Jessie Lee
The hotel location is very central and convenient to go to old town and new town. The hotel is immaculately clean, spacious, modern and there’s plenty to do on site. They have entertainment every night from Quiz nights, Magic show, Karaoke nights. The Magic show was amazing with Edgar and Rosemary. I would recommend going to the see the show it was fantastic . The hotel has indoor and out door swimming pools, sauna, steam room, jacuzzi and a gym. On the ground floor they have a restaurant, a bar and a game room with a pool table. What made our stay enjoyable was the head of reception Carlos and his team were friendly, efficient and professional. The check in and check out was very efficient. We didn’t have to wait long which is nice, so that we can leave our luggage in the apartment and go out and explore Portugal. The apartments are well equipped with washing machine, dish washer, coffee machine, fridge freezer, microwave and a safe which is free to use. The rooms are cosy and the beds were comfy too. Some hotels charge a daily fee to use their safe. We thoroughly enjoyed your stay at Forte do Vale. We look forward to seeing you all next year!
Jess and family
Neil Campbell
Terrible hotel. Looks great but the service and experience once there is poor.
The food is terrible, drink is terrible and very limited to what you can get at what time.
We got given 1 bottle of water in our room when we arrived and that was it for the week. If we wanted more bottled water we had to buy it despite being all inclusive. Water given by the glass (cup) only.
We had to pay for pool towels at what we thought was a 5 star all inclusive. Leave a hefty £100 deposit against our room and the the day you leave the all inclusive ends not when you leave as a guest, but when it started. So because on our arrival ours started at midday, so we could have lunch after travelling, it ended at midday the day we left (despite not flying until 7.15) And to make sure of this, they physically cut our all inclusive bands off at midday when checking out so we couldn't have lunch or dinner that day.
The main bar only opens for 5 hours a day so if you are unfortunate enough to get some rain, as we were, they is nowhere to sit and interact with people inside the hotel and the only place to get an alcoholic drink is outside by the pool until about 6.30pm.
All in all the service here was very poor, nowhere near the advertised 5 start (3 at best). I would honestly avoid the hotel, and for that matter any MGM hotel if this is what they think constitutes good service.
David “Ormy”
So this hotel was supposed to be 5* ? Only if it's out of 10 ! If it is actually out of 5, then it's a 3* at best. The rooms are absolutely massive, with full kitchen, dishwasher, fridge, etc. our kitchen stank of rotten eggs, the rooms are clean but extremely dated. The pool bar is very small with just a few cheap plastic chairs scattered about. The pool towels have to be rented at a cost of €5 which I thought was odd. The food was absolutely terrible for an all inclusive. For the most part everything was cold, the breakfast was awful, the choice was poor and very limited. One good thing, the staff were good and the cakes were nice. Other than that, sometimes we are out. There are repairs that need doing to the hotel, it is in serious need of an upgrade. Also, all the photos on the website are from their sister hotels which are far superior to this one and a 20 minute walk away. We did use a sister hotel near the beach which was so much nicer, but the photos and description were very misleading to say the least. The beer was sagres which was ok and the spirits were local brands but largely decent. I would not return to this hotel next year. I was disappointed.
Maryland Crafts
This is not a 5 star. The rooms are dated. The staff are overworked, the dinning area is too small. There isnt a large varuety of food to choose from. The toiletries were never replaced. The towels were old and worn out. Even the ones given in the pool had holes in them. No fresh juice.
Ripal patel
4* is overall including location benefits.
Food, if you are vegetarian, you may face problems as this region is more about sea food and meat.
However they also place Veg food by meat, inspite of telling them, they carried on arranging food in same way. Fruits were good, but Papaya really delicious and disappeared after two days and never appeared during 9 days of our stay.
If you are a spice lover, strong suggestion to carry roasted curry topper power, spice is missing almost completely.
Onsite parking free, but in peak season you may have to park out.
Strong recommendation to carry Coins as parking is cheaper but they don't give change back. So 10 or 20 or 50 denomination coins are very helpful.
Hotel has poor coffee tastes, coffie is made with power milk, if you are English Latte or Capachino lovers, you will struggle. As the entire region depends on power milk except genuine cafe but the people prefer black coffee and so I understand why it's a problem getting good coffee.
Hotel rooms could have been served little better than just doing bedsheets. Few times, I had to go and ask for changing towels.
Hotel has indoor pools, but don't forget to take swimming hats otherwise you will end up buying it there, waste but not expensive €3 but is still a cost.
If you are not having a car, local hop on hop off train is cheap and the stop is right behind the hotel. Two routes, adult cost for both the routes is €6 per day, not bad.
Location is very good advantage, as it's almost in the middle of south belt.
Hire car, booster seats are very expensive from hire car company €50 to €90. As soon as you pickup car, go to Superstore, get it at €19. Even if you throw it away, still cheaper.
Good family hotel for sure.
My Booking
