Pestana Porto Santo

I travelled to the Pestana on a BB basis with Hotelsbooked, and I must say that I did get value for money. Checking into the hotel could have been organised better, but the allocated room was better than expected with views of the pools. Like most guests I was surprised that there was only the buffet restuarant open, but as explained by the guest relations manager, this was because I had arrived in low season, and nothing really started until the 1st june. Still the breakfast fare was plentiful and hot. I couldn't really... more

Ignore any bad reviews about this resort because they are simply not true. The only things that let the resort down for us was that the check in was painful and took over an hour (reception was disorganised) and the food is expensive and not that great. Beyond that it is a fantastic 5 star resort right on a fabulous beach. The rooms are clean and a good size. The resort has good facilities including a great spa, tennis, beautiful pools with the whole area being well maintained with lovely plants. It is like being on a tropical island... more

On reading the reviews made prior to my vacation I was very close to cancelling my holiday too! Sooo glad we didnt! Hotel standard was good, rooms very comfortable and stylish, every where was clean and facilities were good. I had a treatment at the Spa and would recommend the massage! Treatments not cheap, but worth the indulgence. Yes would agree with previous reviews that the hotel food was not to the standard you would expect of a 5* resort, which was a shame, breakfast was excellent, but we also took to visiting local... more

My girlfriend and myself stayed at the pestana for a week at the end of may. As this is a brand new hotel we did expect a few problems to arise. Thankfully, very few did. the facilities are excellent, the beach by the hotel is clean, and at the moment not too busy, although expect that to change with new hotels planning on openening in the next few years. Back to the hotel, the room and bathroom were clean, spacious, and very well finished. Breakfast (buffet) was ample, and of good mostly good quality. dinner, at the A la carte... more

Nothing like the below review of “All the expense, none of the value”. The rooms are large with everything you could want or need. Food: The breakfast was good, lots of choices. The dinner really was awful and expensive for a buffet and we were advised the restaurants in the hotel were equally as bad. But why would you want to eat in the hotel when there are plenty of local restaurants serving fish, steak etc etc 5 minutes down the road by taxi. Drinks were also expensive but of good quality. I always found the... more

This 5 star Hotel opened in April 2008 and is located next to a stunning beach about 30 minutes walk from the nearest small town. It took an hour to check in - just not enough staff at reception. The rooms are in a series of one and two storey villas and are definitely 5 star standard with safe, mini bar, flat screen TV etc. All the villas are dotted around several large, irregular shaped luxury pools with beautiful detail (little bridges and lovely stonework) . The more expensive rooms face the pools, the others face inland. <br... more

Having read one of the reviews on the Pestana Porto Santo, I was somewhat concerned about what we were going to find on arrival. Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised. The rooms are excellent and, if like us, you are fortunate enough to be allocated a pool view, you should have no complaints. We would not, however, have liked an inland view as you could either be facing the building site next door, straight onto the main road or onto the hotel's main thoroughfare. Housekeeping is, however, slow, and rooms are often not made up until... more

OK - well my experience of the '5 star' Pestana wasn't quite as good as the gushing review from April 2008 - presumably written by the hotel's PR agency because it certainly wasn't written by someonewho stayed at the same place we stayed in. To avoid being too harsh - first the good stuff: The rooms are clean, well equipped and of a good standard. The location is good - right next to a beach which is perhaps 2 miles log and had perhaps 200 people on it at any one time - only 50 or so near the hotel itself - the sand and water were warm and... more

This hotel is the best hotel I have stayed in and I am very well travelled. The rooms were amazing, large and very luxurious. The spa treatments were great and very reasonably priced. The food was beautifully presented and the selection was unbelievable. The staff were very attentive and helpful and nothing was a problem to them. The location was amazing, the beach is gorgeous and very quiet. It was the equivalent of being on a Caribbean Island with the advantage of a short flight. This place is really a hidden gem, the village... more

Currently in the middle of its ‘soft opening ‘period, so one must make allowances. Quite a lot of allowances. The phone/voicemail system doesn’t work properly; the staff are (mostly)eager to please but occasionally clueless – one advised me to access my voicemail by computer, for example. The Pestana, like other resorts, also seems to take liberties in terms of its star rating. If this were a five-star hotel, not resort, you would expect bathrobes and CD players in the rooms, and named brand toiletries in the bathroom – none of... more