This is my second time staying at Balaia, and it will not be my last. The place is like heaven on earth! We were 3 girls on a little break and had a beautiful two bed apartment with a large sun terrace. Balaia is not in the centre of everything but this is why I like it, its cool and calm. I'd guess that at most there were 10 people around the pool on any given day. As it is a large complex there are several different pool options so the place never feels over crowded and you can change loungers to follow the sun!
The pool by our apt was amazing, really deep plunge pool on a high level that flowed almost like an infinity pool into the large one below. It's so nice to actually have a deep pool that you can dive into!
A Varanda is a lovely restaurant for lunch snacks and the take away pizza was great as we arrived quite late on a Sat and did not full like treking into town for dinner. The barmen are lovely too really accommodating. The french fries are delicious! Perfect for the 'cure' by the pool the morning after!
The Old Town is only a7 minute taxi ride and only costs about 4-6e. And you can walk to the new in less than 20mins.
We had a late flight leaving Faro at 9.20pm and the staff were really accommodating, as our apt was not booked for the next day they gave us a late check-out for 6pm, we got to go to the pool and everything in the morning, then back to the apt to freshen up before our airport transfer.
I would suggest not shopping in the supermarket to the right of Balaia in the resort next door, its grand for milk and water but too expensive for everything else. Instead take a left out of the complex and walk the 15mins toward Olhos da Agua and go the intermarche and stock up for the week!!
All in all I love this place, it's beautiful, quiet but still close to things the pool is amazing the apt large and spotless, hot water all the time and great water pressure.
We are all ready booking for next year!!

Good points - Lovely little village, lots of low rise apartments and nice gardens. 6 pools to choose from, quiet location. Was very quiet first week in September which can be a good thing or bad depending on personal preference. Our apartment was a private rental and it was of a good standard and very comfortable (apart from the lack of aircon). Nice little beach close by - Maria Luisa Beach, about 10 mins walk

Bad points - only saw a pool cleaner once during a week's visit. on our last day it had been windy the previous evening so the pool was full of debris and no attempt was made to clean it. Bins not emptied every day in pool areas. Agree with a previous review that a high percentage of the staff were really miserable, including one of the cleaners I encountered one morning. The male activity staff seem to spend most of their time wizzing around on their buggies and not much else by the looks of it. It's a little far out of Albufeira so a taxi is needed to venture into the old town at a cost of around 7 euros one way. Need to pay extra for WIFI and a safe key in the apartment which I find ridiculous

We arrived at the reception around 11am and had to wait until around 1am to get into the room! We were able to take a walk around the site and see what was on offer! The golf course is a good 10 minute walk away from the main reception area with a fairly straight forward 9 hole course! When we checked into the apt. we were greeted with 2 single beds! Immediately i went to reception to confirm we had booked a double - they were very abrupt to inform me that this is not an option and so we continued to dispute about this as it seemed there was no alternative! Eventually they suggested making the beds up as one, if only we had of come to that decision to begin with it wouldn't have left a sour taste in my mouth about the reception staff attitude to their guests!

Our room itself was perfect – kitchen, bathroom, 2 balconies, huge flat screen TV! We were able to make breakfast and lunch each day from our room! The site is so big that each little hub has its own pool area – which was never overcrowded and always manned! Each morning i watched the lifeguard clean the pool which was great to see!

The beech is on the other side of the raod and again another 10 minutes walk away - note there is a very short but steep hill to get to the beech which was tough enough for me to climb let alone an eldery person or a pram etc!!

The hotel offers a free taxi ride at 10am & 6pm into the Old Town of Albufiera – we used the later bus on 2 occasions but I it was more ideal for those to use who wanted to be picked up from the town after spending a day at the beech! It would be more ideal to have a bus service at 8pm given that there was often a que to wait on a taxi! This was the only negative for me – ordering a taxi to be collected from the hotel ... our minimum wait for a taxi was around 20 minutes – and out longest 45 minutes. This is not a great service but there was nothing we could do about it!

We had two lovely cleaners who visited our hotel room each day - they were very polite and did a great job too :-)

Location, location, location as the saying goes - and that applies both to where this resort is, and what unit you get on site.
Firstly the site is about 5 miles East of Albufeira, and is quiet. There is a free shuttle bus twice daily (10.00 and 18.00) to town, and a main bus route outside, but as this ends around 18.30 clubbers will need to budget for taxis. About 15 minutes walk towards Albufeira takes you to Santa Eulalia where there is a reasonable selection of bars and restaurants, mostly catering for UK tourists (but not overwhelmingly tacky).
Turning left out of the main entrance, and then first right takes you in 5 minutes to a lovely beach with a nice cafe/restaurant. Indeed we visited a lot of different beaches during our stay and without fail they were all lovely and clean with catering and toilet facilities.
Within the resort there are 4 well maintained (tarmac) tennis courts (10 euro for 2 hours) and at the back end is a golf driving range and a 9 hole challenging "pitch and putt" style course (price not determined).
This is a large resort with upwards of 200 units arranged in clusters of (mainly) two storey blocks set amongst some beautifully maintained gardens. The accomodation has been developed in phases, and there are 4 or 5 separate free form style swimming pools, so it never appears crowded (at least not when we were there). Avoid units 116 - 129 and 477 - 486 as these are near to the road.
There are various different sizes and standard of unit. We had a single bed (convertible bed settee available if needed) superior apartment (number 218) which was excellently located with views through trees to the pool; and well equipped. But note that many units are owned privately and let through the resort management company. Not all will be the same. Whilst there we asked to look at a couple of 2 bedroomed "villas" which interestingly were not detached properties at all, although they had no upper floor apartment above them. If possible I would definitely recommend talking to the resort to clarify exactly what you will be getting.
In general terms we found the staff on site to be helpful and friendly, unlike a previous report. The same was true of all the Portugese who we came across at various bars, restaurants etc throughout our stay. The only exception was the resort restaurant manager who lacked any warmth or personality (strange given his profession). The food was always good however.
Overall we were delighted with the quality of the resort and the accomodation and would happily stay here again.