Good value hotel

I am a travel agent recently returned from the Paraiso Albufeira. This is not a Hotel for a peaceful relaxing holiday as it caters for all-inclusive guests which in most cases means their lots of kids everywhere. My wife and I went self catering which suits us their are lots of places to eat out and they are not expensive. The Hotel is ideally placed between the Old Town and " The Strip" at Praia de Oura. A visit to the square in the Old Town in the evening is very pleasant. There are Peruvian bands,

puppet shows and fire eaters all performing for your entertainment. Places recommended to eat are Annas, or if you want a top class meal in a small family run restaurant which must be booked in advance try Dom Pedro.

Enjoy!

Nice Big Pool.Shame about the fleet of inflatables.

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.mail me if you want greater details.

Paradise at the paraiso

These new looking apartments are well situated in the middle of Albufeira with a short walk to either old town or the strip. The rooms are spacious, clean and well maintained with satellite tv in the lounge area. A kettle, fridge, oven, coffee maker and microwave are provided for self catering users. Staff were friendly and helpful and the cleaners did an excellent job. Most visitors were families or couples and there was no boisterous noise to keep you awake at night. There is a restaurant, hairdressers, drinks shop, games area and arcade within the establishment as well as a gym, indoor heated pool and spa. Outdoors there are plenty of sun loungers and a large pool. We would definitely recommend staying there and I'm sure there will be plenty of visitors during the upcoming European championships.

Superb Hotel

Excellent Hotel. Stayed from 4th - 18th April, 2004. Took parents as a treat for Golden Wedding Anniversary and I know they will never forget it. Our party ranged in ages from 8yrs old to 75 and the hotel suited all. The rooms were very spacious and spottlessly clean. Equipped with everything you needed. All of the staff were very polite friendly and helpful all of the time. The hotel is also in an excellent location. I have travelled a lot so I know what I am talking about. I really can recommend this hotel and think anyone staying there would agree with me.

Great stay

My wife, myself and our 12 year old daughter have just returned from a weeks stay here. We went all inclusive and found it to be vastly superior than other hotels we have stayed at. We can't fault anything about the hotel or it's staff. The restaurant and bar staff were wonderful. My only criticism is that the nightly entertainment was pretty ropey, and the poor showing from the Thomas Cook reps. We found them conspicuous by their absence. We would certainly go there again.

The best kept secret on the Algarve?

The Paraiso was really excellent for my wife and I. We stayed there for a week over Easter and found the apartment spacious ,very clean and fitted with all mod cons. The hotel itself offers a variety of services (indoor pool, health suite etc etc) but we were more than content to while away our time seated either on our balcony or down on the grassy knoll by the pool. The cooking facilities were excellent and we ate out every evening at the VerdeMinho self service restaurant (tel: 289 514 801 Albuefeira) which was wonderful. It is very popular with the discerning tourists and also with the local Portugese. Your plate is weighed to calculate the price of the meal! The best thing is that you can SEE beforehand what you are going to eat!! - and the prices are VERY reasonable ..i.e. about 5 EUR for a plateful!

Loved it

went for my husbands 50th in june 2003, first room we was allocated was fantastic but overlooked the car park so they gave us another room without any fuss and that was even better, lovely spacious hotel, fab rooms and plenty of outside green area for sunbathing, will definatly go again.

Parasio hotel/apartments

This was our first visit to Portugal and it was a real good experience. We were in Portugal for the first 3 weeks in March 2004 and stayed in Albufeira at the Parasio apartment and fully enjoyed the hotel/apartment and its facilities. Located in the middle of Albufeira strategically located roughly half way between the "strip" and "old Town" tourist locations we found the apartment very clean, well appointed and lots of cooking utensils. Like all beds in Portugal, they were very hard and firm but after a few days, we got accustomed to them and slept OK. The rooms were very clean, the staff most helpfull and the whole place was good value. The town itself was unusually well kept, streets clean and almost no beggers were encountered. Prices are still lower but slowly rising. The TV provided roughly 12 channels with only one in english, but so what!. The resturenst in town are good value from McDonalds to higher class food readily available and well served. The booze is most cheap and we came back to Canada to "dry-out". All the Portugese persons we met were good nautred and seemed to like the tourists and showed no negative attitudes. We found most tourists were either Canadian (40%) or Britsh (40%) plus some Germans and then others. REnted a car for 2 weeks and found driving was fairley easy and roads were in great repair. Disappointed that we found no referbished Roman ruins but found lots of Portugese ruins, castles or older houses. The beaches were great and clean and not too many perple trying to sell knockoffs at the beach locations (3). Lots of space and sun and sand in March and hope to again return to Portugal and mix in more with the locals. Found that we could try local food at the fire station location as the firemen (volunteers) cook and sell lunch and supper in the fire hall to raise money for more fire equipment. Good basic food and talk was found there. The gypsey market in town was the best one and the largest in the area within roughly 50 KM. I would recommend Albufeira to anyone wanting a safe and clean holiday in Portugal.

We loved it

Hotel Paraiso was excellent, 1 bedroom apartments really spacious, offering excellent self catering facilities such as fitted kitchen with microwave and toaster, plenty of storage space in bedrooms fitted wardrobes and drawers. 50m from the nearest supermarket, restaurants and shops. Close to beach. Leisure facilities at the hotel were good too, with a health/beauty club, indoor and outdoor pool, tennis courts, restaurant, shops and the "glam nightclub" Overall we really enjoyed the comfort of the aparthotel and our stay in friendly albufeira, we would definatley reccomend a visit to the Hotel Paraiso and while you there take a short taxi ride (5 euro) to Eddy's Bar in Praia D'Oura for a friendly atmosphere.

It was okay

The hotel was fine with friendly staff. Rooms were good and clean and the swimming pool was nice. NOt much fun is you are an English speaking TV lover as of the 30 or so channels, there were only 2 English news channels!!!