Vale do Lobo — Attraction in Loulé

As I write this, I am currently staying at the Vale do Lobo resort, and I have a number of concerns to address. Although I have never left a review on TripAdvisor, I review hotels and spas for a living. When I go on holiday, I prefer not to leave feedback, as it feels too much like work. However, my experience here compels me to share my thoughts.||First, the resort's website is confusing, to say the least. My family—my husband, our three children, and I—have been visiting Portugal for 12 years. This year, we decided to try a new location, switching from Carvoeiro to Vale do Lobo. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a clear sense of the resort from the website. Typically, we stay in hotels that offer large family villas with private pools and access to all hotel facilities, such as the gym, spa, and breakfast. I believed Vale do Lobo would offer similar amenities, but that was not the case.||The resort lacks a central hub. Our villa was located about 1.5 kilometers from the main reception area, which is just a general service area without the feel of a main hotel. The beach square, which includes the resort pool and "The Well" wellness space, is another two kilometers away from our villa. While these areas are accessible via the resort’s shuttle service, the distance is still inconvenient.||Upon arrival at 11:30 AM, we were informed that check-in would not be until 5 PM. Anticipating this, I had packed a bag with swim gear and snacks for the kids so we could use the resort pool in the meantime. I asked reception to let us know if our villa became available earlier, but no such luck.||Now, let me address "The Well." This place is far from a wellness sanctuary. Although entry is free for residents, non-residents are charged a hefty fee. Upon entering, we were asked if we had any food or drinks in our beach bags. I had forgotten that the kids had snacks from the airport, which were promptly confiscated. To make matters worse, my 7-year-old daughter was eating an ice cream that we had purchased from the resort’s snack bar right next to "The Well," and they made her stand aside to finish it before allowing her to enter. Frankly, who in their right mind would do that to a child?||Despite the resort's claim to be family-friendly, I have never, in all my years of staying at five-star resorts in Portugal, been told we couldn’t bring snacks to the pool. After this frustrating encounter, we finally found two sunbeds, but with five of us, we needed one more. When I asked a pool attendant for help in moving an available bed closer to ours, he flatly refused. Already upset from the earlier incident, I insisted he either move the bed or get the manager. While I understand this might make me sound difficult, I believe that when you’re paying a premium for a facility, basic customer service should be expected.||The atmosphere at the pool was also far from family-friendly, more reminiscent Love Island than a luxury resort. At one point, a rowdy guest, who appeared quite drunk, threw a jug of sangria into the pool while shouting obscenities and being overtly sexual in the pool with two women. Security did intervene, but the overall vibe was inappropriate for children. Additionally, the pool water was grimy and murky, prompting us to leave shortly after and return to our villa.||The villa itself was nice—a spacious property with three bedrooms and a small pool, perfect for our needs. However, that was one of the few positives of our stay.||Dining was another challenge. Everywhere was fully booked, so I recommend securing reservations well in advance. The reservation process was confusing, as it was difficult to understand where everything was located within the resort.||On our third evening, we dined at Bamboo, an Asian fusion restaurant near the golf course (which we had wisely pre-booked). The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was fun and would definitely recommend. However, during dinner, I became severely ill and had to be rushed to the local private hospital. I underwent emergency stomach surgery and spent three nights in the ICU, followed by two additional nights in the ward. I was released with caution to spend the last two days of our holiday with my family.||Given my limited mobility and pain following the surgery, I arranged for wheelchair access and assistance at the airport for our flight home. We requested a late check-out from the villa—just an additional two hours to save an additional journey that would require further assistance for me and also leave me exhausted. However, the resort refused, citing the need to prepare the villa for the next guests by 5 PM. Despite explaining our distressing situation to the manager, they still denied our request.||While the area itself is beautiful, the resort’s management and customer service leave much to be desired. I strongly urge them to reconsider their approach to hospitality. My family and I will not be returning to...

As I write this, I am currently staying at the Vale do Lobo resort, and I have a number of concerns to address. Although I have never left a review on TripAdvisor, I review hotels and spas for a living. When I go on holiday, I prefer not to leave feedback, as it feels too much like work. However, my experience here compels me to share my thoughts.||First, the resort's website is confusing, to say the least. My family—my husband, our three children, and I—have been visiting Portugal for 12 years. This year, we decided to try a new location, switching from Carvoeiro to Vale do Lobo. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a clear sense of the resort from the website. Typically, we stay in hotels that offer large family villas with private pools and access to all hotel facilities, such as the gym, spa, and breakfast. I believed Vale do Lobo would offer similar amenities, but that was not the case.||The resort lacks a central hub. Our villa was located about 1.5 kilometers from the main reception area, which is just a general service area without the feel of a main hotel. The beach square, which includes the resort pool and "The Well" wellness space, is another two kilometers away from our villa. While these areas are accessible via the resort’s shuttle service, the distance is still inconvenient.||Upon arrival at 11:30 AM, we were informed that check-in would not be until 5 PM. Anticipating this, I had packed a bag with swim gear and snacks for the kids so we could use the resort pool in the meantime. I asked reception to let us know if our villa became available earlier, but no such luck.||Now, let me address "The Well." This place is far from a wellness sanctuary. Although entry is free for residents, non-residents are charged a hefty fee. Upon entering, we were asked if we had any food or drinks in our beach bags. I had forgotten that the kids had snacks from the airport, which were promptly confiscated. To make matters worse, my 7-year-old daughter was eating an ice cream that we had purchased from the resort’s snack bar right next to "The Well," and they made her stand aside to finish it before allowing her to enter. Frankly, who in their right mind would do that to a child?||Despite the resort's claim to be family-friendly, I have never, in all my years of staying at five-star resorts in Portugal, been told we couldn’t bring snacks to the pool. After this frustrating encounter, we finally found two sunbeds, but with five of us, we needed one more. When I asked a pool attendant for help in moving an available bed closer to ours, he flatly refused. Already upset from the earlier incident, I insisted he either move the bed or get the manager. While I understand this might make me sound difficult, I believe that when you’re paying a premium for a facility, basic customer service should be expected.||The atmosphere at the pool was also far from family-friendly, more reminiscent Love Island than a luxury resort. At one point, a rowdy guest, who appeared quite drunk, threw a jug of sangria into the pool while shouting obscenities and being overtly sexual in the pool with two women. Security did intervene, but the overall vibe was inappropriate for children. Additionally, the pool water was grimy and murky, prompting us to leave shortly after and return to our villa.||The villa itself was nice—a spacious property with three bedrooms and a small pool, perfect for our needs. However, that was one of the few positives of our stay.||Dining was another challenge. Everywhere was fully booked, so I recommend securing reservations well in advance. The reservation process was confusing, as it was difficult to understand where everything was located within the resort.||On our third evening, we dined at Bamboo, an Asian fusion restaurant near the golf course (which we had wisely pre-booked). The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was fun and would definitely recommend. However, during dinner, I became severely ill and had to be rushed to the local private hospital. I underwent emergency stomach surgery and spent three nights in the ICU, followed by two additional nights in the ward. I was released with caution to spend the last two days of our holiday with my family.||Given my limited mobility and pain following the surgery, I arranged for wheelchair access and assistance at the airport for our flight home. We requested a late check-out from the villa—just an additional two hours to save an additional journey that would require further assistance for me and also leave me exhausted. However, the resort refused, citing the need to prepare the villa for the next guests by 5 PM. Despite explaining our distressing situation to the manager, they still denied our request.||While the area itself is beautiful, the resort’s management and customer service leave much to be desired. I strongly urge them to reconsider their approach to hospitality. My family and I will not be returning to...

Do not stay here unless you go in with very low expectations. While the grounds are nice, the service and facilities make for a terrible experience. The main pool is accessible to people who are not guests of the resort (if they pay) and so it is overrun. As a result, you will find it difficult to get a chair/bed by the pool when you go. The pool is also advertised as an "adult pool" on their website but had many children every day that we went. The shuttle service that takes you around the resort is very inconsistent - there were multiple times where no one answered the phone call to request the shuttle, and so we had to walk 30-40 mins after waiting about 15 minutes for the phone line in vain. The shuttle drivers often did not slow down over speed bumps, which made for a chaotic and unpleasant ride that could easily have caused passengers an injury. Also, most of the shuttle drivers were unfriendly (e.g., not saying hello or goodbye or communicating in any way really) and did not open/close doors or attempt to help us with our luggage when checking in. We also had an unpleasant experience at the tennis club. When we were abruptly told to switch courts, we checked in with a staff member at the tennis club reception named Nicolo, who told us guests can only use courts for an hour. When we told him this was frustrating to hear now as he had not explained this previously, he laughed at us. We were surprised how rude he was to us. It was a very strange interaction all around.

Most of the services advertised on their website are contracted out to other vendors. That includes the pool, tennis club, shuttle service, etc. Therefore, when we brought our concerns to the resort reception, they said there was nothing they could do because our complaints were with the other vendors. This seems like an unfair catch 22 - they advertise these services and facilities on their website (misleadingly so) to entice you to stay there but then wash their hands of any complaints about them. On top of that, the director who was supposed to respond to our concerns (Suzanna Gaspar) has not followed up with us at all after several days.

I'd rather stay at a similarly priced hotel nearby and pay to use this resort's pool, or pay a bit more to stay at a better run resort, than stay at Vale do Lobo again. Definitely skip this one if you want to have a relaxing vacation. (​I have never complained about a resort/hotel stay before; but, this was such a unpleasant experience, with misleading advertising, that I had to share so others are aware).

EDIT: To respond to the owner's message below: we stayed at your resort for three days and expressed our concerns to the front desk on the second day. I think it's reasonable to wait a day or two to see if things will improve. I'm not sure why you found it necessary to argue this point, especially when you did not address the substance of our concerns during or after our stay, or even in your response to my review. It suggests to me that you are not interested in being responsive to, or making changes based on,...