Monchique Resort & Spa

Hotel was nice with good quality of service. Location is beautiful, but car is needed to visit other places (beach, coast, aquaparks, shops etc.). Great heated pool. Missing a bit of evening entertainment and kids facilities (e.g. kids club). However, despite being mentioned on the loveholidays website, the hotel then confirmed they don't usually do kids entertainment. Food was lovely and good quality. Half board: breakfast buffet was very nice with nice choice of items. Evening meal was really lovely when buffet was on, which we enjoyed the first week, the dishes were very tasty and good variety of seafood, meats and salads were included. However, then it changed to a la carte (we don't know why), leaving us and kids with a very limited choice (e.g. had to ask for even few pieces of cucumber so kids can have any veg at all with their pasta). Drinks options also changed, from being able to have unlimited wine and coffee for a set fee when the buffet was on, to having to pay regular bar prices for each drink with the a la carte. Nothing was too much of a trouble though, and the staff was helpful and friendly, so no complaints, just slight remarks. Rooms were spacious and cleaned very well. Towels and bed linen of superb quality. Gym was good, and the hotel was offering some guided walks and pilates/stretching classes. We enjoyed our stay, however, we did organise all trips and entertainment ourselves as travelling with two kids.

The resort is a wonderful place. We never had a more comfortable room than the one in Monchique and enjoyed our stay very much. Also the food was excellent. We are hikers and love nature not only at the beach but also in the mountains of the Algarve. In terms of hiking the knowledge and support by the resort staff could have been more active and knowledgable. For instance, we asked for a nature trail to and from the Monchique village. The answer was negative, there is none, we would have to follow the road. In the tourist office of Monchique the lady gave us detailed information how to walk and, indeed, there is a wonderful hiking trail back to your resort. As we learned towards the end of our stay, there is quite a number of hiking opportunities in the region. This potential remains unexploited so far. May be you could train your staff to give a better informed advice to interested guests? Or you could strive for a partnership with the tourist office in Monchique and encourage the maintanence of the hiking trails? A final remark linked to the above. I was asking myself what is the basic business idea behind your fabulous resort? Is it health promotion? Provision of fitness facilities? Offer of nature tourism opportunities? Or relaxation and rehabilitation? Again: Thanks a lot for all your efforts, best regards, Richard