Praia D'El Rey Marriott Golf & Beach Resort — Hotel in Óbidos

Not Quite... Welcome to the Marriott Praia del Rey, where luxury is an aspirational concept and the 'Marriott' in the name is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Let me walk you through the highlights of a stay that was a masterclass in managing expectations—mostly by lowering them. The rooms are a nostalgic throwback, a tribute to a bygone era of interior design that I can only assume was the late '90s. The worn-out decor is a charming reminder that things were simpler back then, a time when a simple bed and four walls were considered enough. And forget about a welcome amenity. Who needs a complimentary bottle of local wine or a fruit basket when you have the joy of a Nespresso machine in your room? Just be sure to bring your spare change, because each pod will only set you back €2.50. It’s the perfect way to start your day by contemplating what "complimentary" truly means. As for turndown service, they must have a strict "no tucking-in" policy. And the service? Well, let’s just say it's more of a "self-service" kind of place. The most exciting part of the stay was trying to decipher the "opaque invoicing" and "mysterious charge for Internet use." It's a fun little scavenger hunt for your wallet, and a great way to remember that in 2025, Wi-Fi is still a premium, not a basic human right. The breakfast was a delightful exercise in minimalism. The selection of cold cuts was so scarce, it was like they were playing a game of "Where's Waldo?" with the salami. But at least you had an incredible view to distract you from the lack of imagination on your plate. Speaking of imagination, the restaurants were equally "not quite." For a cool €32, you can enjoy the Lobster Roll, which is neither a roll nor an abundance of lobster. It’s a brioche filled with a "lot of filling" and a few pieces of what I can only assume were the ghost of frozen lobsters past. And if you order rigatoni, be prepared to receive paccheri. The menu descriptions are less a guide and more of a suggestion. After all, who cares? It's just pasta. But let's move on to the golf, because that’s what this resort is really about, right? Both the Praia del Rey and WestCliffs courses offer breathtaking ocean views, which is great because it takes your mind off the fact that the courses are "not in top condition." My personal favorite was WestCliffs, where we were treated to aerated greens covered in sand and aggressively watered during our midday play. The resulting "muddy surface" was a truly unique challenge. And for those of you who appreciate a good walk spoiled, you’re in for a treat with the long, sandy stretches between holes. And don't even think about relying on the buggies for comfort. They're stripped down to the bare essentials—no GPS, no divot filler, no club cleaning, and not even an ice box to keep your celebratory (or consolatory) beer cold. It’s a purist’s experience: just you, your clubs, and the gnawing feeling that you’re paying a premium for a resort that's firmly rooted in the past. At €400-plus per night for a room with breakfast, the price is as baffling as the mysterious Wi-Fi charges. It’s a steep price for a “not quite” luxury experience. But hey, at least the ocean view is amazing. You can’t put a price on that, but apparently, you can charge an arm and a leg for a...

Overall, it was a great vacation! And there were a couple of highlights and some areas which were not as nice.

Room and Resort: The room was great, super big, cleaned very daily and quickly. The oceanfront view was amazing throughout the day. The one issue with room is that i had a door going to the outside but it couldn't lock from the outside and there as no screen door so if you left it open you would let in flys which were so annoying! but rooms overall were great.

Beach: The main issue here is that currently in July 2025, the beach access is from the hotel directly is not available since the hotel is on top of a cliff and the stairs going down are closed so you have to take a shuttle which is fine but ... not as ideal as walking whenever you want. It would be really amazing if they had fixed that so we could have gone to the beach more frequently since the sand was super clean, clear water, and big waves great for surfing.

Breakfast: Great buffet, a lot of food and drink options! awesome.

Dinner Buffets at Tempera: The main restaurant does have dinner buffets but in my opinion is that it is overpriced given the quality of the food. I might just be as a picky eater but I felt like the quality of the dinner buffets are not as great, and when you look at the other restaurants like emprata, they are also pretty pricey. We tried it one time, but then other than that we tried room service and going dinner outside of the resort.

Resort Location: The resort is about like an hour to an hour and half north of Lisbon. You can take the Redes expresso bus from Lisbon which is a nice bus ride and cost effective. You can also take a Bolt or Uber. It is close enough to Lisbon that we were able to do a day trip. The resort is close to some small towns like Peniche which have nice water views and little markets and restaurants.

Resort Vibe: Not sure if this is the case all year round, but it was super chill and quiet most of the time. Sometimes you could feel like you have the resort to yourself, like I would request a shuttle and they shuttle is just us. Or if you we sit at the chairs near the cliff and its just us. The pools only has a couple of people in it. It was super chill and quiet.

Overall, it was a really nice and relaxing. The main things I wish I would have thought about more is the fact that food options are not the most plentiful in my opinion (at least reasonable priced ones) and the fact that the resort is a little bit in the middle of smaller towns, but would definitely...

This hotel is wonderful. The building is so beautiful, very well kept with breath taking ocean views and fantastic spaces and facilities: scenic outdoor terraces, beautifully decorated indoor bars with sea view, well kept gardens, big outdoor pool with plenty of sun beds, very well equipped and new gym, excellent indoor pool with jacuzzi, sauna and Turkish bath - fantastic place to relax. Our room was very spacious, the beds were very comfortable, perfect room temperature and soft towels. Every space is spotless clean. The kids club is so great! They have a huge garden with slides and swings and a good size room for kids to play. The space can be accessed at any time. The staff is 5+ stars: consistently friendly, professional, welcoming, attentive, helpful. The hotel delights its guests with a lot of small details: they gave our daughter a balloon upon arrival and soap bubbles when we left. They also offered us a welcome drink and local sweets to take on our journey upon departure. The only aspect which needs improvement is the restaurant/room service. We had dinner at the buffet restaurant for 35€each + drinks (non included). The food was overall ok but a bit below our expectations.The meat hadn't been cooked the right way, the fish was ok but nothing special, same for the salads. What made the dinner worth its price were the desserts: so delicious. The drinks were very expensive (1 water, 1 pepsi, 1orange juice = 18euros). In the morning I went for breakfast at the restaurant and I really liked the variety and freshness of food (only the coffee wasn't great) and the staff was so friendly and attentive. However, my husband had to request room service for breakfast because he was unwell. Even though he had already paid the room+breakfast fare, he could only get continental breakfast in the room at no extra cost (except for the room service =7€). For hot food he would have to pay extra, which we found unfair. Also, they brought him some honey which had already been open. We feel that he should have been offered more choice, among the food variety he would have gotten in the restaurant, since he had already paid for it. Just a tip for the hotel to improve. These are obviously details, the hotel is overall amazing and we...