These are apartments are great value for money, really clean, excellent cooking facilities, the indoor pool is great when the weather isn't the best, I found all the staff really polite and helpful, although the entertainment was a bit poor, but we were out of season so expected it, I woul definitely go again. The only let down was no launderette on site, which I prefer with two young children, other that the facilities are excellent

I travelled with my 2 kids aged 6 and 9 Aug 2011. We had a very large suite on the 2nd floor, large open plan kitchen and lounge with dining area. Very large balcony with 2 sun loungers and table with 4 chairs with an amazing view overlooking the resort and sea. The rooms were spotless and new, finished to a high standard. We wish our London flat was a spacious.

The kids pool was incredible with 2 water shoots (1 completely covered, the other open), 3 slides and various walk through sprays. We had much fun. The other pools were very nice too, we bought a lilo and happily floated around. There was also a kids club but we were too busy for that. Previous guests have left pool toys/floats so you can borrow them too.

We took an expensive excursion out to Slide and Splash but to be honest we would have been happier staying at the hotel kids pool as most of the rides where a bit too adventurous for my young kids and they only ending up repeating one or two of the rides. I think Slide and Splash is brilliant for kids aged 10 and up or for hotels without such a brilliant kids pool.

The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast and dinner buffet experience on the terrace with a very good selection of continental/Mediterranean style food. There were kids options but my kids preferred the more varied adults menu and frequently went up for more.

There is a nice pool side bar/cafe and another restaurant serving lovely lunches and dinners which was quite reasonable. There is a convenient minimart too on the resort where I bought stock for our packed lunches to the beach.

We really enjoyed the quaint beach with rock alcoves adjacent to our hotel and even enjoyed the walk to and from the beach (kids had back packs to help carry their buckets and spades etc). Takes about 10/12 mins from Alfagar II round the Alfagar I resort with spectacular views. The stairs down the cliff are spaced out so wasn't too taxing.

There was nightly kids entertainment and after music usually played for a while which I enjoyed listening to from my balcony whilst the kids slept.

Good local shopping areas a short taxi ride or bus hop away. The old town is worth a visit too. Very helpful staff indeed and good local international doctors too.

All in all we were very happy customers.

MJ from London

We loved it here! If wanting a 2bed, make sure you ask for one of the corner ones with the wrap around balconies. Traffic noise was annoying, but it was probably only becuse it is so quiet where we live that it was more noticeable to us. Also the sliding doors to the main bedroom were very noisy, so after getting our baby to sleep of an evening, we then had to spend another 5 minutes sliding the doors ever so slowly back so they didnt wake her up with the noise! great play areas for kids, very clean and fabulous views. The cleaner let herself into our apartment one afternoon tho, and when saw we were there, let herself back out which i thought was very strange. It had already been cleaned and she had no cleaning things with her. all in all, we really enjoyed it here. So much so we came back the following week for another stay!

I stayed at the alfagar ll in September with my Mum and sister. We arrived after a horrendously uncomfortable flight and a hot, delayed coach journey and stepped into the cool and beautifully clean reception area of the hotel. The reception staff were fantastic - so friendly and professional with superb English. We had to wait until the room had been fully cleaned which was a little bit annoying as we were tired and ratty after our journey, but the receptionists were so lovely we couldn't be cross especially as we were given our all inclusive bands which meant we could go and explore and get a drink to cool ourselves down. We left our cases in a specially assigned room and wandered down to the fantastic pool area, where we sat in the fabulous Portuguese sunshine and people watched until our room was ready - BLISS! Back up to reception and collected our cases and key then up in the lift to our room. Upon opening the door we were all bowled over by the size of the apartment, the highest level of cleanliness and the SPACE! It was a truly magnificent. It had one big bedroom with a huge wardrobe, a big double bed and side tables, a gorgeous armchair and the best thing of all, sliding doors opening out on to a stupendous balcony complete with sunloungers, an airer fixed to the wall so you could dry your cossies and towels, and a table and chairs.In the second room, was a sofa bed, which was very comfortable according to my Mum. There was a tv and a comfy armchair, but we didn't spend much time in the apartment as we were all inclusive, although if you were self-catering, the kitchen was beautiful and well equipped.There is a great little supermarket on the complex, and a little one over the road from the hotel which was not as good. The view from our balcony was just beautiful. We had an amazing view of the pool and complex and the sea. I could cry thinking about it again actually, I loved it so much!
Because we were all inclusive, we were entitled to 3 meals a day, in the restaurant downstairs, and also unlimited drinks - alcoholic and soft drinks and pool snacks. We thought the food was lovely although it did get a bit monotonous by the end of the week, but that is because there was only one restaurant. I have been on other all inclusive holidays where you have several restaurants serving different cuisines from other countries. My favourite meal was breakfast, fruit and juices, cereals, cooked breakfasts ( try the omlettes, they are delicious! ) lovely soft bread rolls, danish pastries, yoghurts, you name it, it was there. If you tire of the food at the hotel, you have Albufeira town 5 mins away in a taxi or on the shuttle bus. We visited it, but I wasn't impressed with the new bit of town. It was full of horrible English sports bars with noisy English football fans getting lagered up - horrible. In fairness, people told us that the old town was prettier, but my sister was unable to walk very far, so we headed back to our lovely Alfagar ll, and enjoyed our gorgeous surroundings.
The pool was so pretty, big and very clean, but be warned, it is the COLDEST pool I have swum in! It went through to your bones brrrr! But, after basking in that lovely sunshine, even the biggest of cowards ( me! ) got in,however, there is also an indoor pool, which you can get to by the steps up into the main reception area. This is a lovely temperature, and you can emerge from this one without frostbite!The pool bar was just the right size and served snacks ( hot and cold ) and drinks and icecreams, and also had 2 very clean toilets behind it. There is also an amazing children's pool next to the pool bar with slides, water fountain and other water toys. In the week we were there, we never saw one badly behaved child, which was incredible but wonderful! I am a nursery nurse so don't want to spend my precious holiday being annoyed by naughty kids, but the children there were brilliant.
The top reasons why you should visit Alfagar ll are:1. The gorgeous staff, from cleaners to bar and restaurant staff, receptionists and chefs were all so approachable and polite.2. The cleanliness of the entire place, was absolutely immaculate. You always saw one of the lovely cleaning ladies in their smart canary coloured uniforms sweeping, washing or polishing - fantastic.3. The food was good, but if you like your puddings, make sure you get to the restaurant early or they all go pretty fast. 4. The pool and the rest of the complex was really fantastic, with the foliage round the pool well tended.There were always plenty of sunbeds, which were hosed down, as was the paving around the pool every morning.5. Another aspect of the hotel we liked, was that the bar was not open past about 12.30, so you didn't get drunks making a nuisance of themselves into the early hours. It was a real family hotel with a good range of ages and nationalities, mainly Brits and Dutch. 6. The beach is close by. Apparently, there are steps down to it from some point in the complex, but my sister could not have managed the steps. We walked there once, about a 10 minute walk. Beautiful beach, big crashing waves, and lovely sand, very breezy but exhilerating - fabulous!
There are only a couple of minor gripes about the hotel being: 1. The evening entertainment was dire usually. It would be much better to play some nice chill out music, and let people enjoy their drinks and chat rather than have a couple of men parading some parrots and snakes around for 10 minutes and then charge the parents for one of their photos! The karaoke lady was quite good, even though most people didn't want to get up and sing! Bring on the cafe del mar music and enjoy the fantastic starlit sky with the beautifully lit pool complete with its changing coloured lights as the backdrop..... magical! 2. The only other gripe we had was that the all inclusive people like us, got served really inferior alcohol. Watery non- branded spirits and horrible cheap vino. I am assuming this is because some people have abused it in the past and have been greedy and drank all day. Again, we never saw that happen, even with the Brits who were there!
I loved every minute of our time at Alfagar ll, and wouldn't hesitate to go back. We were so sad that we had to leave, and I thank all the lovely staff there for making it one of the best holidays I have been on.