Hotel Quarteira Sol (sunshine) — Hotel in Loulé

Location 5/5: it is a couple minutes walk to the beach. Small carpark outside if you have a car or are being dropped off. Bus terminal is across the road. We used uber from the Airport. Cost less than 30 euros combined for the return journey for the two of us.

Breakfast: We didn't eat it every day even though it was included. Most of the hot food tasted cold by the time we ate. I can only guess its cooked at 7am. Scrambled eggs were crunchy. Omelette and hot drinks were brilliant.

Facilities: it states at the building that they have Spa and Massage facilities. I don't know if this is old or it's seasonal but when I was asked I was just told they had an outdoor swimming pool and no spa facilities.

There are two lifts. On one of the days there was a long queue when I went around the corner to the other lift it wasn't working. When I asked at the desk I was told it was broken (not that there was any signs). I was also told they do not have any stairs to use, only for emergencies.

Swimming Pool: outdoors, not heated which usually wouldn't be an issue but as the pool is in the shade. I only saw 2 children quickly use it. They could do with hiring someone to go around with a pool net to scoop out all the dead flies. Around the pool has seen better days.

Service: Customer service is mixed. From staff who couldn't do more to the staff who have the look of why are you bothering me.

Room: large spacious with a large balcony. There is a glass screen around the edge but this was wobbly. Glad I didnt have children with me. Damp / mould stains on ceiling (be easy to paint over). Rooms were mostly quiet apart from the banging every time anyone went in or out of their room. It's more of a design fault than the person as no other way of closing the doors. Hallways also echo which doesnt help.

The big issue: We had an ant problem where there were countless ants near the room door and all over our bathroom. Thankfully not near the bed area. I went to reception in the morning and was told someone would go and sort it out. When we came back at lunch you could smell that something had been sprayed but there were even more ants than before so I went back to reception. I'm going to give them the benefit of doubt that it was a language barrier for their translation but I was first questioned whether there were ants and I was told someone would come up with me which I had no issue showing. I was also told it was probably because I left foot out in the area. It's not my style to eat food in the bath or on the toilet so not the case. A lady came up who I'm guessing is the head cleaner and was lovely. She seemed shocked by how many ants. The maintenence guy then came to fill up some of the holes in the floor and walls but didnt do the hole behind the bath which I said most were coming from. We went out for tea whilst they were doing this and came back to find more ants again in the bathroom. After wasting too many hours that day, had some bites on legs and given the receptionist did not want to move us room (maybe all the rooms have ants) even after multiple complaints of ants we decided to not complain AGAIN as we were also leaving the next day.

Overall: Its a 4 star hotel (not sure how) that is in dire need of someone with a paint brush. Granted sometimes you get unwanted pests but it could have been a simple solution to have moved us to another room whilst you delt with the issue as you failed twice to stop the ants whilst leaving an odor each time. I think the 3 star hotel next door would have been a safer option...

Honestly, giving 5 stars only because a lot of people give this hotel 1 star rating, which this hotel doesn’t deserve in my opinion. The real rating would be 3.5-4 stars.

The room we had was with jacuzzi and sea view and this is the biggest advantage of it, because a room itself is small, but no complaints here, because we did a research before booking it and we knew what we’re getting. Room had signs of wear and definitely needs renovation, but was clean and good smelling, so stuff doing their job well. However, couple times they didn’t clean terrace, I don’t know how often they should do this.

Breakfast is fine, nothing special and similar every day, but pretty common for hotel breakfast. One interesting thing: there was honey in the comb, which is uncommon for me and nice, but that was for several days and disappeared to the end of our stay, so maybe it’s something seasonal.

We booked a half board, so we had a dinner every day. It was fine, the main dish including meat, fish and sides was different every single day on our 6 nights stay, maybe if you stay longer it will repeat. All main dishes were good, salads were a bit strange to my taste and probably made with random leftovers (fresh however), which is good for me because they don’t waste food in this case. Downside is desert options - only one day there was baked apples with cinnamon for desert, all other days there were only plates with whipped cream or something like that, so we didn’t really like that. And another good thing: all drinks (both alcoholic and soft) were included in the dinner, so that’s definitely a plus.

Staff is very polite and helpful, can’t complain here. They didn’t bother us at all, allowed us to keep our bags in the storage for several hours in the day of our departure etc.

Overall, I think I would definitely return, but only to the room with jacuzzi again since this and location are the main reasons to stay in the hotel. Hopefully it will eventually get a good interior renovation, then it will be 5/5, but now...

Lovely hotel, the staff were great and very nice.

We stayed in room 602 we asked for a room with a sea view.... Once we got to the room we found out it also had a balcony which was a bonus (I'd asked previously if I could upgrade to Seaview and balcony through love holidays but they said none were available) the room was very clean and fresh bedding of course. We had B&B the breakfast was ok but we weren't too bothered as went out a few times for breakfast anyway.

On the last night there was a coach of nosiy teenage students that must have been on a school trip for the week so they were in the stairwell gone past 10pm making a lot of noise but it was out last night luckily and didn't have to be up too early.

So apart from that it was a great stay and the views were beautiful if we come back to Portugal on the future I will definitely use this hotel again.

I would recommend theses restaurants to try if your not eating at the hotel : Rosa branca which is a lovely seafood restaurant on the beach down to the right towards vilamoura it's about a 5-8 minute walk.

Ikilibrio and try the gotas cheese salad I've never tasted anything so amazing in my life that also about 5 minute walk and is down a side street of the beach

Girafa which has a beautiful banana pizza.... Yes banana I was sceptical but it was amazing thats to the left of the hotel directly on the beach front it has a giant giraffe outside.

Theres lots of trinket shops about and I also highly recommend a trip to vilamoura harbour it has amazing restraunts on the front. It's about 35 minutes walk or 10 minute by bolt/uber taxi.

Overall the stay was fantastic. Quarteira is a beautiful place if you want to...