, which had a lovely view over the Alvor harbour, very reasonably priced. Fillet steak 13 euros. The other evening, we went to the Marina at Portimao, and ate in a lovely restaurant called Dockside with fantastic views, the staff were truly wonderful, we had fish which was lovely although the vegetables that accompanied it were cold, due to the fact that they filleted the fish at the table. All in all a lovely quaint place, nice hotel, would definately recomend it to you if you're considering Alvor at all.

Hotel food was expensive buffet dinner poor. Only two of the hotel lifts working (been out of action for some time)., long delays to use the lifts, in our case we had on more than one occassion to walk up and down twlve floors to get to our rooms. Hotel apology but no action to repair. Tour Company failed to advise on this problem.

Had a suite in the Delfim for a week at end of May 06. Very good spacious rooms, over looking sea. Kept very clean by friendly maid service. cleaned every day. Ther the good points. In general found staff very surly and unfriendly. General vibe in hotel and resort of Alvor is that they are after ones euro and thats it. You would be lucky to get a grunt out of a taxi driver. my 3 year old was not allowed to use a toilet in a local bar - The Alvor Tavern because we were not clients. No kid facilities in hotel. No childrens pool, no childrens enrtertainment. Shows in evening poor to average played to older age group. (lot of knitting going on) . Breakfast ok , not great just average,. Day 1 Streaky bacan /fried eggs/tomatos Day 2 Fried Ham/ Fried Egg /boiled mushrooms Day 3 see Day 1 Day 4 See Day 2 We stayed on a B&B basis but tried 1 Half board buffet - Very poor, no cooking of fish etc in front of you like in other hotel 2 Al a Carte - fair . 'packet gravy' Would I stay again - No,

My husband and I have just returned from a four day break at the Delfim. We have had the most fantastic break. The hotel was very clean. We had a lovely room on the 8th floor over looking the sea. The food was excellent. Anyone who complains about the food at this hotel will complain no matter where they go. After having two weeks last year at a hotel in Tunisia where loud music was played day and night and just when you were nodding off on your sun lounger some rep would shout 'water polo' the peace and quiet at the Delfim was just what we needed. The restaurant staff were very friendly. The reception staff could do with a bit of training in customer relations- our only complaint! If you plan to go to an hotel in portugal make it the Delfim- you wont be disappointed. Allready planning our next break.

Booked the holiday via Thomas Cook T.V. Just under £700 half board with tax/insurance/transfers/and food on flight for a week. We are 43 and 39 so did not want a mad holiday. We got very good fight times so after a bad year so far we were looking forward to the holiday. After checking the weather for two weeks before we were not expecting to much via the way of a tan. Holiday started well; the taxi was on time, and smooth trip to airport. Flight on time so off to the bar to “fuel up” there was the first shock of the day, it had been a long time since I had flown and the price of the two beers in the airport shocked me. Anyway after a couple of beers we got the fight, this was the first time we had flown via Thomas Cook airways. I have no idea if all fights are as packed as the ones to and from Portugal, but they get every last seat in. Even though the flight was 2 1/2hrs we still got off the flight with pins and needles in our legs and feet. If you ever got to Alvor forget the coach and pre-book or flag down a taxi. I was told about this after I got to the hotel, this was after a 3 1.2hr coach drive! We had given up the will to live by the time we got to the hotel (and we weren’t the last drop!). We were then off loaded (no was else to put the way we were dumped at reception), so were not in the best of moods. It was at this point we got a very nice surprise; we were in a 4star hotel. The reception staff were very helpful, but not over friendly so off to our room on the 11th floor. We had paid extra for the see view and we were so glad we did. Not only was it very nice to wake up to each morning, but it gave us the sun from 8:30 until 13:30’ish each day. This allowed us to sunbathe with shelter from the wind, which was cold and strong for the first 2 days. Thanks to this we got some nice colour! Below our room was the swimming pool (see picture) and there seem to be a large number of unused sun beds. This maybe due to the time of the year, but I could not see anyone waiting for a bed (so no getting up at 7am like some hotels). There was a TV in the room that you could get UK channels on (great for checking on the weather back home) and the room was made up very day. You get to choose if you want the towels changing. If you leave them in the bath they are changed. I could not find fault with the room, it even had free air con! The resort was very quite and again it was due to the time of the year. The few bars that were open were all very welcoming. There is a bar 5 minutes from the hotel near the roundabout. I cannot remember the name (the Calypso, but don’t quote me), but if you ask for the owner, he will if you buy a beer change Euro travellers checks for free! The hotel charged 5%. They do fab food too. They also have Sky sports as do most of the bars. For a fun night try the Venue on the way into the town. They local lads that run it make you very welcome. We had one meal out on our last night at a place called Vagabondo, this is a MUST! The food was the best of the week and the staff wonderful. We also caught the free bus in to Portomou, this was a bit of a let down. If you like shopping for shoes then great, if not give it a miss. The food at the hotel was of a good standard, with plenty of choice. The only thing that let the hotel down was the staff. The cleaners were a good laugh, but the staff at check in and in the dinning room didn’t crack a smile all week! Come on people that’s a big part of the holiday. The beer at the hotel is also very expensive compared with the bars around. Beware the Super Bock it’s strong stuff. The coach back to the flight home had more pickups, but only took 1 3/4hrs? The flight home was also on time, but instead of the film we had coming out we got re-runs of Only fools and horses. The staff on the plane seemed to be more interested in selling scratch cards and headphones than looking after us. All in all would I go back to Alvor? Yes, but later in the year, when the place in fully open. Having said that you would still be able to have a quite holiday as this in no Magaluf! Would I go back to this hotel? Yes, good food, and excellent room make this a winner for me.

This is a typical anonymous, large hotel. The rooms are OK, beds are really comfortable, shower OK. Room service mixed, one morning I got a ragged towel that you wouldn't use to dry the dog with! The 'indoor' swimming pool is a joke, think goldfish bowl and you get the idea. Avoid going half board if you can, the self serve buffet in the evening leaves something to be desired, though the a la carte is good. Buffet breakfast is generally good. There is a good resturant on the beach which is excellent (Atlantic). The worst aspect was the fact that only two of the four lifts worked. This led to long waits and crowded lifts. I'm not normally bothered by crowds, but several times had to get out and walk down 12 flights as I couldn't stand the crush. Christmas evening meal was awful.

We stayed at the Delfilm over the Christmas and it certainly did not live up to four star status. We had to walk down five flights of stairs to breakfast because they were only two lifts working .Also we were invited for coctails on Christmas day which consisted of a half a glass of port or an orange juice.Not my idea of a cocktail.I thought port was a an after dinner drink.We then had to wait nearly two hours to get into to the restaraunt to have our Christmas dinner which consisted of beef which was as tough as old boot and duck which was quite nice i must admit. There wasnt a christmas cracker in sight and I dont think the management made any effort to create a Christmas Gala dinner atmosphere.On the plus side the rooms were spacious and clean and the entertainment wasnt too bad. I certainly would not book Christmas there again

On Christsmas day, we were invited to have cocktails at 6pm, which was only a glass of orange or port. Dinner started at 6.30pm that day, so we made our way to the restaurant only to find a mass of people queuing down the stairs waiting for the doors to open. At 6.30 on the dot, the doors were opened and everybody surged in to claim a table and start helping themselves to the buffet. As this was a very small servery, the pushing and shoving was unbelievable. The food itself was no way anything like a Christmas dinner, more like a 2* offering. The food in the servers were soon empty. We ordered wine for our dinner but was not brought to us until we were almost finished eating. We have never seen anything like this, people were still queuing till 9pm for the meal. This is the worst Christmas we have ever had and would never come here again.

Stayed at the Delfim in August 2005. I would award this hotel one star! The bathrooms are the only redeemeing feature of the whole complex having been recently updated. We stayed at the hotel on a half board basis which was quite possibly the worst decision of our lives. The food was utterly diabolical. It was consistently luke warm and to anyone with any standards, virtually inedible. Leftovers from breakfast would find it's way in to some form of stew by evening. I was served raw chicken on one occasion when dining a la carte and when I pointed this out they simply took the plate away- I received a free glass of their watered down sangria as compensation. I actually lost weight this holiday! The pool itself is salt water and freezing. Even mid August it remained fairly empty. The whirlpool next to the pool was emptied of water but filled with icecream wrappers and cigarette butts. Alvor itself is Chav central so we couldn't even escape to the nearest town. Nearby Praia da Rocha was hell on earth- very commercial and devoid of any Portuguese influence. The whole experience has put us off a return to the Algarve. We hired a car and found everywhere to be over developed. I have since written to both tour operator and hotel group to complain. I received a ten euro voucher to spend on food or drink in any Pestana hotel... lucky me!

We have just come back from Portugal, having stayed in the Delfim for 9 nights. We had a sea view which was excellent. The staff were nice and the hotel was very clean. One of the best hotels we have stayed in anywhere. Alvor is a lovely peaceful and friendly part of the Algarve, and we would highly recommend the resort to people who love Golf, Beaches and generally walking around in nice peaceful area's.