Hotel Alto Lido — Hotel in Funchal

We have just returned from a 7 night stay at Alto Lido. Our room was situated on the same side as the building work, which was extremely disruptive and loud, starting at 8am every morning with drilling and banging. We did actually complain at the reception regarding this, to be told by a young lady “it’s not that loud”. The room was okay, but house keeping were hit and miss, meaning some days we had no clean towels. On one of the days we hadn’t had housekeeping come for 2 days (we had left the room at 8:30am every day with the sign on the door requesting it to be seen to) and returned to the room at 4pm to find it just as we left it… we did inform reception about this who did ask the lady to go up and see to the room, which then took another 1.5hrs..

The walls dividing the rooms are paper thin, and the doors bang quite loudly which you can hear throughout the night, we were abruptly woken from sleep many times with people just going out their business. I don’t believe these people were overly loud, just that the hotel has cheap interior walls.

The reception staff were generally quite rude, having conversations between themselves in Portuguese for sometimes up to a few minutes before talking to you. When we checked in at 9pm on 24th November, the two men on reception completely ignored our presence which didn’t get our holiday off to a good start. This continued throughout the week and got rather frustrating towards the end of the week.

Breakfast was good, with plenty of choice for everybody, hot item as such as bacon, sausage, eggs, beans ect and cold such as bread rolls, cereal, meats and cheeses, fruit, yogurt. There is something for everyone.

The hotel pools are underwhelming. The outdoor one is very very small and can get crowded when more than 6 people are swimming, the indoor one claims to be heated but was absolutely freezing both times we attempted to use it. The indoor pool was way colder than the outdoor one.

The lift situation is very annoying. We were on the 10th floor and as a person with limited mobility when it comes to stairs, we had to use the lift every time. There are only 2 lifts. And they do take sometimes up to 5 mins to stop on your floor as they are small and can only fit a maximum of 4 people in (even less if people have suitcases).

The hotel is situated in a decent location with many restaurants and bars around, and a 45 min stroll into Funchal. There is a supermarket only 1 minute walk from the hotel, with plenty of choice and even a hot food counter.

We did meet several other couples who had glowing things to say about their hotels which were very nearby so I think we just made a poor choice with Alto Lido and if we were to return to Madeira, we probs would look at a...

The Alto Lidol is situated on the main Monumental road,just a little way up the road from a fab little supermarket called Pingo dolce(there a chain of stores).Great for wine,snacks etc.We have a room on a high floor balcony get the sun in the afternoon.AC works fine,as mentioned the shower pressure isn't brill but does the job,that's why I didn't go 5.We have a mini fridge for beer n wine or your milk what ever haha.The rooms are good beds firm but we like it that way.We chose this hotel after visiting the island last year and staying over the road(and down) at the Enhotel. Which was also "All inclusive" the version of AI here isnt like some places so if you like cocktails premade and free when ever this place isn't gonna be for you I guess.How ever we like good decent local ber on draft and nice wine then your good to go! Food as mention in other reviews is good fab buffet breakfast,lunch is also buffet but not very busy, selection therefore not as extensive but still good.Evening meal/dinner same buffet style and fab choice especially if you enjoy fish and meat,good selection of salads(not sure how vegan it is).Because we are All Inclusive a Food /snacks service starts at 3pm by the pool 360 Bar which has things like Mellon/club sandwiches/nuggets/emanadas sausage rolls its fab lots of fresh fruit..If you want non local drinks then cheaper to get them out side the hotel .Glass of wine like white Riojca is 7 euros(nice big glasses).Place is spotless and the staff are really nice.I would come back well done guys.Oh and the hotel have a courtesy bus that drops you off at Funchal near to the Funchal Mall.You have to tell them before you go because its goes to the sister hotel and drops there guests of as well.Its really easy to get a "Bolt Taxi" tho and if you get a deal its 5 euros from the Municipal Jardin,little cafe there...

Nice, but not suitable for a holiday. The room was perfect although it overlooked a building site next door but ok. There were no complementary water bottles in the room and also not available in the hotel, except at the bar or restaurant against exorbitant prices. We were promised various restaurants, an indoor and outdoor pool, a terrace etc etc. When I asked where the indoor pool was I was told "behind that door". When I tried to open the door it was closed and asked again "yes, we know, it is closed for renovation". In the middle of the season... The outdoor pool was rather small and had zero ambiance. In praxis there was only one restaurant, in the basement of the building. Food quality and choice was so-so. The terrace consisted of 5 tables on the side of a busy road so no chance to sit in peace and quiet IF we were able to get one of those 5 tables... The bar inside had loud not too good entertainment every night so again no rest for those who did not like that. We pointed these issues out to our tour operator and they advised us that the hotel had an agreement with another hotel 500 meter further down the road where Alto Lido guests could use the pool and other facilities. This was not told to us by the hotel staff. But then, walk 500 meters with all your gear just to go for a swim, no thanks. Lucky for us the tour operator was able to rebook it to that other hotel after 2 nights of Alto Lido. Staff at checkout knew about the rebooking and was quite rude against us. Sorry, but Alto Lido does not give one the holiday feeling. We had better luck in the other hotel that seemed to be owned by the same company. What a world of difference! If my information is right, our tour operator will do no business with Alto Lido in the future, at least you can not book the hotel anymore via them. A good choice as there are better...