I stayed at this hotel with my sister, neice and one of her friends from 28th June to 5th July. (Age range from 15 to 49).
We arrived late on the Saturday night and the check-in process was very slow - as was everything else when you were dealing with the reception staff. They tended to be fairly surly and unhelpful. We had booked the late check-out option but were not informed until we went up to get ready an hour or so before our pick up that we had to move rooms - even though we had asked the night before what time we had to be out of the rooms at. For a chain hotel the level of English spoken by the reception staff was the worst I have encountered.
The rest of the hotel staff were pleasant, rooms were kept very clean as was the whole of the hotel. If you can, try to make it down early for breakfast as later can be a bit hectic although there was always plenty to choose from. The outdoor pool is large but I think they should limit the playing of ball games and the use of lilos. It was almost impossible to swim freely without encountering one or other or normally both. The last few days we were there you were not allowed to reserve sunbeds - towels were removed. I was quite happy about this as by 7am on the first few days we were there about half the beds were reserved.
You can hire towels for free from the spa - useful to know.
The pool bar is expensive - go to the Brisa Sol cake shop next door or the large supermarket in the shopping centre.

The location of the hotel is ok - we took taxis or the train/bus when going to the Old Town or Strip - both are within walking distance but neither are particularly scenic. It's under 4 euros to get to either.

I didn't really like the resort but I tend to go away in May or September so I think anywhere would have been too busy and noisy for me at this time of year. We went through to Villamoura for an evening and that was far nicer.

I am writing this review just 3 days after returning and firstly, i would like to say i had a great time in Albufeira. The hotel itself was good, the receptionist checked us in professionally and quickly and when i asked about were to eat that evening he gave us a map and directions to old town and suggested a few restaurants down there! there was an attendant who showed us to our room and took our suitcases for us, when we got to our room we were very impressed it was on the 2nd floor and although it faced the road so was abit noisy, we found that the airconditioning worked well enough so you could keep the patio doors closed at night, and during the day too if you want. As for the food we were on Bed and Breakfast and we loved the food there you had everything from cooked breakfasts to fruit, cereal and meats and cheeses a bit of a warning though, i personally found the cooked breakfasts to be a bit lukewarm except for the bacon and fried eggs which were cooked constantly throughout the service freshly by a chef who was behind the area were the cooked breakfasts were displayed, also the sausages are only cocktail sausages, but like i said there is so much choice on everything else i personally didn't find it a problem. The pool was lovely and there was a reasonable amount of sunloungers but like many other reviewers have said on this place, you do need to get up a reasonable time otherwise you have to make do with the grass, my friend and myself found it worked well to get up about about no later then 8:30 and we managed to get a sunlounger everyday we were there. We ate in old town and didn't bother with the strip and quite frankly it didn't bother us as there was so much choice everything from portugese to mexcian and even japanese. As for drinks there was loads to try lots of places did beers local and home there was plenty of nice local wine and cocktails to try, my personal favourite was Vinho Verde wine which in english is Green Wine which is like a very young white wine, is refeshing and has a slight sparkle to it, considering I'm a red wine girl myself i was completely hooked on this and would advise you to try this, one final warning the pavements are paved with these shiny white tiles which look nice but are very slippery and as the walk down to old town is on a hill i suggest you be carefull, and would advise women to avoid heels if they can as i saw quite a few ladies taking nasty tumbles in heels, i stuck to flat shoes the entire time and had no problems. All in all i had a wonderfull time and it was the relaxing break i needed!

We have just returned from a 12 night stay at the Vila Gale, Albufeira. Firstly, the hotel itself is in an excellent location - 10 mins or so from the lovely Old Town and Fishermans Beach (both of which are accessible by taking a short stroll, then using the escalators which take you down to the town and beach....there are lovely panaramic views of the beach, sea and town from the top) .......

The hotel is fine, the staff at reception are very helpful but we felt the staff working in the hotel restaurant could have been a little more helpul. We stayed on a bed and breakfast basis as we like to eat out each night but we did try the a la carte menu at the hotel one evening. However, the experience was less than comfortable as most guests were eating the buffet meal which in its own right was fine however the staff seemed to have real difficulty grasping the fact that we wanted to choose from the menu and not have the buffet. It took more than 4 waiters and several minutes to resolve this and by then we really had wished that we had simply eaten at one of the nearby old town restaurants which were very good....

We were celebrating our anniversary so we chose to eat at several restaurants with terrace views overlooking the beach and sea. A Ruina above Fishermans beach was in an amazing location, but a little expensive (only sea food and you pay for fish / shellfish by the KG so you dont really know how expensive your meal is until your bill arrives...we felt this was a little off-putting). The Louisanna Restaurant along the beach also had nice food and lovely views from the terrace. Our favourite find was a lovely restaurant called The Atrium which was above the main shopping street in the old town and used to be an old theatre. It was indoors and had live music on a Monday and Wednesday night. It provided a really intimate romantic venue for a candlelit dinner. Fishermans tavern also very nice!!...The diners around the main square itself get busy as they are reasonaby cheap, however the staff generally ignore you and can be quite rude. Food only so so......

The free entertainment in the 'square', musicians, clowns etc was very good.

The little train (there are several and frequent) is only 4 euros per person per day or 2.50 euros for a one way ticket. These run between the old town and new strip until nearly 3am and are very good value. The stops display the train symbol and there is one outside the hotel. The new strip is worth a look but the old town rivals it for bars and places to eat and the setting is much nicer, it really is a charming little place with bags of character and the little gift shops are also very nice.

Local buses run every half hour or so from outside the hotel next door which go to Vilamoura and Faro. The marina at Vilamoura is defintely worth a look. The tickets are quite cheap (4 euros or so) which you can buy on the bus. Vilamoura has some lovely bars and diners and a beautiful 'quiet' long white sandy beach behind the lovely marina that the guide books dont mention!!!.

Another excellent day trip is Zoo Marine, the dolphin show is amazing and there are swimming pools and lots of other shows. The animals really did seem to be well cared for which was important.......

There were no tea/coffee making facilities within the Hotel rooms and paying an additional 2.50 euros per day for the room safe rather than a returnable deposit was a little dissappointing.

We felt it was worth paying a little extra for the pool view (which also provides a distant sea view) as the alternative view is of the busy roadside.The swimming pool at the hotel is very nice (and shallow throughout) but you need to secure the sunbeds from 8am when others start claiming them. If you can't beat them, join them, if you want to sit by the pool!!!

All in all, we had a magical time in Portugal, the local people are really friendly and the food, drink and general relaxed atmosphere cannot be faulted. Would definately return one day!

P and S, London, UK

We went to the hotel on 5th June for 1 week, I would recommend paying extra for the pool view rooms as we had a room overlooking the main road which was ok but we also had a terrible view of the bins and it was very noisy day and night, especially when the bin van came at 6.30.
Room was clean and tidy, we found the breakfast barely warm and if you wanted a sun lounger you needed to have a towel on it before 9am or you didn't get one, we counted that they only had about 150 beds for a hotel of 300s rooms so no where near enough, they have a rule that states they remove towels put on beds before 9am, but it was never actioned while we were there.

The Old town is great, and there was a great Indian restaurant up by the strip. I have stayed in far better 4x hotels,I would not go back to this hotel, but the area was lovely.