We were there last April 2006 and are returning this April 2007.

We had a lovely time - Hotel room was good size - however an older and yes somewhat tired hotel. It still had charisma. Did not use the pool - walked the beach. the restaurants in the Harbour were a favorite - much to chose from. Close to a lot of other little villages.

A beautiful view from the 9th floor of the hotel - Enjoyed hearing the surf every morning upon waking up.

Enjoyed it very much and are going back shortly and renting the Villa at same location.

Grocery store next door had quite a bit to offer . The sister hotel was a nice place to go for buffet dinner.

We just returned from the Atlantico and had a marvelous time. We didn't encounter any of the bug problems that the previous traveller suffered, probably because of the time of year. We found the staff very helpful and they all spoke English, enough to get by, for sure. We had a room facing the ocean, and you could hear the waves crashing down below. We loved that! Construction was going on outside, so we also had a moving crane in our view. I guess you have to put up with that if you are going to improve. We enjoyed the bar at the Dom Jaou for a late night drink, but last week the hotels were full of senior travellers. It could have been a problem for the younger set, since the music and activities were for that age group. Again, it may have just been the time of year. Atlantico and Dom have a most fantastic location which I would much rather have than 5 stars. According to the bartenders, the Dom is being renovated in September to update. We had every-day maid service, which I hadn't expected and the room was spotless. The mattresses were hard, and the"double" was two single beds pushed together, which I didn't see as a problem at all....more room. The indoor pool was cold, and so was the Ocean, but wow, the beach and the rock formations being so close made up for that. We had a car with our package and I would advise everybody to rent one, it will make your holiday so much more interesting. There are so many awesome day trips around, and then you'll find that you hardly spend any time at your room. I wouldn't order a meal plan, unless it is a real deal. Friends whose package included breakfast and dinner, found that they felt pressure to be there everyday because "they had already paid for it." We ate a light breakfast in our room, or an Algarvian breakfast out. Somedays we took a picnic and ate it on the cliffs etc. We really enjoyed having the mini-market on the doorstep. They had a good selection of beer and wines, too. We ate one nice meal out every day. The kitchenette worked out very well since we didn't plan to really cook!!! No time, too much else to see and do. We were very pleased that the hotel had a bank machine in the foyer and it accepted my debit card, when many stores didn't. (credit union). The front desk also cashed our travellers checks that stores wouldn't take. (wrong advice from bank) All in all, we wouldn't change any part of our vacation, including the Pestana Atlantico. It's a great budget-priced hotel!!

We stayed for just six days, the room was a lovely size, views more than ok. Staff were very helpful and spoke English. You could really do with a car for this location. The hotel was very 'tired' not four stars. We had to go to the sister hotel down the street for breakfast, which for us was ok. It would be a problem if walking is difficult for you.
Town and estuary not too far away , but difficult to walk to due to lack of footpaths.
Hotel swimming pool small and cold.
Supermarket next to the hotel which is handy and stocks a large selection of food.

Overall we had a good six days, loved the location but the hotel needs bringing up to date.

Me, my husband and 3yr old daughter stayed for 8 nights and we encountered a few problems during our stay.

First thing we noticed on arrival staff could not speak or understand English very well so we knew this would have been a problem to start with.

Once we arrived in our room with which I was very disappointed with, we had two single beds pushed together and a fold up bed for my daughter, suddenly we then noticed an army of ants marching all over the headboard and on the bed. Spoke to reception who said 'it's natural in a hot country' they had no more rooms available so we ended up with a tin of fly spray which we had to use daily - even though once we sprayed one area they just moved to another area!!!

There seem to be high concentration of chlorine in the tap water - when we had showers or washed our hands - regardless of the ‘smellies’ used we could still smell the chlorine on our hands and in our flannels!!

Corridors were very noisy at night - as you can hear people coming up and down the stairs and also as most bedroom doors are very close to the elevators you can hear the elevators doors bang every now and again and by the way the elevators seem to be the pre-war ones, you have to open the door step in and pull the rails across before you press the buttons and you can only press one button at a time!!! Also the windows in the bedroom were not soundproofed in any way – even though we were 8 floors up and the windows were all closed we could still hear all the traffic and horn beeps down below throughout the night!! View from the balcony was not too bad apart from the large area of waste land directly below!!

We requested a room with a kitchenette which was very small, about 1m x 1.5m standing room! The kitchenette contained the basic items, 2 hobs, fridge, coffee maker and toaster and sink of course – we would have hoped it had a microwave and kettle!

There were 2 outdoor sea water swimming pools, one for babies/toddlers and the other adults (there’s also an indoor heated pool), unfortunately for the time we were there the pools weren’t kept very clean. Most mornings they were filled with insects and other debris and it would take the best part of the morning for the pool attendant to finally clear it all out!

The hotel also seem to have a problem with flies at the breakfast buffet in the mornings – I became acquainted with someone else who was also staying at the hotel from the UK and she complained to one of the members of staff about the flies and their solution was just to cover the food with tissue paper!!!

If you needed to use their internet café you had to pay three euros for 15 mins which we thought was a bit expensive and you also have to pay two euros a day for the rental of the safety deposit in the bedrooms!

Finally on checking out at the end of our stay the hotel tried to overcharge us by mistakenly adding someone else’s restaurant bill to our bill – the receptionist found it a bit difficult calculating the correct figure and I eventually had to help her out along with the help of another gentleman beside me who was also waiting to check out.

On conclusion we will never stay in this hotel again and my suggestion is that they down grade this hotel to a 3 Star maximum!!