This is a good place to stay in Ponta Delgada. It's good value and it comes with a small health club. The VIP Executive is a large, modern and proper hotel. It is the kind of hotel used by business people and European tour operators. The building is presentable and the lobby is impressive enough.
The staff are not only efficient, but also very friendly and helpful. It's easy to forget how important this can be.
The room was upscale and modern. Not a huge room, but not small either. Great view, even from the 3rd floor. Small balcony with chairs. Nice large, modern bathroom. Good TV with multiple English stations. The reception was just a touch fuzzy in the lower stations. I don't remember seeing a coffee maker. The air conditioning worked fine, but there were only three temperature settings. (I like to set it very cold.)
The breakfast spread was good. Standard kind of Portuguese hotel breakfast; not ultra-luxurious but with a nice variety of fruit, juices, breads, cereals, pastries, etc. I never did figure out how to get the coffee I wanted from the coffee machines though. Scrambled eggs, but you could order other eggs to order. Hot dog wieners for sausages.
There is a free computer set up on the reception desk. They also have wifi, which is something like 3 euros an hour.
This hotel has a small health club attached to it. So the VIP Executive offers more fitness options than most hotels. Guests are able to use the facilities. There are a number of different cardio machines. The weight room was not that large, but there was enough for most people to get a good workout.
The VIP Executive is not really walking distance from town, so you may need a car or other transport. There's a bus stop nearby. Bus B takes you to the large shopping centre and then on to the downtown. It doesn't run in the evenings. If you don't have a car, you'll probably end up taking a taxi into town. Or you could walk of course. It's only about 20 minutes. My impression of Ponta Delgada is that the town, as nice as it is, is not so active in the evening that you really need to be based there. We were there during a festival and we were able to enjoy it fully even though we were not based in town. There are driving and parking restrictions during a festival.
There is free parking on the street near the hotel.
The Sol Mar complex is nearby (about 150 metres). It's a large department store and grocery store. Anything you could possibly need is available here. It was interesting to see what Azoreans need in a grocery store. It all looked very tempting. Interestingly, there's also an "America" store close to the Sol Mar complex, selling products from the US. Presumably their clients are the many Azoreans who have returned to retire in Sao Miguel after a lifetime in North America.
- Hotel Vip Executive Azores
