I stayed at the Estrela do Vau the last week in October 2011 with my wife and young son, and to be honest I was very disapointed with the hotel. Let me start with the positives, the staff are really friendly and the location was good if you rented a car, situated between Praia da Rocha and Alvor. I found this great as it gave us plenty of options of things to do during the day and at night but If you don't rent a car you might find it pretty isolated. Also you will find it difficult to find a better beach than Praia Do Vau anywhere in Europe. Now for the negatives, my main gripe was that the pools were an absolute disgrace! I was really looking forward to playing with my son in the pool but there were 3 pools and everyone of them where filthy and the baby pool (which I was most interested in with my young son) had hundreds of the little mosaic tiles broken so I couldn't let him play in it, luckily the beach was really good. The childrens play area again was a disgrace they would be better off not having one, I've never seen my son frightened of a slide before (Honestly). Finally we were half board and the food was of good quality but it was the same food nearly every night, we stuck it for about 3 nights then just went to Alvor instead. Its such a shame because the hotel itself has so much potential and it wouldn't take much to make this a great hotel but in its current state it is pretty poor.

24th Sept - 1st Oct

Myself and my wife decided to take a last minute break and picked this hotel as recommended through trip advisor. upon arrival at 1am we were greeted with a smiling face and a very polite gentleman, all the staff were very friendly and really polite. The rooms were lovely and perfect for the both of us, my only criticism is they needed a little attention. The pools were very nice and ample sun loungers around the pool. the pool bar was well priced and was always open when you needed it. we ate in the restaurant on the 1st night and again friendly staff but the food was a little more expensive than expected. The evening entertainment was a little slack but it was a quieter period. A car hire is recommended as it gives you more chances to see the sites, a taxi to and from the hotel to praia da rocha was around 6 euro's each way and the same for Alvor. I would highly recommend this to our friends and no doubt we will be back at some point in the near future.

After reading all the reviews we were confident we made the right choice... We arrived late at night to a friendly reception and got to our room which was very clean and well equipt.

Our negative side to this complex was the facilities. The pool was a mix between salted and chlorine and I know you're not supposed to drink the water but you can't help it splashing on your face. It wasn't pleasant to swim in. The weather whilst we stayed wasn't great so we used the indoor pool on our first day. The rest of the week the weather got worse, so when we tried to use the indoor pool on other days there was a hand written sign up saying that the pool was payable at reception!! I wasn't going to pay for something when it should be free and had already used it for free!

I know we went out of season but it was school half term so we were expecting a bit of entertainment on for my daughter and other children of which there a good 10 children of various ages, but nothing. They didn't even have ice creams in the cafe area. I'm sure this place would be lovely in the summer but I definitely wouldn't recommend going any other time of the year.

Please read the whole of this as when i do a review i do it from a fully realistic point of view and although we have made a lot of comments on here it was still a very nice place and a lovely holiday
2 adults a 11yr old 8yr old and an 18mth old we have just returned from Estela du Vau , we had a 2 bedroomed 2 bath roomed lower floor apartment (number8) 1 big double bed , two single beds , a cot, and a sofa bed in the ,main living area , a kitchen with fridge freeze 4 ring hob (although if you used the front small ring the electric blew) kettle toaster and microwave 1 plug point for all these 3 devices really wasn’t enough!! , The apartment was very clean upon arrival; the only thing that was lacking was a high chair for my 18mth old This was requested and arrived a day later (clean apart from the straps which could have been removed and cleaned before handing it out) The double doors in the main room and both bedrooms opened out on to our patio and garden! 6 chairs and a table and a clothes horse to dry our washing on again this area was clean (apart from the garden which was like a tundra filled with cigarette butts the plants looked like Chernobyl had hit).
It was cleaned every day and towels replaced as needed Bathroom 1 had a bath and shower head sink loo bidet and hairdryer Bathroom 2 loo shower and sink

The hotel is well appointed the pools are clean (small pool desperately need work doing on the tile work my son collected approx. 100 tiles from the floor on the first day) All pools are salt water so easy to swim and even though it was October it wasn’t too cold gardens are all nice and tidy tennis court is in good condition the mini golf course is a killer and very hard table tennis table need attention and its bent , pool side bar is nice although very limited stock as the owner was running down due to it being towards the end of season, The hotel bar again was clean and tidy but not cheap and limited stock again (no draught) due to time of year.
Entertainment very limited again due to time of year.

the hotel staff were very friendly the cleaners were friendly and everything that was requested of them they did faultlessly we couldn’t want more

On a whole the hotel needs remedial work doing on it Balcony’s needed painting Pool need retiling, kitchen worktops need replacing as does the electric hob (in flat 8) the shower tray is damaged and loo roll holder is damaged, the garden on our terrace really should be done away with and the terrace areas made bigger as they just attract smokers to drop there fags into it (disgusting) the bed was the most uncomfortable bed i have ever slept in back ache every morning the pillows were neither big enough for just 1 or small enough to use 2 (a blanket folded resolved that one) An oven or grill would have been nice as without one it made cooking a little limited.
Nearest beach was about 400mtrs away down a track (bit of a shaggers lane with evidence of condoms on the floors at least they used condoms said the wife just wish they put them in the bin afterwards not throw them on the floor)
local area information was limited although a local taxi driver we met called Manuel (his number is available if you need it just contact us through trip advisor ) was the most helpful taxi driver we have ever had his English was superb he went out of his way to look after us and recommended places to visit and places not to visit he also had a car seat for our little one which made such a difference to us, his prices were comparable despite having an 8 seater merc but to be honest i would have paid more for him as nearly all the other drivers we used at the start of our holiday were either grumpy or discourteous, i cannot recommend this guy enough super chap
Playa de Roche is a nice place with really nice beach (beach sellers were a pain but a swift no sorted them although 10 per hour is a little excessive) All restaurants along the front were good and service was excellent.
supermarket in alvor(next village down) pingo dolce was like a co-op and not cheap continente supermarket in portimao was ok cheap a little like Tesco but use the one in the aqua centre called jumbo its like a Sainsbury’s and cheaper than the continente .
We didn’t have a bad restaurant the local plonk is cheap and ok.
All in all we would return no problem