Falésia Hotel — Hotel in Albufeira

Simply put, this is the best hotel I have ever stayed in.

If you are even considering this hotel, and you're looking for a relaxing break away, book it now. I promise, you will not be dissapointed.

First thing to mention is that the staff here are nothing short of incredible. Every single member goes above and beyond to make sure you have a great time, and feel truly welcome and valued. They are beyond friendly, very chatty, and are happy to help with anything at all. True 5* service.

Next, the hotel itself is stunning. Not only is it spotless throughout, but it's quiet, relaxed and calm wherever you look. The rooms were fantastic, complete with everything you'd ever need. Restaurant was fantastically kept and again, was spotless throughout. Bar area was relaxed and comfy, so a lovely place to spend the evenings. Further to the cleanliness point, you especially know a hotel is doing well when the poolside toilets have a dry floor, and smell clean and fresh all day long.

Rooms were quiet, with good noise isolation. As mentioned above, they were spotless with daily cleaning and towel changes. Bathrooms were modern and well equipped. The shower was amazing!! All required amenities were present, including hairdryer, fridge, TV, shampoo, toilet roll and plenty of plugs for devices. Beds were comfortable and fresh, with daily linen changes. Air con was fantastic, and much needed for us brits in the portugal sun! This all made for a fantastic night's sleep, leaving you feeling refreshed.

The pool area was again spotless. Plenty of sunbeds available (Despite the usual 7am clown gang dashing down to 'reserve' theirs. Joke was on them really, as we were never stuck for choice, even as late as 11am, so don't worry about this.) Pool was clean and a perfect temperature for the weather. Atmosphere was relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable. Something to note is that the pool has a gradient all the way around, meaning nobody ruining your relaxing swim by practising their olympic diving.

The restaurant was also incredible. The food was amazing, with a good variety throughout. A nice selection of drinks and wines available too. Again, the staff here were excellent. From the waiting staff clearing tables, to the friendly chefs serving food in the dining room. All overseen by Philippe, who ensured that guests always arrived and left with a smile on their face.

The bar in the evening served a good variety of drinks, including some incredible cocktails (The Tiki Falesia being a particular hit with our family). Once again served by the friendliest staff who always carried plenty of complimentary 'spanish caviar' (salted peanuts), making it feel all the more special. Atmosphere in the bar was enjoyable the majority of the time (See pros/cons for more info below).

++ Pros ++

Outstanding staff Beautiful hotel Clean and comfortable rooms Quiet and relaxing throughout Top quality food and dining experience Well stocked bar with brilliant bar staff Cocktails!! Luxurious pool area and garden

-- Cons --

Evening entertainment was quite repetitive. We heard the same selection of songs sung most nights, and a lot of them didn't really seem appropriate for a holiday in the algarve. More local music / talents giving you a real taste of Portuguese culture would have been nice.

Similar issue with the poolside DJ on saturdays. A very hectic and confused mix of dated music, combined with lazy and bad sounding mixing made it less than enjoyable.

Although there was allergen labels in the restaurant, these often seemed inaccurate. There were multiple days where cakes were marked as gluten free, even though we were very sceptical if they actually were. Improve this signage, and definitely try to offer more gluten free choices (Even though there was 'enough' for a coeliac to eat happily, more choice is always...

NO FUN ALLOWED! SILENCE! RETIREES ONLY! We were traveling Portugal from New York for my wife's upcoming 40th birthday and my 41st birthday fell on the day of our arrival in August 2024 at Falesia. Our group of 12 adults booked 6 rooms, and our previous stays in Porto and Lisbon were wonderful. I will start with the good at Falesia: the pools are beautiful and we had a large junior suite. The buffet staff and housekeepers are friendly and hardworking. It ends there. Upon arrival, our minibar was empty and the refrigerator was not working. The room was very hot. It took about 36 hours for the minibar to cool the drinks we had, and they gave us a problem about "overfilling" the refrigerator with normal sized drinks when asked why it was not working. They said the fridge is intended only to cool a few small bottles. No big deal. Then the room would not cool down. It was at 25 degrees Celcius throughout the day. On the second day, we were suggested to keep the key card in the eco-slot to have the room air conditioning running constantly. Despite it being on for 4 days, it never dropped below 22.5 degrees celcius! They came to check on it and ensured it was blowing cold air, which it clearly was doing minimally. On day 2, we tried going to the beach, which was beautiful, but a full 20 minute walk, including many stairs. The beach does not have beds for the hotel and you have to walk even further for public ones. They are 20 euro per couple, and we could not find enough available ones for our group, because most are reserved by the other hotels. There are shuttles that do not run on Sundays or Mondays and stop running at 2:30PM, so getting there is more trouble than it's worth. THIS IS NOT A BEACH RESORT. The worst part of the stay is their silly rules! We booked adults-only to have fun, which we did in our previous two destinations in Portugal. All 6 couples were constantly shushed here, when getting together in the lobby! We played light dance music in the garden where people were sunbathing, because there were few lounge chairs to ever be had by the pool. A hotel front desk employee came to us and told us to lower it. The next day, we got together in our room before going out and I put music on in my room on my 3 inch portable speaker. Five minutes later, a front desk employee knocked on the door and angrily told us we have to turn it off! This was the last straw. Before leaving for dinner, we went to the front desk to complain. We were notified by the arrogant front desk staff and the manager that this is a hotel for couples only (which we were) and no parties were allowed (which we did not have). This information could not be found on their website and it was found to be in very fine print on expedia (after one of them printed it for us), which most of our group did not book through. They told us their guests expect quiet, and even playing music in your own room in the middle of the day goes against their policy. Most of the guests are quite old, and though we were prepared for adults, we were not prepared for the amount of retirees. Nonetheless, not a single guest complained about our group. It was the hotel management with their smug grins and arrogant behavior that kept us from having a good time for no apparent reason. We did not cause any trouble and they were constantly telling us to be quiet. They did not like seeing a group of friends together, which goes against all logic. On the fourth day, after all the complaining, my toilet flusher broke and they did not send someone until hours later to fix it. I think this was their sick way of trying to exact some form of deranged revenge on us. This hotel is not worth $300 per night unless you are at least 65 years old, plan on reading a book in silence, and never going to the beach for your entire...

We arrived for the last leg of our 10 day trip to Portugal for a friend's 40th birthday. All hotels and staff, in Porto and Lisbon, we dealt with up until this point were extremely gracious and helpful. We had such wonderful experiences that we hoped to end our trip on an equally fantastic note. We were 6 couples trying to enjoy an adults only vacation not a hotel where you cannot talk or enjoy the pool without a book in hand. Upon our arrival you can tell right away that this is not an adults only hotel but a hotel for geriatric clientele who do not wish to be bothered by any talking or music. It is deafeningly quiet all the time including by the pool. We came back from dinner and were shushed by the front desk. We met in the lobby to wait for cars to take us to dinner where we took some pictures and talked amongst each other unfortunately we were met with nasty stares from guests and reprimanded once again for talking by the front desk. Another evening we came back late from a night out in Old Town and they had some sort of entertainment that can be best described as elevator music going on by the bar and once again we were reprimanded for talking upon entering the lobby. The hotel is situated in the middle of nowhere and the food in the hotel was not good at all. The breakfast buffet had very little in terms of variety and pool bar had nothing but a bag of chips to offer. Staff aside from the front desk was very friendly and helpful. The shuttle to the beach was a joke since 3 out of the 4 days we were there it wasn't running. I found this to be quite inconvenient. We decided to walk there the second day of our stay and the walk was more than 15 mins away and included many stairs which was fine however once we got to the spot the front desk instructed us to go to there wasn't enough chairs for our entire party and each one cost us $20 euros. The next day we decided to stay at the pool and we had to sit in the garden because guests had placed towels on all the chairs by the pool. We had a small portable speaker with us and made sure to play music low enough so as not to disrupt nearby people. Unfortunately that wasn't good enough. Once again management came storming up to us telling us the music was too loud which wasn't possible. They were also annoyed that we were talking too loudly saying we were bothering the other guests. I've never stayed at a hotel where talking wasn't allowed in a public space. The last straw was when we all met up in our friends suite before heading out to dinner. It was 5:30 in the afternoon and he put some music on and management came banging on the door reprimanding us again that music wasn't allowed to be played in the room. We went downstairs to the front desk to express our disappointment with the treatment we had received since arriving and we were met with smug faces and condescending comments about how their rules are posted on Expedia. They printed out the fine print from the website however we did not book on this website so this was not something we would have been made aware of and even so if this is their policy it should explicitly be stated on their website. Upon our return home I researched more and have come to realize all the stellar reviews have been made from repeat older English customers who are used to a certain experience and don't want the hotel to deviate from this and so the hotel staff is willing to make everyone else's experience terrible to appease this specific group of clientele. I will make sure not to recommend this hotel to family, friends...