Hotel Porto Santo & Spa — Hotel in Porto Santo

I recently stayed at Porto Santo Hotel & Spa with my family, drawn by its beachfront location on the beautiful island of Porto Santo. While the hotel boasts a stunning location and fascinating architectural history, it currently feels more like a budget hotel rather than the 4-star experience it claims to offer.

The hotel’s location is truly stunning, right on a perfect beach with breathtaking views. The architecture, crafted by Eduardo Anahory and Pedro Braamcamp, is beautiful and has a unique mid-century charm, especially for 60s design lovers. However, the hotel has hardly been updated since its original construction. The woodwork and furniture are outdated and require renovation, which detracts from the overall ambiance.

Spa and Villas:

A highlight of the hotel is its spa, built 12 years ago with phenomenal architecture by the same talented architects. The spa offers a calm and relaxing atmosphere, with a beautiful wooden structure and luxurious materials like pink marble and nice detailing cement in the brick walls. The patio garden is an absolute treat, and the spa deserves a 5-star rating in all aspects. I hope the main hotel interior will be updated to match this vibe.

Room and Interior:

Our room had a mix of old and new, but overall, it felt mismatched and lacked comfort. The furniture seemed cheap and out of place, and the thin walls made it noisy. Rooms and bathroom are small, which not necessarily is a bad thing, but the room planning could be done better.

Dining & bar Experience:

The dining experience was a letdown. Both breakfast and dinner were buffet-style and lacked fresh local dishes or a own style, which is disappointing for such a prime location. Fair is fair, some people like buffets, in my opinion this is not a concept that matches this place, or 2024 at all given the fact that buffets tend to create more food waste. There is fresh fruit at breakfast and all other things, but also cheap juices and watery chocolate paste, why not just have Nutella ? We saw a family have there own jar of Nutella with them one morning, and we understood why. The beach bar food was basic, featuring dishes that could easily be made with supermarket ingredients, missing an opportunity to highlight the island's culinary offerings like fresh fish.

Service and Staff:

The service was not up to the mark for a 4-star hotel. The staff wasn't always friendly or accommodating. For instance, when we arrived for breakfast with a group of five, they were not eager to set up a table for us, as most tables were set up for two or four people. This lack of attentiveness detracted from the overall experience. I must add that there was staff that was super friendly, mainly at the beach bar.

Overall Experience:

Porto Santo Hotel & Spa has the potential to be an incredible destination, thanks to its stunning location and beautiful architecture. However, in its current state in combination with the hotel concept, it falls short of expectations. The spa and villas showcase what the hotel could be if the same attention to detail were applied across the property.

I hope the management considers investing in renovations to bring this hotel back to its former glory, making it a standout choice for visitors to Porto...

Hotel Porto Santo (and SPA) was built in 1962. An example of modernist (mid-century modern) architecture coming from the sharp pencils and minds of Eduardo Anahory and Pedro Braamcamp Cid.

Today, far from its original beauty and class, it gives its visitors a mix of awe and disappointment. Original elements like the beautiful staircase with its steel and wooden components and what seems like the original chandelier remain. The foyer and restaurant still have original sliding doors and windows in wood, and beautiful clay tiles on the floor. Seems that the hardwood floor is also original. But this is pretty much where the wonders end. I'm even worried that they survived not because they were recognised as precious, original icons of the style, but simply due to limited budget.

The rest of the hotel wasn't that lucky. Wooden balcony doors have been replaced by aluminium. It seems that the only original elements in the rooms are the chairs.

As for the common areas - the wall paint colour seems as random as the furniture. Original sofas and armchairs are gone. Instead of using beautiful modernist furniture, the management decided to furnish the hotel with nineteenth-century pieces that fit these interiors not better than a fist fits the nose.

If I compare Hotel Porto Santo with Hotel Terra Nostra in Furnas, Azores, which also has 4 stars, the difference in quality and attention to detail is even more striking! Terra Nostra Hotel, luckily, has been recognised and preserved as a gem of early modernist architecture created by Manuel António Vasconcelos.

Regarding the food - the hotel serves breakfasts and dinners. They are definitely on the good side, but we have noticed that the quality can vary from day to day, so I guess it's all up to which chef is in the kitchen. The service is very polite and on a good level. The only complaint I have here is that the offer is a bit boring and is a variation of the same thing every day. The breakfast is identical every day. Also, it seems that the eggs are fried using unhealthy seed oils instead of butter. That's a shame.

The spa seems to be mostly original and actually has a very nice interior in wood and pink marble. Speaking of the spa - guests need to pay extra for everything, which should never happen in a place with 4-star aspirations and prices.

The connection with the beach and the sea is nicely done.

In summary - the place still preserved some modernist charm against the attempts to destroy it in the name of "improvement". Does it deserve the 4 stars?...

We stayed here for one night on a day trip from Madeira.

The check-in was fast and friendly.

The room was clean. We found that the bed was unstable and rickety, so once one of us turned over, the other one would inevitably be woken up by that. This didn’t help for a restful sleep as we were waking each other up constantly throughout the night. There was also the topic of mosquitoes. Once we opened the window, we were afraid that we would have to battle them throughout the night. Fitting screens would be an option for that. We really liked the curtains. They blocked out the lights sufficiently.

The room was very noise prone. We could clearly hear every single guest walking down the corridor outside. We could also hear other guests in other rooms. Adding to that, the noise coming in from the street outside was rather a lot. Most of it seems to be rooted in the fact that the hotel was built in the 60s from concrete panels.

When I asked for a second blanket, I was quickly provided with one. Unfortunately, at that time, I also saw a cockroach crawling in the corridor. This is something that may happen in this climate - still, not a nice sight.

The air conditioner was quite loud, so when we tried to use it instead of opening the windows, the droning sound would be quite annoying and disturbed our sleep.

The breakfast was a broad variety of different foods, which we enjoyed. All in all I would give this hotel two to three out of five stars in a rating. We will not come back due to the fact that the beds...