Stayed the end of April 2011. Was a fantastic break, hotel and breakfast was lovely, room was huge and cleaned every day! Was close enough to the centre of alberferia (a short taxi ride) for nights out and shopping. Lovely little area, we only discovered more bars and restaurants as the week went on! The pizzeria/little italian restaurant about a 10minute walk up from the hotel on the corner was fantastic! We kept going back for more!!! Overall a fantastic holiday, great location and the staff were so, so helpful!!!!

We had a wonderful stay at Velamar, which we found to be spotlessly clean, with comfortable beds (unlike some others in the area) and a superb buffet breakfast. The lounge bar area was nicely fitted out, and reasonably priced, with attentive staff. There were plenty of restaurants within walking distance, all serving good food at reasonable prices. Having stayed in the Olhos d'Agua area several times recently, I would rate the Velamar as one of the best.

This is a nice hotel for a quiet getaway. Its probably not the place to be if you are looking to party every night but is on a very good bus route for buses either into Albufeira or Villamoura. It is at least a 5 minute walk to the beach from the hotel - either to Olhos d' Agua or 10 minutes walk in the other direction brings you to Maria Luisa beach, which is lovely. We didn't mind the walk but this might be more of an issue for families with young children.

The hotel itself is fine for a few days get away, the room was good with a comfortable bed and was cleaned nearly everyday of our 5 day stay. We did however seem to get one of the few rooms without a balcony, right in a corner so we were looking out into the corridor - meaning any body walking along the corridor was looking straight into our room. This isn't a huge big deal but it would have been nice to have been able to leave the curtains open when we were in the room - or have had the use of a balcony. Our room was also under the kitchen for the breakfast room and beside the lifts, so it was quite noisy from early on, which was a shame.

The breakfast at the hotel is good with lots to choose from - but it is a cold continental buffet style breakfast so don't go here if you are expecting the full cooked offering! There are a few places to eat around the hotel but we wandered a bit further down into Olhos d' Agua itself for dinner every night, you could easily go a week and not have to visit the same restaurant twice - unless of course you wanted to! We had brilliant meals every night - we really liked Fratellis, Chefs Peking, the Chinese restaurant opposite the RIU hotel - probably the best Chinese meal I've ever had and I think the other one we visited was A Cantina, also very good.

Despite this being a nice hotel the one thing that would probably stop us from returning is the noise of the dogs barking behind the hotel. As soon as it started to get light in the morning the dogs would start barking, and then again in the afternoon and evening the dogs were constantly barking. This might seem petty, but it really did spoil an otherwise relaxing break.

Just got back from a 4 day stay at the Velamar, what a lovely hotel, Breakfast lovely and fresh, rooms cleaned every day including New Years Day, The bar in the hotel is lovely, modern, and comfortable, staff are all friendly and helpful. Try the Soft Cafe next door, the food and service are great and at very cheap prices.