I stayed here with 4 friends, and I have to say it was fantastic! The resort is huge, with 7 pools which meant it was rarely busy and you could always get a sun lounger. The resort offered breakfast at the club house which over looked the golf course and was gorgeous to sit on the terrace in the morning. It was around 10-15minute walk from our apartment to breakfast which some might not like, but this did not matter to us as we enjoyed the morning walk in the sun. Breakfast included full english, cereals, fruit, yogurts, selection of breads, juice, tea and coffee, and was very nice.

The resort is located just out of central Albuferia, and was about a 20 minute walk. We mostly got taxi's to and from, which cost around 5-6 euros. The hotel will book taxis for you if you ask. The beaches around the resort are all lovely, and have beach bars and water sports available. There is also a small shop next to the resort selling all your food and drink basics.

The apartment had everything to offer, including all your kitchen appliances, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, iron + board, golf clubs, the list goes on and on! The resort had thought of everything to make your trip the best it could be. The staff were friendly and helpful, and rooms were cleaned every other day by the maids. The apartment had three garden terraces, one leading from the lounge, and one from each bedroom. This was lovely to sit out in at morning and in the evening with a glass of wine.

Albuferia its self is a lovely place, and has brilliant night life with plenty of bars and places to eat. There is lots of things to do in the day, including a brilliant waterpark called AquaShow which combines a waterpark and a themepark. I would stay here again, and is good for families, couples and groups of friends.

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 :-)