Just returned from a 3 day stay at Santa Maria.

Clean and friendly service. Room perfectly acceptable and good value. Beds ( like other reviews) hard and not particularly comfortable. Location - really central, near shops, marina, bars and restaurants. Breakfast - okay but again what you pay for.Always a great selection of bread, but hot dishes weren't particularly inviting. Staff really friendly although we did have to go and find a taxi ourselves ( 1/1/2012) to get us back to the airport. Slightly stressed as we had asked night before to organise and were told this wouldn't be necessary ( I'm sure on any other day wouldn't be a problem). Also if you plan on visiting other areas of Algarve, take the reception staff accuracy of timings with a pinch of salt - told 20 mins to Albufeira, actually took 1 1/2 hours on bus!

Read reviews of restaurants on trip advisor as they were pretty accurate.

Rio Formosa boat trip, definitely worth it.

All in all a great visit and the New Year celebrations, although toned down because of the economic situation, was great. Fireworks in the marina.

Portuguese people are lovely and really appreciate if you try to speak the language!