We checked into the hotel in early December with absolutely no expectations.

After leaving the airport we plugged our ‘trusty’ sat nav into the rental car and set off with absolute confidence and joy of checking into such a wonderful establishment. Unfortunately for us, the sat nav only took us to a generalised area near the hotel and our 40 minute journey turned into an hour and a half. When we left the airport it was very dark and the closer we got to the general area of the hotel the darker it became. In a state of panic we stopped at every hotel that had lights on and prayed that whomever we dealt with had a good understanding of English as our Portuguese was extremely limited (crap in fact).

Luckily, we located another CS chain hotel and the receptionist was kind and provided us with a map to the hotel and drew arrows along the roads we should have followed in the first place and circled the location of our final destination. We jumped back into the rental car and set off with confidence once again. We followed the map to the circled destination only to find a hotel with no lights and absolutely no activity. We left the car approached the door, and upon initial inspection realised that all of the furniture had been stacked and the doors subsequently locked. We began walking towards our car once again when a security guard approached and informed us that this hotel was closed and our hotel was just down the road. He pointed us in the right direction and away we went.

Finally, we reached the CS Sao Rafael ATLANTIC Suite Hotel and pretty much parked our car directly in front of the main doors. From the moment we walked into this spectacular place, we were immediately taken care of. We informed the receptionist of our troubles, he took our car keys and told us to proceed directly to our suite.

Overjoyed that we had made it, we proceeded directly to our room and the weight of all of our troubles immediately fell off of our shoulders. The room was cleaned to an immaculate standard and the bed was calling our name! Tired and hungry, we decided to ring room service to order a quick meal before crashing. The meal arrived and we were in heaven (if you don’t do anything else in this hotel please take my advice and order the chocolate cake).
The next morning we threw the curtains open and the view absolutely took our breath away. Beautiful blue/green sea in the distance with a perfectly manicured garden as far as the eye could see. From this day forward, we had NOTHING to complain about, this was our home for the next three days and what a home it was! Breakfast the next morning offered everything you could possibly wish for and really set us up for the day. We travelled down to the Sao Rafael Beach and were absolutely flabbergasted with what we saw. Perfectly golden sand, gently rolling waves, and my personal favourite, nobody else around! We also discovered that this beach had been rated top 4 in Europe and we could see why without a doubt.

After a day in the winter sun we ventured off to the fabulous on site spa and were greeted with exceptionally polite, knowledgeable staff and fantastic facilities.

Overall, great stay and only have two negatives.

1. Do NOT trust your sat nav. This was no fault of the hotel but the direction from the other chain was not exactly accurate. Take your own map and plan ahead.

2. We worked on our laptop at night on the bed and our external hard drive fell between the two. We know for a fact that it fell between the beds but when we called the hotel upon arrival at home it was mysteriously not found. Check under every crevice before you leave.

3. Pillows - the pillows were horrible! Very thin feathery(ish) things with no support. We had 4 pillows each and it still felt like sleeping on a soft bit of concrete. The beds themselves were super but the pillows really ruin the whole experience. Please CS, replace them!

Definitely recommend, great stay......take your own map, pillow and sweep the room before leaving.

10 day break with my boyfriend July 2011-August 2011. I'll start with the pros then move to the cons:
Pros: Rooms were gorgeous, huge, very comfortable bed, huge pillows, large TV (which never lost signal), large power shower with two showerheads, modern interior. Thoroughly cleaned everyday with fresh towels. The photos on the website of the rooms really do match reality. There are several restaurants in the hotel, including a beach restaurant with fantastic food (not all restaurants are included in the halfboard package but bills are discounted by 30% for those on the halfboard package). The holiday reps (Lauren and Richard) were brilliant, regularly available, and on our first day we were given an in-depth presentation on the excursions that we could attend. As we didn't want to spend 10 days in the hotel, we went on 3 excursions: a day trip to Lisbon, a day trip entitled 'Western Wonders' which took us to some scenic places in the Western side of the Algarve and finally a day trip to the Zoomarine where we swam with dolphins (pricey but worth every cent!). We also went for lunch one day to Guia the home of PiriPiri chicken (Ramirez restaurant - best chicken we'd ever tasted, so we went again the next day!). The hotel is also situated 10 steps away from the Algarve's nicest beach, with beautiful golden sands, but very cold waters. The staff were generally very pleasant, smiley and very attentive. It was my boyfriend's birthday during our stay and we were given a complementary bottle of champagne and two cakes (one in our room and one at dinner) with birthday wishes and his name written on them in icing, which was lovely and very thoughtful. The location is great if you're looking for a quiet getaway like us, but if you're looking for lots of night life and places to go within walking distance this may not be the right hotel for you. There are very thick walls separating each room, so noise was never an issue and there were never any problems with sleeping. The evening entertainment was nice, on most nights there were lovely duo called the north stars (guy played the guitar and girl sang) playing some nice chilled out songs (much better than anything you’d come across on x factor, put it that way).
Cons: On the first day we arrived, for lunch at the poolside restaurant they were serving a bbq buffet (15euro each), the chicken unfortunately was undercooked and as I cut into it blood spilt all over my plate. I informed staff about the chicken and it was taken away, however by that time I was completely put off my food, so when the bill came I said that I wasn’t completely comfortable paying 15euro when all I had eaten was chips and cucumbers. I was expecting this not to be an issue seeing as I was staying at a 5* hotel, but this wasn’t the case, a particular member of staff really huffed and puffed at my request and offered to take 3euro of the bill, which was the price of my drink (when originally he said that drinks came free with the bbq, so that didn’t make sense and annoyed me even more), eventually the manager was called over, who was very nice and apologetic and took my meal off the bill. The seven seas main buffet restaurant (included in the halfboard package) was very ‘samey’ every evening, there was lots on offer, but generally quite bland, although the a la carte Mediterranean restaurant also included in the half board package served lovely food. Lastly, the pool area was somewhat unsatisfactory; the pools look significantly larger in the photos on the website than they are in real life. Also, sunbeds were available and ‘pods’ (round sunbeds with cushioning and a cover, designed for two people but only really fit one), but these were hard to come by. If you’re hoping to wake up after 9am then the chances of getting hold of a sunbed are slim. The hotel did have a ‘no reserving sunbeds’ policy but this was definitely not enforced, a typical couple would grab a pod, two sunbeds and an umbrella, so my boyfriend and I were often forced to go to the beach as there was no where to sunbathe by the pool.

Apart from the few cons, the hotel was generally excellent, I would definitely recommend it.

We stayed here in the first week of October. The weather was unseasonably hot, which was a bonus. But even if it had been cold the holiday would still be fabulous. The food was always good and the staff were super friendly. Special mention goes to Marta on reception. I speak portuguese, but was frustrated when everyone I tried talking to replied in English. However Marta went out of her way to speak portuguese to me, and was encouraging about my efforts. We would recommend a couples massage in the spa, very relaxing. There are two minor points: the pillows are VERY soft - perhaps a choice of firmness would be useful for a good nights sleep. Secondly, the wine list in the restaurant (which is extensive and showcases some excellent Portuguese wines) could benefit from descriptions of the wines to assist choosing a nice bottle. We stayed in a suite, which was superb, but given the good weather we spent very little time using our lounge. If travelling with TUI, we would recommend the Authentic Algarve tour, but the Super Day (which looked the same as the old Super Safari) wasn't as good as we anticipated. Do the Guadiana river cruise instead.

Me and my girlfriend stayed at this wonderful resort in June of 2011. For little over £800 each we got half board, eleven nights and a sea-view room upgrade, excellent value for money and would have been happy to pay plenty more for this experience.

The coach from the airport goes straight to and only to the hotel, upon arrival your bags disappear and you can check in and enjoy your champagne reception at your leisure. When you get to the room, with your bags awaiting you, you are greeted by a very spacious (35m2 in most rooms, 70m2 in the suites) and ultra modern room. It has a fantastic wet room and seperate toilet. The bed was absolutely massive and we had a very comfy sleep in it. Our sea-view room (contrary to some other reviews we read before we went) had an excellent view and was definitely worth the upgrade.

The hotel boasts several restaurants, two included in the half-board package and two where you get a discount from. The food was better than expected and there is definitely something for everyone, I'm a very very fussy eater, but not once did I go hungry or struggle to find something. The Brazilian buffet night was a particular favourite. I couldn't help myself and most nights I was having two dinners and 3 to 5 deserts.

All the staff at the hotel were exceptionally attentive, from the Thomson reps to the pool boys all the way to the manager. The entertainment at the hotel was North Stars, Nathan and Julie (really sorry guys but I lost your email addresses!!) they we excellent everytime, with a wide variety of songs and will happily learn requests, I'm sure Nathan has mastered 'Georgia' now and make sure you request 'Forget You' by Cee Lo Green - words can not describe how good they do it.

Beach is lovely, just a very short walk through the grounds of the hotel, there's a super market around the corner (not as expensive as I saw someone make out on here - maybe they are just very tight). Bus service, taxi or walking make it easy to get into the old and new town of Albufeira. If you want a night out there is the New Town (although we never experienced it) and Thomson also do a trip to Villamoura where we got to go for drinks round the harbour, go to a casino and watch a burlesque show - definitely recommend!

Only slight negativity with the holiday were some of the other guests, we were slightly young compared to most of the couples there, which didn't matter to us at all, and most of them were fine but there were some that were needlessly rude to staff and moaning about nothing at all. There were also quite a few guests who decided that they would get up before the crack of dawn to put their towels on loungers or the sun beds to reserve them. The hotel has enough for each guest, but when one couple has two lounges and one sun bed (seats two) then people end up going without. Fortunately the hotel has a no reserving policy and the hotel manager made sure that this was enforced, politely reminding people that you can only have one item at a time.

So to finish off...go and book this hotel, get a sea view room, relax in the sun, drink champagne, eat as much as you can, just don't put your towel out before breakfast...it's not a German hotel!

Massive thank you to all the reps, staff and management...and especially the chefs! Hopefully we will be returning in the not to distant future.