I spend three nights in the hotel for a conference was being held there. Indeed, the location and surroundings of the resort are good. The room was like fifteen meters in front of the seashore. The common areas were nice and there is a lot to do in the hotel. However, in one of the nights I spent there a big party (with very very loud music) was taking place in an area pretty close to the rooms. I called three times to the reception and their awnser was that thay were sorry for the disturb but they couldn´t do anything, as they had a contract with the party organizers.The loud music kept on until 2:30 am... If one wants a good night sleep forget it...
Besides that, wi-fi was not working in my room, although they inform all rooms have wi-fi access.

The title says it all. It's located on a nice beach ideal for young children. It's differential is that it combines a beach resort with a farm resort. Great horse rides on the farm and spectacular views --- the high point of our stay. The service, on the other hand, is below average: there could be more options for breakfast (no cereal options for kids!) when i complained about it, they did their best to provide my family with chocolate cereal, but i could tell they weren't planning to make any changes on their menu.

As for the extras, they're exhorbitant and be prepared for an outrageously high bill. While other resorts make mineral water and other ammenities available as a compliment, at Portobello, you might find some scented water at the lobby at best (if you're lucky to find any left).

Overall, it's still worthy a visit as it's close to Rio and cozy. You don't even have to walk to the beach and the kids' club is really well kept. You can ride a bike around the beautiful condo which surrounds it and play tennis in one of the several courts near the kids' farm.

We had a nice stay and I would go back.

I’ve been a regular at Portobello Resort for more than 20 years.
Having returned this year, I could confirm that the place is still nice, with well kept rooms and a good beach.
However, service is degrading year after year. They are becoming amateurs, on the worst of senses, and they seem to be forgeting that the customer is, after all, the only reason why they exist.
The Resort is expensive and you would expect an outstanding service. This is not the case. A handfull of minor problems which add up to become an annoying experience.
No good service at the Restaurants – finding a waiter can be a struggle (specially the guy that looks after the wine). The food, once a highlight in this hotel, is now below average. Packages offered turn out to be a trap for extras and the staff is not well trained – most of them try very hard to achieve very little.
Worst of the bunch are the people at the “leisure desk”, which makes silly mistakes and rudelly mistreat the guests. With us, for instance, after twice confirming a boat ride, we arrived early to find out that our names were not listed.
Did they apologize and offered some sort of compensation? NO! The so called “manager” – a pony tailed guy called Daniel – appeared and showed no respect for the customer claiming that “if our names were not listed it was probably our mistake”. Rude and stupid. A portrait of the kind of service you’ll get at Portobello. Next time, I will try the Mediterranee, just a few miles down the road.

The location and surroundings of the resort are very good - our room (comfortable but not more than this) was right in front of the beach. The common areas were nice and the pocket shows at night were very entertaining. The kids (and grown-ups) loved the Safari - it was really fun !!!
Paying around USD 590/night, I was expecting a better service - it was sloppy at best with some rare exceptions (valet services and restaurants). Service at the beach was practically inexistent - nobody to help you with beach chairs and umbrellas neither to bring you some drinks. I`ve stayed there for a week and the pool was so filthy that you couldn`t see the bottom of it (even in the jacuzzi) - my guess is that they clean the pool once a week even in summer when the hotel is full of guests.
My conclusion is that It`s not worth the price you pay for it.