Atismar Hotel

I was 7 days at Atismar Hotel /july 2008/ and must say I would not recommend this place to any of my friends and I am not going to come back here in future. The level of service was very poor, we had almost the same breakfast every morning /without any changes, always exactly the same pork-butcher's meat, the same cheese, not always red ->sometimes green.. tomatoes/. During 7 days we never eated there frutti di mare, only fishes and without bigger choice /one kind of fish for every day:)/. The swimming pool is very small, around pool area there is street and cars, so You can hear and feel sounds typical for city. There are two little lifts /for 11 floors buidling/, getting down if You have room on 9th floor is not easy ;). And one more bad thing - no refrigerator in the room. Last vocations /2007/ I was at great hotel Cala Marsal Club at Mallorca and I found how good it was after I tried Atismar... The only plus I found for Atismar was great beach only 50m away. But whole service and quality of stay was on very low level. I must say I am also suprised about positive comments here, in my eyes this hotel was the worse I ever visited.

We've just stayed for a week at Atismar hotel and had a fantastic time. Despite what some of the older reviews might suggest the food was lovely with a good selection for breakfast - bacon, eggs, fresh fruit, yoghurt, cereal as well as cold meats and bread rolls. The staff we're most friendly and helpful and the hotel was very clean and well presented.
The hotel is about a 20min walk to the marina at Villamoura and just 2 seconds from a fantastic beach! Although the area is quiet there are some nice bars and restaurants and for a more lively night you can taxi into Villamoura for 5 euros. The casino is definitely worth a visit! Its also worth checking out the live music in the bar at the hotel, there was a fantastic guitarist and the bar staff were up singing along adding to the atmosphere. We will definitely be looking to return and would recommend it to anyone.

Myself and a friend stayed at the Atismar for the weekend. The staff was very friendly to us and made our stay very welcoming.
It was my friend's 30th Birthday and they surprised her with House Champers which was extremely kind, free of charge.
The rooms were clean, tidy and the breakfast was fine with me, although other people seem to have found a problem with it.
I was truely happy with the service they provided and would stay there again.

The worst hotel I have ever had the misfortune to stay in.
I was allocated a room already occupied by a couple in bed! I was then re-allocated to a room with what appeared to be fecal matter floating in the toilet, despite a label across the lid informing me that the toilet had been disinfected for my security.
As it was a cold evening, I turned on the reverse aircon to be enveloped in a black cloud of dust and dead insects. The hotel reluctantly sent in a cleaner the following day.
The food was apalling, consisting of ham cheese etc at breakfast, exactly the same every day, no yoghurt or fruit, cheap cereals and often stale bread and rolls.
The evening meals were worse, 6 out of ten were hake fish and if you didnt eat it one night it would apear to arrive again soon coated in batter. Another offering was stewed salmon.
The so called meat choice was very poor often looking dry and hard. The crockery was chipped, the cutlery often dirty and bent out of shape, not surprising after trying to cut the meat.
The pasta choice was just that, boiled pasta usually without any kind of sauce and no other noticeable ingredients.
The hotel was descibed as recently refurbished with radio, direct dial telephone and satelite television. There was no radio in my room.
The direct dial phone did not work and the tv had no remote, the hotel could not supply one that worked despite several attempts.

We found the Hotel Atismar clean and the staff very friendly but the food for the most part was inedible.
In fact one night someone shouted out after trying to cut the Pork rib, I have found a name here it says DUNLOP and the residents laughed at the remark.
The only dinner we enjoyed was the boiled whole potatoes with butter and a few sprouts and you do not get free fruit juice to have with Dinner or water on the table to drink. Salad was offered for dinner instead of cooked food.

Breakfast was continental style but if you wanted toast you had a long wait as the toaster was inadequate to cope with demand.
If you book Transfers from airport to hotel make sure you have booked hotel to airport, as you could miss your flight back home if you have not checked the Transfer. Taxi's are reasonable and we were charged 23 Euros for 4 of us to airport.

As the Atismar hotel is central it would be a good idea to book the hotel for accommodation only and eat out at one of the many restaurants in the area and use the hotel as a base.
On our last day we went to a restaurant and had bacon, egg, sausage, chips, small salad, tomato, and a slice of bread and butter with a large coffee, and for 12 Euros - was worth every penny for 2 meals on large plates.

You are NOT allowed to use Hotel towels at the swimming pool but to use your own towels. If you need a taxi a charge is made for using the telephone.
The Hotel has Internet facilities, but it is very expensive to use, and it is much better to use an Internet cafe which charges 1 Euro for 20 minutes on line.

We just got home from this holiday. I wouldn't ever recommend this hotel to anyone.
The accommodation was fine. The staff were too, but the 'Food' wasn't fit for my dog, good job he wasn't there.
There wasn't any choice at all for breakfast. Cereal, toast, and cold meats (dodgy as to what sort this was) and sliced cheese. Watered down powdered fruit juice, (Oranges were being sold at 5 Kilo's for 1 Euro at roadside stalls).
The cereal was 'cornflakes', some chocolate looking things, and muesli, which ran out and wasn't replaced as they didn't have any!
Evening meal was watery soup of indistinguishable origin although it had a title... then either one meat dish, or one fish dish to choose from. Both cooked abominably, and uneatable. We had boiled potatoes once in the week which made a nice meal if you like them with butter on.
This was the best meal of the week! The rare veg we got was soggy, pasta was tasteless. The chips were awful.
Sweet was something else, if you could get any, as it appeared they acquired so much of the best one which was terrible anyway, then substituted with left-overs from previous day or even the day before!
We did get some days with Melon, but when that ran out after three days, that also wasn't replenished. One word weighs it up...weight-watchers no problems!

Hotel Location was great and easy to find. Right opposite the Wednesday market which was great as we found many great bargain deals. Parking was not a problem no matter what time we were there, day or night.
We were at the Beach front and were given a room on the 11th floor, therefore had a sea view even though there was a smaller building in front, we did not lose the view of the sea. The Beach was a merely 2 minute walk with many great stalls and lots of places to eat.
Break fast was a little boring (but then again, we are a vegetarian couple so we did not expect much there anyway).
The hotel was not too far from N125 main road and A22 Motorway. Both roads stretch from Western Algarve to Eastern Alrgave (towards Spain). N125 was about 5-7 minute drive and A22 was about 15 minute drive, but equally easy to find as sign posts were extremely good.
The hotel had a few supermarkets near by as well as a few smaller mini markets for snacks and food. Many great restaurant too. Right beside the hotel was a great Indian restaurant (Mayur's) and the food was absolutely fantastic. I would always recommend it (particularly for vegetarians) as there was lots of great choices and reasonably priced.
I would also recommend a visit the Lagos & Albuferia. They had some great beaches there too. Albuferia had a fantastic shopping area for tourists and was about 15-20 minute drive. Lagos (pronounced Lagoosh) had great scenery and was about 45-50 minute drive. Lagos also has a nice zoo where animals are roaming freely (most of them anyway). All these places are stretched along the N125 main road. Loule is also great for tourists and also the view from the high hill church. If you plan to go there, a visit to Salir (up the hills is also recommended). There is not much to do, but the view and village built on the extreme high hill-top is worth admiring with great fresh air.
Living in Quarteira is a perfect location as it was almost bang in the middle of Algarve coastline, therefore giving you perfect access in pretty much any direction.
If you plan it well, you could cover most of the Algarve coast within 7 days. We did, and we would certainly do it again.