Hotel Auramar Albufeira

just back from quick break to auramar beach resort - hardly what u would class as a resort. location is good with fab views of ocean but food the worst we've ever tasted -gave up after 1 breakfast.felt so sorry for all those on ful board or even worse all inclusive. rooms very shabby but exceptionaly clean. entertainment reminiscent of butlins in the 60's. but if prepared to use it as a base you could do worse .

Just returned from a week holiday at the Auramar and would firstly like to comment on previous reviews stating that the staff were rude and incompetant - this is completely untrue as we found all members of staff (inc maids) welcoming and extremely friendly!

As for the hotel itself, our room was clean and had everything we required and we were both impressed with the everyday maid service.

We stayed at the Aurumar on a Bed & Breakfast basis and athough the breakfast had a wide selection of choice I wouldn't encourage people to stay there on an All Inclusive basis as you may find food repetetive. Lunch consisted of a wide variety of buffet food (hot and cold) and we found it to be really enjoyable and at a low cost.

Overall - Thoroughly enjoyed our stay and have plans to visit again soon! Would recommend it to anyone looking for a great hotel in a great location (overlooking the beach) with a great number of bars all within a 10 minute walking distance and a just a short taxi journey into Albufeira Old Town.

RECOMMEND TO ALL!!

After reading many reviews and long choices over which hotel we wanted to spend our summer holiday in, my boyfriend and i chose the Auramar.

We were all inclusive, and stayed for 2 weeks. We kinda expected to eat out once or twice in the second week, to have a break from the buffet but i really wouldnt recommend staying here all inclusive atall.

The food selection is not varied enough with fish and burgers as the dailly lunch and evening selections. Fish bones? small children?...

After day 4 i craved for something different. chicken... lamb... anything!! (though the fish was nice at times....)

The location is excellent, and we find our rooms basic, but clean.

Private portugese Weddenings take place in a seperate part of the hotel on saturdays and can get congested at the enterance lobby.

The pool Bar also closes before the sun goes down, and the nearest bar is a hundred steps away! Not a plesant walk when you want to sunbath and relax.

The entertainment staff were useless.

Not to mention the 30 mins of foklore or fado each evening.

The English children did not look entertained by the kids club atall, and drawing into our second week, each entertainment show from the previous week was repeating itself!! This really does need a shake up!

We had a lovely holiday though, The weather greeeaaat and visited some beautiful places in the algrave and great day time excursions. But as an all inclusive family holiday ?- hotel based, i wouldnt recommend this hotel to many. The entertainment fnished at 10pm, starts at 9.30 and everybody just plays cards after that.

A cheap - somewhere to put your head at night, good location, this hotel would be ideal. Deffenitly.

But an entertained family holiday, where you book all inclusive and dont wish to spend much more on food and drink?... not the best of the 3star hotels i'd say.

We spent 2 weeks at The Auramar from July 19th to August 2nd in 2005.The hotel is 3-star yet without doubt is well worth it's rating, benifiting from a superb location and fine food with friendly and helpful staff.

It is located around a 10 minute walk from "The Strip" yet is in a quiet location which means that you benifit from not having the noise of the music and from the revellers leaving the bars and clubs when you do finally decide to get some sleep.

If you prefer "Old Town", then a 5-minute taxi ride will cost less than 5-euros each way.

The hotel is just a short but steepish walk away from one of Albufeira's many beautiful beaches and the walk down to the hotel pool is also on the steep side so bear this in mind if you have any walking difficulties.

The pool is large enough to cater for all and sunbeds are plentiful with parasols close to most of them. The view from the pool over the sea is lovely and you get the benifit of the cooling sea-breezes also.

There is also an indoor pool if you go in the cooler times of the year.

Our room consisted of twin beds and a single as there was 3 of us sharing and included a fridge, TV and a balcony although I would give it a black mark for a lack of drawer space which made it a little cramped clothes-wise in the wardrobes.

We upgraded to all-inclusive and this was well worth the 200-euros per person as we could eat a HOT lunch by the pool and have unlimited drinks and ice-creams throughout the day.

The breakfasts were NOT English but then we were not IN England and there was still plenty of fresh fruit,toast, etc...to make it a good start to the day.

Dinner was excellent with a terrific variety of good, hot food to choose from.Sweets were also a-plenty, with at least SIX different varieties to choose from each night.The A-I option also meant drinks were included with the meal if required (A bottle of house-wine every night for us !)

To top it all, you have stunning views out over the Atlantic Ocean while you eat.

During the day, the Hotel's own entertainment team will try to get people to play Volleyball, Tennis,....etc but they don't try to make you feel like you HAVE to join in......just play if you wish.

Does this hotel have ANY faults ???........well YES it does.

I have not read ANY review which tells you this but the first language here is GERMAN !! The entertainments team will announce everything in German 1st, then English second and ALL the evening entertainment is in GERMAN ONLY which can be a problem when they are doing a comedy show !!

Therefore, if you have a dislike of a predominantly German hotel, I would say don't go here but if you can get over that hurdle then by all means GO HERE as it is a great hotel.

Also, on one night of our stay, they had a fish night for dinner which meant that we HAD to go out to eat as my son does not eat fish. I doubt that they would EVER have had a "Meat-only" night so I do think that there should have been at least 1 alternative for those of us who had pre-paid for our meals.

To sum up then, My marks-out-of-ten would be as follows......

LOCATION.......10

ROOM........... 8

STAFF.......... 9

CLEANLINESS....10

FOOD........... 9

ENTERTAINMENT.. 3



........And I would say STAY HERE if you want to go to Albufeira.

My hubbie, teenage daughter and I stayed here for two weeks and I have to confirm that it is a well laid out hotel with wonderful views and access to a beautiful beach. Our room was basic but clean and benefited from air conditioning. We enjoyed our stay and spent most our time at the pool, sunbathing and relaxing. It is located in a quiet cul de sac making it ideal if you want to be away from the noisier holiday crowds. The hotel is also convenient to "The Strip" for a change of scenery day or night time, and a short complimentary bus ride to the centre of Albufeira. Albufeira has all but lost its original fishing village charm with too many apartment blocks and trashy gift shops. Also beware of the proliferate "time share muggers" - they are persistent in the town centre to the extent that you have to be rude to get rid of them, they are the worst I have ever experienced in any Med resort.

The hotel offers satisfactory buffet food, good bar service and pool bar service but the boredom factor does kick in and although we were on al all inclusive package we dined at a nearby restaurant for most of the second week. The complex has one major drawback - it is not a good location for anyone who has difficulty walking up/down steps or steep areas. So many things - pool; beach; rooms; bar/restaurant are all accessible only by steps. Lifts to the apartment blocks are sometimes quite a walk form the main areas.

But if you are abled bodied and looking for a good relaxing, value for money hotel, this is for you.

Read great reviews before heading off to Portugal and was looking forward to a good hotel. Dark and unwelcoming reception. Room was tiny and lacked all kinds of decor. Felt like we were in a cheap hostal. Bathroom was filthy and bath had not been cleaned with bleach since it was placed there! Asked reception for a room change, and after a long and tearful debate, they moved us to a better room. However, I found a couple of cockroaches in our room that week and informed reception, but they totally ignored us. So, we had to sleep with balcony door shut as my fear of finding bugs on my face in the middle of the night scared me to death! Kitchenette was never cleared up, towels were usually missing and we needed to ask for extra twice. Let's not even go to the food! - we paid for half board, but 3 times that week we had to eat out! The choice was monotonous and food was not that good! The so called 'spa' was unusable and smelly and dirty.

If you are used to modern 3 stars in spain, then go to a 4 star in portugal! They are 10 years behind the rest of europe! One good thing is it's location - it is 2 minutes walk from the Strip and near the centre. Sorry for let down, but i wish Id read a review like this one before i went on holiday! Ciao -x-

Just returned from this fantastic hotel, room was big, air con was a godsend, food (breakfast) was fine, pool clean, lots of sunbathing space,right on top of the beach and a short walk from nightlife. The only one thing that lets this hotel down is that the staff were not very friendly or helpful - in fact apart from the maids the reception staff were quite rude. Had a great holiday though and would definitely return.

I spent the 1st week of April at the Auramar. The rooms were clean and comfortable and we were top floor so also quiet.The food was okay; breakfast was good as was supper, but lunch was a little disappointing.I was on an all inclusive basis and the local wine and spirits were fine.Service was generally friendly.Evening entertainment was o.k and lasts about an hour,mainly Portuguese in origin.There were a lot of older people staying but also some families with children.Do not get excited about the gym,especially if use a good one at home,as the one at the Auramar is very small and very basic.

All in all I thing you must accept that if you pay for 3 star accomodation then that is what you get.This is an honest three star hotel in a lovely position and I would use it again.

Just arrived back from the Auramar on an all inclusive basis and found it to be a really good hotel, the rooms were clean and well furnished not what I was expecting at all after reading previous reviews. We were in block 1 on the 5th floor it was the highest point of the hotel so we had superb views over the complex and out to sea. The food was also very good and plenty of it, lots of salad stuff and always something for the fussiest of eaters, they always had a fish,meat and vegetarian dish as well as the mandatory burgers for the kids. The bread was always fresh and was absolutely delicious. The bar staff we found to be brilliant and always up for a laugh, especially Johnny and Paulo. Previous reviews seemed critical of the bar staff, as we were there as friends on a golfing holiday without our wives, we spent most of our time sitting perched at the bar. Trust me you have no idea how busy these guys can be. Out of site of the bar they are also making coffee and tea for guests as well as washing all the glasses, sometimes only two of them trying to serve 2 or 300 people at night when the entertainment is on. The outdoor pool is big however at the time of year was freezing, the indoor pool is heated and is always quite warm and is much bigger than it appears in the brochure. We used the Auramar as a base for a golfing holiday and found it to be brilliant, we just had our breakfast came up to reception and they phoned a taxi for us. Within 5 minutes it was at the door, 18 euros to Vilamoura, around £13 for 4 an absolute bargain. Reception staff also let us use the locked luggage store at reception for our clubs so that we didnt need to take them upstairs to the room every day. There were a lot of senior citizens at the hotel when we were there. A few Canadians who really are wonderful people always friendly and spoke to us. And hundreds of Spanish who were not so wonderful or so friendly, and seemed to have missed totally the British concept of queueing for anything, VERY VERY PUSHY. The only complaint I had of the hotel was that at night when the entertainment was on was that there was nowhere near enough seats to go around so if you want a seat,eat early. It also gets extremely warm in reception at night when the entertainment is on. Entertainment is overall good, pub singer till about 9 o clock then a show lasting about an hour, parrot show, magician,dancers etc usual fare, enjoyable.There also seems to be a big kids club at the Auramar which they seem to be quite security conscious about. It seems to have keypad entry system and you have to wear a band if you are a parent no band no entry. A good idea in this day and age, it also has seperate pool although it was not open when we were there it seemed to be well maintained. All in all we had a good holiday and would consider going back to the Auramar whether as a base for golf or for a family holiday.

I've spent last weekend on this hotel.

overall it's nice, because there are a lot of facilities for you to use that almost looks like a SPA hotel. All facilities are price included, there are 2 great exterior pools and one interior pool with warm water really nice for this time of year. The beach is small but very closy. the city nearby and the bars at night are really near too, which makes this hotel very good located. Nice to spend a few days relaxing and go out at night to the great bars and discos of Albufeira.