Pestana Viking — Hotel in Lagoa

Room: as the Jet2 site showed a good size,clean ,good outlook across the side garden and sea, a good size balcony. kettle with 2 cups and sauce and spoon a couple of fruit tea bags and nestle coffee sashes too welcome you.However you need to either take your own stuff,as in tea towel and small cloth for washing up,tea/coffee as literary nothing else is supplied, i have no idea why there is a microwave as there are no plates or cutlery, we had 2 odd wine glasses in the cupboard above,it came to light the barman told me people buy drinks and go to their room,i will explain why later!|Bathroom was fine, good shower,however we were given towels which had seen better days and had holes,not great for a 4star! Did not bother to get a new ones,they did,one for all shower/soap pump supplied with 2 bathroom glasses.|Breakfast: Fabulous, something for everyone and plenty off it,could not fault it and lovely staff and fast at clearing and re setting to the constant flow of guests,of all nationalises.| The Bar: Its a disaster! Hence the reason people brought drinks and disappeared to their balcony ,no atmosphere incredibly hot, and the half the time no barman,now not his fault,because he is often taking food orders and collecting from the kitchen,which seems mad,as evening meal staff seemed to be standing around.Several times people came in and stood and left as now one was there. Food orders took an age,we ordered a couple of pizzas and after mins .I asked were they coming,he went off,came back and said the kitchen had forgotten the order,i can only take his word, but i think he forgot to take it through mins later food arrived. One evening we ordered burgers again 45/50 mins for delivery. No outside sitting except a couple of white plastic tables/chairs for smokers,it was 28 degrees outside why would you not want to sit out and enjoy the evening!! No idea why the pool bar area is not lit at night and people can sit there! spoke to a lot of people who were bemused by this !|Area good, lovely outside space around the hotel,but tired around the pool.outside pool is nice to swim in as it is large,didn't use the spa area .|The actual area around has less restaurants then i thought as it is spaced out,so be prepared to walk or get a taxi or the tourist train into armacao de pera.|Fabulous walk across the cliffs had a lovely boat trip from the beach below at 25 euro each which was the going rate,better on a small boat as you can get into all the caves/beach are lovely.|Would I visit again probably if the price was right for this hotel. The Jet2 rep Kim was great and very helpful and informative as was the hotel receptionist,when we checked in.|Couple for 1 week in...

We were there a year ago for our yoga retreat (February 2019) Trying to get in contact with the hotel via phone or e-mail was not the smoothest. We came to know all calls & e-mails go to the main office then they are sent to the particular hotel/location. Finally we handed over our reservations to a travel agent. We had few questions regarding usage of hall in case of rain/cold weather. But communicating via mail was confusing because the staffs changes a lot. They kept asking about our reservations, despite informing them about the travel agent doing our reservations. In the end I just stop replying. We had sent e-mail prior to our arrival requesting usage of space (children's play room) for our morning (7am-8am) yoga class, which was confirmed. On inquiring that arrival evening if we could use it the following morning, they said they were never informed and the room is not cleaned etc so we could not use it & that they had no such mails. Then few minutes later they confirmed saying, we could use the space (they some how received the mail). Well! like I mentioned-communication not very good. But once you are there, things are arranged and organised well. The staff and managers are very helpful and very accommodating. They even let us use the meeting hall without any charge in the evening because we were a small group and nothing had to be rearranged (tables and chairs) Rooms are stranded. We had booked sea facing rooms for extra charge but we did not exactly have a full view of the sea, but we did have a balcony to sit out & relax. Loved the food, they also served Portuguese food (buffet) so it was a wonderful opportunity to taste it and they were yum. Our group totally enjoyed sparkling wine for breakfast...lol For dinner they have a wonderful choice, if you don't want to go out for dinner for a bit to eat. You can pay per plate and that was just perfect. For women's day, they had a live band and we danced the night away. The band played all the oldies, so we could sing along too...it was a memorable night. Very thankful to the hotel that they organised a wonderful evening for their guests. Location wise, it is bit far from the boulevard or town. But we found a short cut along the hill to walk down. We took taxi back to the hotel and they are easily available and not so expensive. Over all, we had a pleasant stay. No complains at all. We would definitely come again. We are thankful to the staffs and the managers for helping us in every way during our stay there. Hopefully see you all...

Pestana Viking is in a beautiful location and kept immaculately clean by its hard working and friendly staff. The reception staff are also extremely polite and helpful, doing everything they can to help. The layout of the building is unusual but the lifts seemed to work well. Walking through the restaurant to the Wellness facilities felt like a design fault, with many people opting to walk through in towels and gowns.

The rooms are meticulously cleaned every day and the balcony had a stunning sea view. The beds aren’t overly comfortable and the foldaway bed for our child was poor quality. Good Wi-Fi thoughout the entire hotel, but the rooms technology was dated and shower pressure extremely low!

The breakfast is buffet style and generally ok, the bacon was quite fatty. The evening meals are also buffet and quite nice.

The wellness spa is well equipped and clean with good showers. Nevertheless, the indoor pool was very cold, which sometimes deterred us from using it. But the manager has informed me that this is something they’re working to improve in the future by installing solar panels?!

The prices at the bar and restaurant seem steep. We made the mistake of eating shop bought bread and cheese at the outside seating area, only to be informed by the general manager that this was against policy, despite us being sat with €16 worth of soft drinks from the bar. Perhaps some signage or information would be beneficial, as many others were also unaware of this policy. After a conversation with this manager, i am now educated and aware of the economic difficulties that a hotel faces… However, i think some common courtesy and better judgment could’ve been used on this occasion, before making customers feel awkward and embarrassed, thus taking their custom elsewhere for the rest of the day. The area outside was extremely quiet and I really don’t believe that my small family of three eating some bread and enjoying the resort was doing any harm to the financial impact of the restaurant. We were told that if we wanted to eat food bought outside of the hotel we would need to vacate to our room. If the hotel really wants people to use the restaurant why have fridges and microwaves in the rooms??

Did I expect a lecture on running a business from the general manager? Or did I expect a small explanation and an apology? The latter would’ve definitely softened the blow and probably meant us coming back. But unfortunately after giving it some thought, we won’t be,...