Paraiso de Albufeira Apartments

Where do I start? First of all the transfer from Airport to Aparthotel Paraiso de Albufeira was trouble free with several Thomas Cook reps on hand to direct & advise. Checking at hotel was smooth & trouble free again with reps on hand throughout.
The self-catering 1 bedroom apartment was spotless. Aircon was a godsend. Babies cot was spotless. The pool was fantastic, clean & cold. The only draw back is the 3 diving boards, which are now out of bounds. Thomas Cooks entertainers where forever telling people to "Get Down from there" & in some cases frog marching the culprits to their parents & giving everyone a ticking off.
There were many signs & barriers but that didn’t stop them. The Thomas Cook entertainers were first class. 14 hours a day of first class entertainment. Whatever they are paid it’s not enough. There was also a reps desk at reception manned throughout the day by 1 or 2 reps. Food at the pool bar was junk, junk & more junk but the restaurant "Eva" was world class. Other bars food within the hotel was also spot on. A pint of local lager was 3 euro. Cheaper elsewhere. The strip was o.k. and the old town (3.90 in a taxi) was lovely. I cannot thank Thomas Cook enough for what was a fantastic family holiday for myself, my wife & 18-month baby. Four stars not enough.

When we booked this holiday the travel agent could not praise it enough, "every one they know who booked had no complaints", "first class 4 star hotel". How could we miss this opportunity of this great deal.
Our party consisted of myself, my husband and our 15 month old son. We booked a studio apt (only thing available) All Inclusive. First impressions were good, the hotel looks very impressive from outside and the reception area was good. First impressions of our room were bad, the room stunk of stale smoke (we are non smokers).
My husband had to blitz the room of dangerous items of furniture before my son could be let loose. The room was nice enough, bathroom clean and modern, kitchen well equipped. The travel cot was ok too. Our bed didn’t look too impressive and turned out to be less than impressive after our first night, it was a sofa bed with a pull out extra bed which you had to open the legs to get it to the same level (took a while to figure that one out). It was extremely uncomfortable.
Facilities were good, pool was nice and sunbathing area good, was a bit off putting as was extremely busy and pool didn’t look inviting when absolutely jammed packed but after 3 days of visiting the beach each morning (not too long a walk and you can catch the train from near the modela supermarket there and back) we decided to give it a try and turned out nice, sunbathing area was grassed so safe enough for our son. Nice shaded play area too.
Meals weren’t so good. Breakfast ok, nice pastries and cooked breakfasts. Lunches not so good. Evening meals ok, just depends how fussy an eater you are. The snack bar was good but they wouldn’t allow us to take a high chair there, which we thought was mean. The evening meal time was from 7 pm which we thought ridiculously late especially as hotel was designed for families with kids. Our son was too tired by that time to eat. Ice cream was good and drinks selection fine, cocktails were 1/2 price for all inclusive too.
Overall the hotel was nice, our room wasn’t, and maybe a different choice of room would have made a big difference. Nice location, nice facilities but we wouldn’t class it as 4 star at all. Maybe 3 star.

My family (2 adults, 2 children and one infant) stayed for two weeks at the Paraiso (Paradise) Hotel in April 2005. In total out holiday cost £2250, all-inclusive through Thomas Cook and, in summary, we can safely say that this is the best value holiday we have ever had. Added to this was some first class entertainment by the T Cook team, but more of that later - I have summarised below some of the more interesting hotel facts.
Entertainment - At the very top of the list because the T Cook team kept us all entertained every day and night for the full two weeks. Given that it was only April (winter season), there were daily activities round the pool (quiz/pool games/golf/volleyball/etc) and for at least 4 hours each evening. The evening entertainment was excellent, comprising a mix of kids stuff, competitions, cabaret, theme dance nights, singing, pantomime, comedy and TV quiz shows. Well done to Matthew and the gang.......... Note that the hotel recently appointed a Portuguese entertainment manager was is looking to reduce the English entertainment and replace this with more Portuguese speaking/singing acts - from the sample he presented to us, this would clearly be a ‘very’ poor decision and readers should check what will be provided when they visit this hotel.
Accommodation - Advertised as 4 star, but to us, the hotel appears to have been rushed during construction, using cheap products (carpets, kitchen, bathroom and ceramics) and poorly finished (a little rough around ‘all’ the edges). However, the quality was no less than we expected, our studio apartment was great. The other services offered by the hotel (maid, waiter, reception etc) were between 4-5 stars – well done to all the staff
Food - If, like me, you are willing to try a variety of foods, then this hotel offers a wide range. If you like purely English stew/dumplings and chips style dishes, you may be disappointed. Personally, we ate something different at every lunch and evening buffet and loved every bit of it. Being all-inclusive, we ate regularly, even from the posh-menu on several nights (all inclusive get 50% off these menu prices - so if you stick to the all-inclusive wine, starters, deserts and kids meals, you adults can have a personally prepared king prawn, piri-piri or steak at very little extra cost)
Drink - What can I say – loads of free ones for all-inclusive and if you want the flash cocktails and more expensive drinks, all-inclusive guests get 50% off.
All-inclusive - We were treated no differently by staff than those who were paying for meals and drinks - a real testament to the attitude of hotel and staff.
Outside Pool - Massive and ccccccold, although once you got in, it does warmed up 10ft in the deepest end. Inside Pool - Great for kids when the sun got too hot outside.
Time of Year – April – Well the weather was great, with 11 days of glorious sunshine and two partly cloudy days - what more can I say......... The hotel was around half full, so there was no dash to reserve sun beds and ‘no’ queues in the bars or restaurants (I can imagine this being a problem in high season)
Criticism - Only one, and this was enough for me to reduce my overall score from 10 to 8. The hotel is advertised as family and couples, and this is the type of guests we saw every day. However on day 10 of our break, 200 young adults arrived, all of whom worked for a Dutch entertainment firm. They were being treated by their employer at the hotel on an all-inclusive basis, so spent all their time round the pool and bars disrupting the guests and T. Cook entertainment. The hotel ‘did’ take measures to keep this group away from other hotel guests during dinner. However it is advertised as a family/couples hotel and the management clearly decided that the revenue this group could generate was to great an opportunity. Shame.
In summary, this is an excellent hotel/entertainment, at an amazing price, let down only by a poor management decision.

Albufeira is dead this time of year - it rained everyday - so thank goodness for a decent hotel. To call it 4* is a little generous but it was well maintained and very spacious. The rooms have a nice balcony - worth a few quid extra for the pool view.
There’s a shop downstairs and with all the facilities we were mostly happy with our choice of hotel - ignore the people who moaned about everything - I think they must be persistent wingers and probably got a discount on their next holiday for doing so!!! Again if your after luxury - don’t come here - but for a very good all round experience - I would definitely stay in this hotel again.
The apartments are very spacious, clean (well before we moved in!) and not bad at the price. It’s also fairly quiet as it’s a walk away from the strip - apart from the hotel being built next door - but I'm sure it will be finished by summer and once again I would recommend to anyone.

I went away for my 22nd birthday with my boyfriend, it was the best holiday either of us had ever been on!!!
The hotel was fantastic certainly no complaints, received a complimentary bottle of wine and basket of fruit from the hotel staff because it was my birthday which was really nice and a pleasant surprise!
Hotel is located a 10 min walk from the old town and the new town. many hills and a good walk from the beach so wouldn’t recommend to people with young children but a fab place to go if there’s just the two of you, plenty of places to eat out and beaches are amazing....will definitely be going back!!!

We have just come back from our holiday (9/9 - 23/9 2004), which was on an all inclusive basis.
After reading, some of the reviews on the accommodation we were a little apprehensive about travelling to this accommodation.
We are a family of two adults and two children ages 11 and 4 and were worried that the food and entertainment would be a problem as we have kids who are very difficult to please to say the least!!
When we arrived at the accommodation, we were pleasantly surprised. The rooms were spacious, clean and overall to a very high standard.
The food which a number of people found to be a problem presented no problems whatsoever to my two very hard to please children and both my husband and I found to be of a very high standard.
The entertainment, which again seemed to present problems to others was to a very high standard so much so that my children were very upset at having to leave.
This is the first time that we have tried an all inclusive holiday and based on our experience of this holiday would highly recommend this to anyone. The JMC entertainment reps were worth their weight in gold.
The pool bar during the day was also to a very high standard as this let our children be fed and watered as and when required.
We never once experienced the queues that previous reports made which made this an enjoyable experience for my husband who could eat and drink to his hearts content.
We would as a family recommend this hotel to anyone with or without children as the standard was excellent and catered for all ages and we are already booking up for next year. IT WAS FAB!

I’ve just come back from the Paraiso de Albufeira last week and I think the hotel was wonderful.
My family and me stayed in a 1 bedroom apartment, there were 2 adults and 3 children. The master bedroom is as big as the sitting room there is also a king size bed in the room. The 3 kids slept in the sitting room 2 on 2 different sofas and the other slept on the bed, which pulled out under one of the sofas. There was a Kitchen although we did go All Inclusive.
The food was fab breakfast, lunch and dinner. The snack bar was fab to, there were loads to choose from Pizza, burgers, chips, onion ring, Baguettes and loads more.
The pool was brilliant for all the kids the entertainment reps kept the kids entertained nearly all day by playing water basketball and loads of other different stuff. If you wanted to go swimming in the inside pool you must wear a swim cap, don’t buy 1 from the hut outside because there 5euros and the red ones are only 2 euros at the gift shop at the reception.
All the staff were very friendly. The overall rating would have to be 10 because ever thing was just brilliant. When you check in ask which floor your on or you’ll be going up and down in the lifts.
If I was you I would go all inclusive because the food and drink are expensive.

My boyfriend and myself have just returned from 1 week’s holiday at the Paraiso Aparthotel. I was a bit worried before leaving having read some comments that the hotel was not up to 4* and the studio beds were uncomfortable. We stayed in a self-catering studio apartment which was really modern and well looked after. The pull out bed was actually really comfortable!
The little kitchen was brilliant and had an oven, microwave, toaster and coffee maker! Which all looked as though they had never been used. The reason for this is the hefty 100 euros pp deposit for the room you have to pay on arrival that I was a bit annoyed that I hadn’t been warned about before hand. Take a credit card, as you don’t want them taking your holiday money! Other activities also require deposits such as tennis etc.
Apart from that the place was lovely and ideally situated in-between the lovely old town and the livelier strip. The beach was beautiful and the walk was quite nice. I wish I’d had a bit longer there!

After reading reviews of the Paraiso before we left for our holiday, I was a bit apprehensive as some were good and some were awful.
We booked all inclusive and nearly changed to self catering before we went, due to the bad reviews but I am so glad that we didn’t. The food was really good and we did not have to queue once, even though we went in July/August. There were 4 adults, 1 15yr. old, 1 12yr. old and 1 6yr. old in our party. The kids had a fantastic time. We didn’t hear our 6 year old for the whole of the holiday, there was so much for him to do around the pool in the day time and the nightime entertainment wasn’t bad either. The other two were also well entertained. There were a lot of teenagers in the hotel and they had a ball. The entertainment wasn’t brilliant though. The kids disco was ok but it as down in the basement and we would prefer to be outside in the evenings.
All in all, a fabulous holiday enjoyed by every one of us. Although we were all inclusive we had a huge family room with separate bedroom and kitchen facilities, and a lovely large balcony overlooking the pool area. Room was spotless and cleaned every day. Most impressive hotel and worthy of its 4 stars. A bit expensive though if you don’t go all inclusive. All drinks not on the all inclusive list are half price to all inclusive customers so not too bad.

Our Accommodation at Hotel Paraiso de Albufeira was lovely as we had a ground floor apartment overlooking the pool. Even though we had full board we still had use of the kitchen which comes in handy with young children.
The food was not very good for a four star hotel. We found the staff really pleasant especially in the restaurant.
The weather was lovely in May although the outdoor pool was too cold to use which was a real shame as the beach is a good distance away.
I would not recommend Albufeira resort for families with young children as the beach is a good distance away from most of the complexes and quite difficult to get to with a pushchair and a 3 year old tagging along.
Most of the accommodation in Albufeira do not have any views besides other encrouching buildings.
It is a real shame that it is getting so built up and most of the day trips are for adults and a good distance away.