Rocha Brava Village Resort — Attraction in Lagoa

A group (23) went to Rocha Brava to play pickle ball. I have very mixed reviews on this resort. Good location, grounds and pools were good. Anabela (manager of booking) put my husband and I and another couple in room 203, saying would be nice. That's when the problems started. My husband was bitten by a spider, we think brown recluse spider which can be deadly for children. What a nightmare. See pics.. Our complaint should not be taken lightly. To be fair I saw other rooms and most were ok. You just have to be careful what room you are assigned. There was just something about the way our concerns where handled that was inappropriate. Sorry for the length of this review, just want everyone to understand the circumstances around what we went through. This was the final email (there were many) I sent to Anke Geurts the resort manager, ||1. the room had not been cleaned properly, evidenced by piles of termite droppings.||2. when your cleaners were in the room the dampness and musty odour would have been apparent. We should not have had to check in and complain about that. Should just be done. Why isn't management doing inspections and regular pest control procedures. Particularly when poisonous spiders are know to inhabit your area. Regular insect control is a common practice in resorts worldwide. This lack of regular maintenance is clearly evident.. right behind us in line was another gentleman wanting to leave because his room had an odour, not cleaned, etc. ||3. And we didn't complain at first, not our nature, but as the spider bite worsened we did. Then your response is no one looks at emails from your clients sent late Friday until Monday morning. This is concern coming from a large resort where medical issues are always a possibility.||4. Reception on Saturday, advised us to go to medical centre in lagos, that's it . How are we to know the other option. Your book says there is a doctor on the premises. That is misleading. There is not, and when reception called doctor, no answer. So that was that. ( this was the start of our holiday, we went to a doctor in Spain and Morocco. Finally when we returned to Canada, the appropriate treatment was given..please find attached the pictures of the result of the bite). ||5. The refund 200 euros, (Anke approved this) did not come back on our card. It went to our friends, who we shared the room with. ||6. Also, the response, " you should have told us, we would have given you another room, and put the new guest in your room". No mention we better spray for spiders, check the room out etc.. Don't think you understand this spider could have bitten a child, and be life threatening. ||7. All we wanted was a nice vacation with our friends, and yes I was the leader, and had the worst room. We knew your resort was full, so didn't have a lot of options, and were trying to go with the state of things. Rather than leave. ||I hope you find these points helpful, for ensuring the safety of your guests. Rather than itemize points, "no one complained until Friday, if you would have let us know sooner"...that's not the point of this correspondence. What about, we are so sorry for what happened, what can we do to help mitigate the pain and suffering your...

Recently stayed here for 4 nights as a solo traveller, for a little r&r break away. ||The village itself is very clean and very well kept with lovely trees, bushes, flowers etc all around. Could not fault it. ||Upon check in, a lady welcomed me, although it did puzzle me a bit that she asked me for everyone’s passports when she could clearly see I was on my own and pretty sure it would say on my booking 1 person. But still, she gave me the maps and explained where everything was. Only thing that I was informed of is where breakfast (that I had paid extra for) would be located but guessed I’d figure that out for myself. ||My 1 bedroom apartment with garden view was only a few minutes walk away. 269 it was. Quite dated but that didn’t bother me, it was a good size, nice and spacious, lovely size balcony with 2 sunbeds and table and chairs. Fully equipped kitchen, and even had a washing machine in the bathroom. If I was staying for longer it had everything you’d need. Didn’t have a garden view as was facing the main road and restaurant but I could see the sea and was a nice view none the less .||The main swimming pool area was nice, grassy though and you get muddy feet so make sure you wear flip flops! The pool was rather cold but okay for a quick dip. Always plenty of sunbeds available but could see it being an issue in the height of summer. ||Pool bar very nice and staff were lovely in there.||The first night of my arrival I decided I would try the onsite restaurant O Farols. I went over around 7pm and could see quite a lot of empty tables, I asked for a table for 1. The host looked completely shocked and repeated a table for 1? He then continued to ask me to get a drink by the pool and wait until he could get me a table. There was plenty of empty tables! None the less I went to get a glass of fizz and paid at the pool bar. Half an hour later the host came to get me for my table and sat me on a table that was empty in the first place. This made me feel really awkward and unwelcome as a solo traveller. You should look after your solos, not make them feel like a burden! Food wasn’t great either, and then he charged me twice for a Prosecco, one of which is paid for at the pool bar! But I was too tired and anxious to even say anything. Needless to say I avoided it for the rest of my stay and forfeited the breakfast I paid for because his attitude really put me off. Such a shame for my first night. ||However, I had some lovely meals at the Indian, pashmina, just around the corner. They really looked after me! And food was amazing. The lighthouse just up the road also amazing service and food. ||The shop onsite is quite expensive so I walked to the spar that isn’t far away and used that instead.||I would stay again but maybe with my family next time. I suggest restaurant staff have a little course in hospitality service and first impressions because...

We have just returned from a 10 night stay at Rocha Brava as a family of 8. We had 2 ground floor apartments next to each other, 268 and 270. They were in a great location across the road from the main pool, and close to the shop.

The apartments are fairly basic, but clean and quite spacious. The kitchen is small but adequate. We ate out mostly but found the kitchen to have the main essentials. They give you a small amount of washing up liquid, anti bacterial, a sponge and a cloth to start you off. The washing machine was a bonus.

The bedrooms were comfortable and had air con, although I will say that the pillows were terrible! But other than that, no issues.

The bathroom was a bit dated. The shower curtain was a bit grotty and hung too low so the floor got wet but it wasn't a major problem. They could do with updating to a shower screen perhaps. They change the towels every couple of days and the beds every 4 days I think it was.

There is an outside area to the side with a clothes airer, and to the front was a table and chairs for 4, and 2 sun loungers with umbrella.

We loved the main pool area which is made up of a small kids splash pool, a medium pool and a larger pool. There are a couple of other pools around the site but we didn't use them as the main pool was more convenient for us. The grass has worn away in some areas around the loungers and would benefit from re-seeding. The rest of the grounds and gardens are lovely and well looked after. There was only 1 afternoon when we couldn't get any loungers. The others days were fine if you went down about 9.30-10am.

The shop on site is very expensive. We only used it for milk, ice creams, pastries etc. There is a Spar on the opposite side which is a bit cheaper. Aldi/Lidl are a taxi ride away. The mini supermarkets in Carvoeiro are also quite expensive.

We used the free resort shuttle a few times to get into Carvoeiro. We also used the Bolt app for taxis. It was a bit hit or miss but was between 4 and 6 euros each way.

There are a few restaurants within walking distance. We enjoyed Jardim do Farol and Mona Lisa. O Stop has beautiful views over the beach but you need to book as it gets very busy. In Carvoeiro, Vimar was lovely. We didn't eat at the on site cafe or restaurant as they were both on the expensive side, and there were lots of alternatives close by.

The resort is in a good location with easy access to Carvoeiro town, the local beaches, the boardwalk, water park, Benagil caves etc.

Overall we had a lovely holiday, and would stay here again if we returned...