January 2012 our second holiday at the Promenade and we hope more to come. The Hotel
is modern very well looked after by the staff has good indoor/outdoor pools the gardens
are beautiful.
Our studio was 1st class had an amazing view of the pool , gardens and out to sea was very
comfortable with a large bathroom separate shower and bath. All rooms at the Promenade
have a sea view and are quiet, the main road is up behind. A walk thru the garden/pools onto
the promenade turn right and you can walk all the way along the coast to Camara da Lobos
have lunch and maybe a drink or two and catch the bus back.
The weather during our 12 day New Year break was warm and sunny every day, the best
we have ever had in Madeira in January.

We stayed at this apart hotel during December 2011.

We encountered problems regarding non operation of the air conditioning at night. This was reported, a fault found and attended to. End of the problem you might think. NOT SO. Pestana state in their paperwork that the hotel is FULLY air conditioned, which we found not to be the case. We found that the system was not fully operational on many occasions, quite often going off during the night, which made the room overly warm and not conducive to a good night's sleep. (beds are extremely comfortable)

In discussions we were told that the air con is "wound down at 0800 and not re-instated until 1300" but obviously it is wound down/stopped much earlier than 0800 on occasions. With our room being south facing with lots of glass (lovely views) we found that the lack of air conditioning was totally unacceptable (no cooling working, only the fan was running) Even leaving the room curtains closed at all times when sunny, did not prevent the room from heating up to a level that was not pleasant. It was not an option to leave the patio doors open due to the wind.

Cleanliness:- Decor is very appealing however, we found that some of the dralon furniture was quite soiled, voile curtains required to be laundered and patio doors also needed a good clean, as did the balcony glass and top rail.

Overall:- This hotel is in a superb position but suffers from the lack of a courtesy bus, which may well be a problem for people less able. The drinks and meal packages appear to be expensive compared to other 4/5 star hotels in the vicinity. The gardens are really colourful and well maintained.

We had 12 nights in the Promenade at the beginning of January. It's a pretty good hotel, although not quite up to the Porto Bay hotels we've used in the past (but it was slightly cheaper).
The staff were excellent, the room very comfortable and the location - right on the esplanade - as close to the sea as you can get. There were one or two minor niggles. No courtesy bus into central Funchal - although the local buses are very good (1.10 euros a trip). There's a charge for wifi - it's free in the cafe next door. The food was OK, but the local restaurants are better and cheaper.
So : we'd go again if the deal was good enough but the Porto Mare complex delivers a bit more.

We spent our Easter vacation in 2011 and we really enjoyed it. The location is great, the view from our balcony was amazing. We are a group of 4 (two adults plus two teens) we were given two bedrooms, wide ,clean and confortable. bathrooms good,too.
staff friendly and helpfull, breakfast good and with a wide choice (bacon,eggs,beans...but also cakes and pastries)
The swimmingpool was great, nice the small one facing the ocean.we rented a car nad we were able to find a parking place every day close to the hotel without charge.Madeira is really worth a visit.