Vasco Da Gama Hotel

This hotel is perfectly situated on a beautiful beach, which has a very nice restaurant fronting the beach. The hotel was spotlessly clean and we had maid service every day. We found the staff to be pleasant and obliging. Our room was very spacious and cleverly laid out to accommodate my husband and myself, both in our 60s, and our 6 year old granddaughter, who declared everything to be perfect! We would have preferred more variety with the evening entertainment and for the dining tables to be laid before arrival. The hot food was OK and there was a good selection of salads and deserts. We liked the area very much and were able to explore adjoining areas by hiring a car. Overall it was good value for money.

We have just returned from a family holiday to the Vasco and had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday. The Hotel is ideally situated on the beach with beautiful gardens and although we didn't get to try out the pool itself, the pool area was lovely. There's a bar and cafe beside the pool which is very reasonable. Also a fish restaurant/bar which belongs to the Hotel, right on the beach. The Hotel isn't modern looking from the exterior but it certainly had charm. The piano bar is smart but the entertainment left a bit too be desired. The Hotel staff were very friendly and the food, buffet style was plentiful but only o.k. The resort was relatively quiet, only a handful of shops and bars/restaurants but very tidy. Only a couple of miles from the border with Spain, although we didn't make it, easily accessible.

Stayed at this very comfortable hotel, my husband and myself have enjoyed two holidays. We found the hotel to be very clean and staff very friendly and helpful. Our rooms on both occassions were excellent and very spacious, the situation is superb and we shall certainly return. The food was OK although the evening meals were a bit repetetive but plenty of it. I would certainly recommend this hotel for the location and Montegordo is a lovely town and there are plenty of bars and resturants to visit.

The Vasco da Gama is situated a mere 4km from the Spanish border and 40km from the bustling and ever depressing Faro Airport. So what is wrong with the hotel?? In short the thing that stands out head and shoulders above any other complaint is its lack of commitment to its guests in fulfilling any of the basic requirements a holidaymaker expects! The reception staff are very rude, abrupt, incapable of answering guests queries and do their best to make you feel as if you’ve been given a bed for the night out of pity rather than due to the fact you’ve actually paid for it! The buffet style food is bland, repetitive, dull, essentially uninspiring and usually cold! Buffet area staff seem incapable of laying a table up for its guests upon their arrival to the buffet hall or to take an order for a drink. Instead you are expected to sit around like lemons waiting to get noticed, or to set up your tables yourselves - however, the second you find yourself finishing off a course, the plate is whipped away from you. On more than 3 occasions this occurred leaving me not only frustrated but also suffering from indigestion. The weekly menu rarely changes during the week and unless you are a fan of chips, undercooked fatty meat or enjoy choking on the bones that are frequently left amongst the food then you may find yourself going hungry. A 3-course meal is offered although the choice of food is minimal and ready amounts of warm, hot food seem frequently limited. The desserts are non existent and unless your prepared to queue from 6.30pm (amazingly many do, and the sight is like watching a WWII rations queue!!) then you have no hope of actually getting much other than the 100 portions of the same fatty looking dessert that seemed to sit there all week looking unloved or ice cream!! Admittedly this ice cream was rather delicious, but a choice would have been appreciated. The poolside bar food is even worse and for the princely sum of 5 euros you can purchase a BLT that has the smallest portion of bacon ive ever seen, not only was this bit of bacon full of bone which nearly broke my tooth but it subsequently gave me food poisoning!! The week I had the pleasure of staying here the freezing cold pool (no heaters here!) was out of action while the plants 2 metres away were seemingly being re-potted. Again in fairness a free 1.50-euro drink was offered with our meal in the evening, by now the excitement of the hotels generosity was getting too much! Entertainment was non-existent and embarrassing poor. The week consisted of 2 appearances of a Manuel type performer who accordion was to bless us for an hour, a yawn breaking piano player who sang nothing more modern than Chris de Burgh! A frankly shocking magician whose inability to grab a pigeon from his inside pocket discreetly was another highlight and were it not for the 25% discount between 8-9pm and chance to meet the hotels ONLY polite staff (the bar staff!) we would have avoided like the plague. The rooms were extremely basic in style, beds were uncomfy, pillows were as thin as After Eight mints and the sea view requested magically turned into a noisy main road view that seemed to pick up every noise made till 6am daily. Air conditioning broke twice in a week, plugs suddenly stopped working, and TV remote died. Although most of this was fixed the remote stayed out of order for the majority of the week - you really cant beat having to get out of bed onto the cold tiled floor to turn the TV off at night - Lest us not forget why we are actually watching telly in the first place (because the hotel entertainment is so poor!) It may sound like ive been harsh to this hotel but I can assure you that if you’re 40 or younger and are planning to visit this hotel then please, please do yourself a favour and give it a miss. It is by far the worst hotel I, or my partner have ever stayed in, in every level of its service - Everything seemed a hassle, and effort from getting a safe key, ordering of breakfast for the early flight return, paying for drinks daily in the buffet room rather than allowing the bill to build up throughout the week, to asking for problems with rooms to be rectified. I would suggest that the Vasco ad Gama takes a visit to ANY of its local competitors where nothing seemed to be too much trouble, whether that be allowing us the use of their indoor pool, the welcome to their bar to sample their excellent DAILY entertainment or the general cleanliness of the place to see how a hotel should be run and how far apart these hotels are from each other. The sad reality of it all though is that the Hotel Vasco da Gama is essentially a nice hotel, ok its a bit old fashioned in style, but beautifully rustic and dressed out in oakwood decor and loungy effect, but that’s not always a bad thing and should appeal to many people, its just the basic bread and butter essentials that the hotel seems to fall flat on its face at! 3 Star hotel this isn't-2 Star maybe??

Having just got back from a stay at the above hotel yesterday (05/03/05) I would like to say we enjoyed the area and found the hotel hosts excellent, Polly made our holiday. Having said that we did not like the hotel at all, the staff on the reception were fair to awfull depending on whom you got, the rooms on the top floor were very dated with very shabby decor and no home comforts. I was suprised to say the least when I observed a griddle chef serving raw chicken and cooked chicken using the same Tongue's! We shall definitly be going back to the area but not to the Vasco gama Hotel. Ps. we had to wait three hours to get in to our room on arrival.

My wife son and i, have just got back from the vasco de gama and would advise anyone under the age of 65 years to relocate to another resort. We arrived on Sat 12th feb 05, booked into our rooms and the first thing that hits you is the smell..It smells of old people and disinfectant. It was horrid. We unpacked into a lovely sea view room, then went to explore the hotel. Wherever we went their were old people. Their was no kids menue or kids club. The pool had been dug up and their was Nothing to do in the resort for children whatsoever. I would never go their again even if it was free......If you have children please,please check with your travel agent first.. We went through First Choice (LAST CHOICE from now on) and we were told lies. Happy holidays and i hope this has helped

Having booked "blind" we arrived in Monte Gordo with some trepidation. We'd read some reviews of this hotel which were not too endearing. We arrived at night and saw the hotel in it's illuminated glory and it's appearance is far brighter than the other hotels in this part of town. Vasco Da Gama still lives in the sixties and if you are looking for abstract luxury you are not going to find it here. What you will find is that the hotel and it's furnishings and decor are very eccentric and in contrast to the bright sunlight the hotel is very dark. That said, the rooms are comfortable and functional and, considering you will spend most of your time by the pool, on the beach or out on the town you don't really require much more but a room with a sea view is an absolute must. The staff are extremely friendly and accomodating and once you break the ice with them they will happily chinwag away with you...it's as if they don't wish to intrude on your privacy and wait for you to invite them into conversation...a very sixties type of behaviour. The food is average buffet style but quite varied and they do have some very good wines at very inexpensive prices. The beach is less than fifty yards away and the hotel has private access to this and it's own pool. Typically we paid less than half price for everything in Monte Gordo compared to the major resorts of Villamoura and Albafuera. Enjoyable stay and we'll definitely go back at some stage in the future.

We read a couple of bad reviews before going to Vasco da Gama Hotel which made us a little apprehensive about it. It turned out to be a great holiday. We were a party of eight. Aged 11 to 68. Hotel right on the beach - great for kids. Food was good for a three star - there was plenty of choice. Staff friendly. Room service was fine. Hotel clean. Monte Gordo a good base to hire car and explore. If you are looking for a noisy, wild time - it's the wrong place to go - try Magalluf, Majorca instead.

The resort is great BUT... The Vasco De Gama is overated as an hotel. The bar was dismal, the restaurant was pretty awful. We gave up trying to eat there. The food was buffet style and caused stomach problems! I resented paying for water with the few meals that we had there, and after paying for half board too! The service was off hand. We went for Christmas and New Year so expected a lot of retired people. The 'we' is 50 year old with a 20 year old daughter. We were both depressed! Having someone playing the piano is not entertainment! The reps did their level best though! The resort is really friendly and quite lively, which is just as well! I'd go back to Monte Gordo, but not at the Vasca, which is in fact, the best situated hotel.... but how many times can you enjoy a balcony view? Only when your feeling so ill from the food that you don't want to venture out in my experience. We've seen quite a few sunsets and sunrises over the last two weeks! Looking forward to an apartment so that I can BOIL bottled water! The Vasco needs to be regraded and have facilites for kettles at least. It may have been Liz Taylors choice in the '60's but I bet she didn't get a tepid buffet for both hot and cold food! Send Lawrence Llewllyn Bowen and Handy Andy in quickly! They need it. Good job that the "Host" rep was good or I wouldn't be here to review it! I'd have been off that balcony so fast that......aaagghh!

(September/October 2003)Not a bad hotel but could do with a bit of updating (there was a sign outside saying that they'd got hold of some money from Europe to do this!) The food was typical buffet fodder - luckily there are a number of restaurants within easy walking distance. Staff were good & location excellent as it's right on the beach although some people were complaining about noise from the road - the general consensus was that it's worth paying the extra for a sea view room to get around this (we were lucky as we were given an apartment which was away from the road. The hotel gardens are pleasant & there are plenty of lounge areas where you can sit if the weather isn't good (although the main bar only opens at 5.00 pm so if you want a drink you have to go to the pool bar!)