Das seit 2008 existierende schlecht ausgeschilderte Resort liegt auf einer Anhöhe zwischen Lagoa und Carvoeiro. Es besteht aus einem Clubhaus, in dem die Rezeption, einige Luxussuiten, ein Restaurant, Bar, Billard- und Dart-Spielraum und ein grosser Innenpool mit Sauna + türkischem Bad untergebracht sind. Von dort geht es in einen wunderschönen imposanten Aussenpoolbereich nebst umliegender Appartment- und Townhouse-Einheiten, Kinderspielplatz, Trimm-dich-Pfad, Tennisplatz und Grünanlagen. Wir waren während unseres Kurzaufenthaltes die einzigen Gäste, ein merkwürdiges Gefühl. Da auch das Restaurant geschlossen war, bekamen wir morgens das nicht ganz 5 Sterne gerechte Frühstück in unsere toll ausgestattete, riesengrosse Suite mit separatem Schlafzimmer, 2 Bädern und volleingerichteter amerikanischen Küche, serviert. Das Personal war recht freundlich. Der versprochene Willkommensdrink wurde nicht gereicht. Es herrschte keine herzliche Atmosphäre!

This resort has the space and facilities to be so much better than it actually is.
A friend and I stayed here at the end of the season and the rooms were huge. Large lounge/dinner. Fully equity kitchen. 2 bedrooms. Lots of storage. Good pool area.
Now for the not so positives;

Attitude of receptionist at check in was apauling. It was as if we were bothering her trying to check in. It didn't help that we were made to wait 3 hours before we could get into our room. We were told 30 mins and after an hour I enquired and her response was- I told you I'd inform you when it's ready. Not great.
Had to carry bags to room ourselves as no driver about to drive the kart.
We were not informed about breakfast & that it was part of our deal. So we made our own each day.
Not given the 50 euro voucher for the restaurant we were entitled to.
The was never any change in bar till which meant a long weight each time you wanted a drink.
No smoke alarm in master bedroom.
No fireblanket in kitchen- holder was empty.
No batteries in air con remotes bar one. Which meant you had to keep changing them over. I asked for more but each time nothing happened.
No water pressure in one of the bathrooms Which meant the shower didn't work. Luckily there were 2 bathrooms.
No towels in the room and 1 hour wait to get them on our 3rd day.
One set of pillows. All feathered which is no good as my friend has asthma. So he slept on a set of folded of tshirts at night.
Shuttle bus to the beach is only twice a day and not advertised. Enough room for a dozen people. Once it's full tough. Its a 30 min walk up hill if you don't get on it.

As I say, such great potential, but seems like the staff don't really care enough to utilise them....

My wife and I stayed at this resort for a week in mid-October. Although this is not my normal sort of holiday, the weather was excellent throughout and we mostly enjoyed ourselves at the resort, and in and around the local village, Carvoeiro. This resort does offer golf also. Not having brought my kit, I unfortunately did not sample that opportunity.

I'll start with the best aspect. We were accommodated in a 'townhouse', which is a semi-detached house with two en-suite bedrooms abutting an enclosed sunbathing area with a plunge-pool, shared with a number of other houses. The townhouse was very well appointed and equipped with high-quality fittings and appliances. It had an excellent kitchen that would have been suitable for self-catering. Each bathroom had a jacuzzi-bath, and the house had both a patio and a balcony. They had thought about extras, too: the rooms had LG televisions and the living room had a decent stereo with an iPod dock. This accommodation was hard to fault and I could have stayed here indefinitely. Everything has been built in the last 5 years and is beautifully clean throughout.

The central area of the resort is called the 'Club House'. This consists of a communal building and a sunbathing area around a system of pools. The latter was occupied daily by a selection of people not doing very much. Not my scene personally, but I appreciated the surroundings and it was nice occasionally to cool off by plunging into the unheated pool. It was certainly as good as anywhere to while away a few hours, reading.

Other aspects of the Club House were less impressive. The gym had a reasonable floor area but was poorly equipped and the air conditioning did not appear to be doing much. There seemed to be a general lack of staff: the concierge desk, for example, did not appear to be occupied the whole time we were there. The breakfast was of a reasonable standard but was exactly the same every day. The lunch menu was incredibly pedestrian and consisted mostly of variations on burger and chips. We got used to taking lunch in our town house. The evening meal was not too bad but, again, the menu appeared to be the same every day and value for money is not great. Down in the village, a mile away, there are any number of establishments that will provide better and more local food, service and atmosphere at far lower prices. The bar was also dead every night and so we got into the habit of going straight back to our townhouse when returning from the village each evening. Normally, one of the more pleasurable aspects of a holiday such as this for me is having a beer in the evening with some of the other guests and maybe making some enduring friends.

This resort claims to be 5-star. I do not believe it merits that rating. Having read some of the other reviews, I notice that over-crowding at mealtimes is a recurring theme; however, this did not seem to be in evidence during our visit. The general attitude of the staff seemed to be that we were now out of season, so delivering the expected level of service was no longer a priority. What seemed to be lacking the most was basic attention to detail. Normally in a high-end resort such as this, one would expect to see managers walking around with clipboards, checking up on matters and tweaking the staff. I observed nothing of this nature. I must question also their business model. Presumably they would prefer guests to be spending money in the Club House rather than skulking in their accommodation with provisions from the local supermarket. Why not, then, organise a few events (happy hours, bands, etc) on various nights of the week to get people through the door? While we were there, the Rugby World Cup was at the semi-final stage. There was a heavy dominance of Brits at the resort. Why not organise a special rugby breakfast around key games, for example?

In summary, I enjoyed our week but this resort could have done a lot more to make it memorable. Apart from access to the pool, it offered us little more than a self-catering holiday would have done at a far lower price.

Although I was here in August 2011 I thought I'd just write a few belated words about our experience, particularly after reading some of the negatives.
I'm a single dad with a 13 year old son and we had a cracking time. I've stayed in Carvoeiro many times before (always out of town) and appreciated Monte Santo's location.
We booked a one bedroomed suite and were upgraded to a two bedroomed house and had generous, first class accommodation.
We thought the place was great, we went on a bed & breakfast basis but had lunch there a few times and ate out at night. Lunch was fine but breakfast was an ordeal just as many others have said. I think a huge canopy out on to the patio with another 20+ tables would provide the extra capacity but wouldn't solve the service problem....if you found a table then you wouldn't have cutlery....if you had cutlery then the plates had all gone.....if you got a plate then the food and juice hadn't been refilled.......and then if you got all of that right but had left your table unattended then you might find another family had decided to occupy it.....the sooner they outlaw squatters rights the better!
The pool area is clean, I alway got two sunbeds after breakfast without the need to 'reserve' them, our room was well looked after by housekeeping, the towels and bedding were frequently changed, the staff are friendly, the bar prices are quite reasonable.
If I was you I wouldn't hesitate, get it booked and don't get stressed out over the breakfast performance.....maybe it'll be better next year!
I'll let you know because we're going again next August, flights, car and hotel already booked.....you might recognise me, I'll be the one with my own plate, glass, cutlery and flask of coffee with me just in case!!