We decided to return to the Eden Mar in january and were greeted with all the help and friendship you could wish for.
The room was clean and comfortable and the food was excellent with a different themed buffet menu each night.
The evening entertainment has been improved with some very impressive local groups who struggled to finish their sets with all the encores.
The Management and Staff have worked hard together, to make the guests stay a very memorable one, and the level of returning guests prove that what they are doing is working.
We cannot stress enough what a pleasant experience our holiday was and have booked again for another 2 week stay.

We first visited the Eden Mar two years ago and had no hesitation in booking again when we returned this year. The junior suites are spacious and the beds comfortable. The dark wood is a bit old-style, but generally the furnishing are fairly contemporary in appearance. As the previous reviewer said, the free buses to see the fireworks on NYE were a really nice touch. The service was very good throughout. It might not be the case at other times of the year, but we always found there to be plenty of room to park our hire car. After the first morning, when we had breakfast at the Alfama (which was closed on our last visit), we ate at the Atlantida in the morning, which has a wider range of items, and even someone to cook you omlette to order. The kitchenette is useful - rather than going out every night, we sometimes got bread and cheese, or soup from the supermarket below the hotel - very convenient.

We will certainly return to the Eden Mar (to use our Prestige Card again - which gives a discount one rooms and in bars and restaurants - to returning customers - a good marketing tool) if we go back to Madeira!

I have reviewed the Eden Mar before.Have just returned from our 4th visit and just wanted to say that all is has we have found on our previous visits.I'd basically just be repeating what numerous guests have found i.e. that it is a consistently highly rated hotel and worthy of its fine reviews.

Just one other item of mention.We have dined in the Med restaurant which is inside the Porto Mare many times and are surprised its not been reviewed?I have highlighted this and will review it once TA have accepted its existence.
We dined there New years eve and the meal was of a very high standard,difficult to pick fault in anyway.But we do feel its worthy of a stand alone review.

We stayed in the Eden Mar for a week from 31 December 2011. We chose it because we have a young child and wanted somewhere a bit more down-to-earth than the more elegant but less family-friendly 5-star hotels (as a couple, we previously stayed in the wonderful Regency Hotel - excellent service and food but very quiet and sophisticated at dinner, we couldn't imagine having a chatty/crying baby at dinner there!).

New Year's eve: we were half board and a fantastic gala dinner was included on 31 Dec. The atmosphere was just wonderful. The guests were relaxed and in lively spirits (thanks to silly hat and hooters/rattles) and there was a wonderful singing guitarist. Our 15 month-old really enjoyed himself. The service was excellent (as it was during the whole holiday).
Following the multicourse gala dinner, we were shipped away in buses to watch the incredible (I mean really incredible) fireworks display. I don't know how the hotel managed it, but we were up high in a military-restricted zone! The hotel even arranged for sparkling wine! The hotel really made such a wonderful effort for New Year's eve, and this is what made it so special.

Room - A bit stuffy but good size. We took a junior suite. Ants in the kitchenette - the hotel could have warned about this.

Facilities
Instructions on how to get to different parts of the hotel complex would have been good (the photo provided was useless)
Free wifi in lobby - weak connection but fine for checking emails, weather, news etc.
Heated pools indoor and out but they were not very warm and too cold for our baby who loves water. Children under 12 not allowed in the jacuzzi!

Food
Breakfast was fairly good, although some decent jams would have been good! Also, there wasn't proper juice but a horrible sugary drink

For dinner, buffet restaurant was ok but nothing special. Drinks very expensive!
If you're on half board, you can forego the buffet and instead have 17 euros pp credit in one of 3 restaurants, and we would definitely recommend this as the food is far superior and drinks cheaper than in the buffet restaurant! The food in the Med and Alfama restaurants was excellent and reasonably priced, and service was excellent in both. On request, the Alfama made up an excellent veggie 3-course menu (in addition to the daily meat/fish menu which replaces half board). Il basilico was like a high-street Italian.
Often the restaurant food was very salty.

With a baby:
Good things: plenty of good quality/condition high chairs available in the various restaurants; friendly staff.

Not so good: Sides of the cot were too low and the hotel had no other sorts available. An active baby could climb out. We arranged the cot between our bed and the sliding doors, with pillows at each end!
Pools as above.