Myself and 11 other male golfers have just spent a week at the Pinhal da Marina complex in Vilamoura Portugal. On arrival the girl in reception was very nice, she quickly sorted our rooms and even got a member of staff to show us where they were on the grounds. The rooms where very spacious, we had four sharing each apartment with two bedrooms with twin beds. The apartments had everything you could want, a spacious lounge, nice bathroom with shower over bath and a good size kitchen with dishwasher, microwave, kettle etc. The rooms were cleaned daily with fresh towels and also had air conditioning at no extra cost. The grounds and gardens in the complex were very well looked after and very secure being fenced off from surrounding areas. The main pool and childrens pool were excellent, they were cleaned every morning and the pool area was spottless. The restaurant was very good and had breakfast from 7 to 10am which was continental, if you like a good fry up your out of luck but the continental was more than adequate to start the day. There is an all day menu with pizzas,sea bass and other simple foods but if you want an excellent meal there is another menu which you order for the next day which has some fantastic sea food dishes. I can highly recommend the "Cataplana" which is southern Portuguese dish of praws, clams, pork or monkfish. The prices at the restaurant were very reasonable for food and drink, and I would like to thank John and Manuel who were very helpfull with nothing being to much trouble. Also a thank you to the ladies in the kitchen who produced some excellent dishes, one of my friends Henry who is Spanish and a chef was most impressed with the standards. He went into the kitchen to thank the ladies and said the kitchen was spottless and very well organised. We didn't walk down to Villamoura Marina because we had hire cars but other guests said it was about a fifteen minute walk. This complex is just nicely away from the Marina and is very peaceful.
All in all I would highly recommend Pinhal da Marina to family's or couples alike, the place is spotless and the people are very nice.

My wife and I stayed at the Pinhal da Marina in September 2011 in self-catering accomadation. The appartments are excellent, spacious, clean, well maintained and the most well equipped we have ever stayed in. Sometimes you're lucky to get a cockscrew, but at the Pinhal we are talking microwaves, blenders, toasters and the rest. The air conditioning and safe are provided at no extra cost, and thats a real bonus, you even get sun loungers on the terrace and maid service every day. The complex is beautiful, the gardens are extremely well maintained as is the 2 full size swimming pools and kiddies pool. The Bar and Restaurant are very good but the only negative is the on-site supermarket which is very limited and pricey, also at the time not always open as stated. However the complex is less than 10 minutes walk away from the outskirts of the centre where you can find a Spar Supermarket which is very reasonably priced. The complex is about 15/20 minutes from the Marina which is at the heart of Vilmoura. The roads in Vilamoura are very good, not a dust track in sight, therefore good for wheel chair access and those having walking difficulties. If you play Golf then you are in heaven. I myself am a runner and ran every day for the first time not feeling like I might be knocked down at anytime. Well recomended.

My wife and I have just returned from 10 days in the Algarve. Our stay at the Pinhal da Marina can be described as nothing short of excellent. Very friendly, helpful and polite staff. The accommodation was maintained to a high standard and all of the appliances worked well (most looked new in fact). The complex has well tended gardens which are well worth walking around. We look forward to staying there again. Also we found Vilamoura to be the best of the towns we visited.

Family of four, two kids aged 13 and 9. It was a bit quiet for us. Also quite difficult to find for the first time. Breakfast very limited, croissants, toast with ham or cheese, cereals, a few different fruits, yogurts and tinned fruit. No cooked breakfast here i'm afraid ! However, the apartments were ok. After reading some reviews I sent an email asking for one of the rooms that had been modernised. Which we got. Still looked dated to me. Bath had been re-enameled, not replaced etc etc. Still the same old 70's tiles on the walls. Reception area is similar to a holiday camp, very small with a couple of sofas. I guess I was just looking for all the bad points as we are used to a hotel with daytime and night time entertainment / activities. We did get free wi-fi and free use of a pc at reception area. Tennis and table tennis is free also. Staff were very nice. We asked if we could keep our room on for a few hours as we had an 8pm flight home. We were allowed till 3pm with no extra charge. Most other places would charge for this. We had a hired car, i'm glad we did. More like half an hour stroll to marina in the August heat. Lunch menu was fine and a lot cheaper than the larger 4* hotels. Again being a bit picky, we had to take our own towels and hair dryer. Where as the last few 4* hotels we stayed in supplied these. But you only get what you pay for, This accommodation was half the price of a similar rated hotel with all the activities, kids discos etc. The morning before we came home was a little showery and everyone wanted to sit inside for breakfast. A queue quickly formed as there are only 50 seats. These apartments are great for a quiet week away to chill out. At the end of the day your still in Vilamoura with the beautiful Marina and quality restaurants. Best restaurant we found "Colombo's" as seen in our photo,, near Dom Pedro Golf hotel, was 20% cheaper than marina but the service and food quality was much better.