Paraiso de Albufeira Apartments

The hotel was extremely clean and comfortable. They’re always maids cleaning which was good to see.
The "All Inclusive" food was good as well, with as much fruit and veg as you could eat. The rooms were large, airy and comfortable. A great hotel.

stayed in this aparthotel May 2004 booked 2 month prior to going and got a very good deal. When booking we knew that we would be staying in a studio but only found out on arrival that all studios are looking out over the front of the hotel( car park and main road)Found the studio and the hotel itself, overall excellent and maintained to a high standard. Hotel situated between the old town and the strip. Depending what type of holiday you are looking for you will find it close by, the strip is noisy and brash, while the old town is more sedate.
There are a lot of good restaurants, especially in the old town, but if you are hankering for BRITISH FOOD! try the Chinese restaurant TIM TIM above McDonald’s not far from the hotel. Never tried eating in the hotel so can’t comment but found the entertainment basic and the bar prices very expensive, this hotel can be booked all inclusive so that may be an option.

Remove the guests and staff and what you have is a large, new and comfortable hotel filled with facilities. In that regard it earns its four stars .Add the staff and guests and what you have is a noisy, stressful environment.

The size of the hotel and the number of guests with either Self catering ,half board, full board or bed and breakfast results in the Staff moving you along like cattle at one moment and acting like border crossing guards the next to check your eligibility for meals. There is plenty of entertainment in the evenings (If you like Michael Jackson impersonators mining on stage). Every single sound in the corridors is amplified, from the people returning from the evening’s entertainment to screaming shouting children. I have a habit on holiday of catching Forty winks after the day spent by the pool before I venture out in the evening, unfortunately for me the cleaners cleaned my room at four pm regardless of requests made to clean it earlier.

This is the first time I’ve stayed in an apartment while on holiday and I did like the convenience Of being able to prepare snacks in my room ,shame the fridge motor had a habit Of starting Up at random times Of the night .Try sleeping four feet from a fridge to see what I mean. In conclusion this was a nice looking hotel with a lot of facilities and nice rooms, but it was noisy , with staff who were more suited to work in a shop than a four star hotel.

Just returned from this hotel 29.4.04 and had a lovely holiday. We stayed in a one bed roomed apartment, which was exceptionally well equipped with full sized oven and two burner electric grill and microwave. The kitchen was fully stocked with every utensil you could need. It was just as well as when we tried the restaurant we found it didn’t live up to the rest of the hotel. It was very clean but the food was bland and unimaginative for a four star hotel. The breakfasts were very greasy and cold. If you go it would be better to either cook yourself or eat out. We were still impressed with the standard of cleanliness and the spaciousness of our apartment. Ask for a sunny balcony facing the pool not the main road.

Have been to the Paraiso for the past two years and am going back again this year.
On each occassion had different rooms one facing the pool and one facing the main road. Both rooms were equally comfortable and very clean and spacious.
Right in the middle of everything it is perfectly situated and has everything you could possibly need no further than 15 minute walk away.
The food was nice and also poolside bar and food was also great. And plenty of restaurants near by
All staff were very friendly especially in the main bar with Luis being a favourite with all of our family. the maids were all very polite and did a good job, also the reception and security were very friendly.
The pool is huge and is also very clean and the entertainment although not everybody's cup of tea kept us entertained.
All in all a fantastic holiday for everyone.

I stayed at the Paraiso with my partner and our three children for one week at the end of May. We found the hotel and accommodation to be generally well kept and clean. We had a ground floor apartment between the pool area and football pitch, which was a great position as the children could play safely outside when we were at the room and we had convenient use of the pool. One drawback to travelling this early in the season was however that the pool was FREEZING and very few people used it. The indoor pool looked nice, but small, and all had to wear swim hats to use it, which were not cheap to buy from the hotel!!
The entertainment was ok, but not really much in the evenings. The daytime activities catered for the All Inclusive guests otherwise wise you had to pay to join in, football 1euro pp, boulles 1e pp etc. Entertainment staff were keen and encouraged all to join in.
HOWEVER.....
The food was awful!!! We made the mistake of choosing to go HB. All meals were served on a canteen style basis....queue up, queue up, queue up. Breakfast was ok, usual selection of fried, cereal, meats, fruits, yoghurts etc which was fine. Lunch was a bad selection of canteen fayre, which failed to include anything the children would eat. I don’t have fussy eaters and I won’t make food an issue when I’m on holiday, but this was ridiculous!!! At the poolside snack bar you could get pizza, chips, burger, hotdog etc...but HB could not use this as a meal option, so we had to pay for the children to eat. Evening meals were no better, again you had to queue up and most people sussed that if you wanted hot food you queued up early hence a long line up the stairs heading towards reception half an hour before the restaurant opened!!! Again, once finally inside nothing to tempt the children ( Brussels sprouts our first night !!!) unless you looked at the A La Carte menu where there was a whole section if you wanted to pay for it. We ordered from this one night and waited an hour for our food. The entire food system was set up for the All Inclusive guests and a lot of them were not happy. Most we spoke to complain that there was nothing for the children. We complained and our last 2 nights they put out pizza and sausages and they went so quickly they were constantly refilling them. We ended up eating out in the evening as there are a selection of restaurants nearby which are very friendly and make a fuss of the children and are far cheaper than eating in the hotel.
We were also dismayed at the hotels disregard for families with young children...There is a very nice bar area next to the reception where most guests gathered in the evening and the children were able mix and watch TV if they wanted to. However halfway through our week they slapped a ban on any children after 9pm and sent all families down to the basement where there was a nightclub. The facilities were dingy and windowless, were not suitable for children and the music was so loud you couldn’t hold a conversation. People were in there with young babies !! When complaints were made we were told basically tough the management has made a decision and you like it or lump it. The bar area was then only used by a handful of more elderly and some childless guests....not good for a hotel that boasts to be ideal for families.

Paul and I were quite disappointed by our holiday. We just hated the unfriendly staff and the daily queuing.
The Strip is brilliant with so much entertainment and availability of essential pleasures. We made so many friends we just could not believe it.
The Old Town was boring with not much that interested us. we only walked there once. It was so far.
The food at the hotel was not so good. Paul is a very finicky eater and he just couldn't find anything he fancied at most meals. I know he is difficult to please but this hotel was just poor.
The room was really nice but the view from our balcony was just not interesting. We didn't like the noisy cars.
Overall a nice place but not the hotel to stay in.

When we arrived we were very happy UNTIL we entered the reception, the receptionist was rude and unmannered. That we could deal with, but then we saw our apartment it was very badly decorated and cockroaches crawling up walls. We immediately changed apartments, the next apartment we entered had a musky, Smokey smell to it and my wife being an asthmatic we had to change quickly. The next one didn’t have the sea view we paid for as an extra supplement. In all we changed our apartments four times and my wife and I were not very happy with the ignorance of the staff while we were changing our them. Even when we got settled, the Strip was awful, there was not one polite person and don’t get me started on the old town it was very old and dirty we were not impressed at all and everywhere was too far away from the apartments, we must of paid £50 altogether on taxis. All in all we had a lousy holiday and we couldn’t wait to get home.