Pestana Porto Santo — Hotel in Porto Santo

We've just finished our week long stay at the Pestana Porto Santo, and we were thoroughly impressed. This was with my wife and her parents, and honestly, none of us had ever heard of Porto Santo! Hearing about it being the "Secret of Portugal" during our time there, we can certainly see why many call it that!

The staff greeted us on arrival with an enthusiastic welcome, which was rather unusual but very friendly and a nice effort. The rooms are of a good size, with good bathrooms and well equipped. The bed is huge and very comfortable, which is always welcome! The minibar is free for the first drinks from it, but you then pay for any of the refill. Perhaps slightly unnecessary, especially when you can just get free drinks at the bars! It would be nice if the drinks in the room were free for the whole stay, but a minor issue.

We thought there were a good number of activities, although it would be good to have more that you could do by yourselves that don't have to be at certain times in the day as a group activity. Mini golf, table tennis (we found this on our last day, hidden away and not easy to access from the main area), darts and volleyball being available as an activity to do by yourself all throughout the day would be welcome.

For food, there are four restaurants you can book (you can choose three): Japanese, Italian, Madeiran and Mediterranean, with the latter two in the hotel next door. The main buffet restaurant is the standard. There's also a pool bar serving food during the day. The food options are good with food being available pretty much all day. It'd be nice if the buffet had more variety, but we could usually find enough to keep us happy. The Madeiran restaurant was disappointing. Little to choose from, and apparently the meat was tough and didn't taste good. The Italian had good food and a nice atmosphere. The Mediterranean was outstanding. Wonderful ambience, and felt like dining in a Michelin star restaurant. Excellent service, fantastic food and just a lovely evening. Make absolutely sure to dine here!

The wine included could be better, but then I'm very particular with my wine! It would also be good if the bars were slightly better stocked - they have a great range of port and Madeira wine options, but not so much for beer, and the cocktail list is good but not great. Again though, there was plenty to keep us happy.

The general pool and overall hotel area, atmosphere and surroundings are all incredibly well done. It feels like a tropical paradise and although we visited during the less busy time in May, it was very quiet for the most part with plenty of places to relax. All the plants and flowers around the grounds are so well kept, and there are even labels on many of the plants and flowers to give you more information about them. This is a really nice touch.

On top of this, the staff are so friendly and will do just about anything to keep the guests happy and enjoying themselves! No request was too much, and they are all happy, friendly and helpful. We were impressed by how every member of the team always had a smile on their face and wanted to help. The entertainment goes hand in hand, as they are always trying to keep guests happy. Not what we'd have chosen for entertainment (circus night, flash dances etc), but the effort is always there.

If negative comments are taken as feedback, we found the service for wine and drinks at the restaurants/buffet was not great. It tended to be one drink, and then nothing. With red wine, they often leave the bottle, but for anything else it can be quite challenging to get a second drink! Also, in the Italian restaurant, I ordered a vegetarian calzone, with the waiter noting I was vegetarian. So I was rather surprised to find a big piece of serrano ham on top of, and in the middle of my calzone! I avoided it, but this would be a big problem for others.

These points aside, I have to give the Pestana Porto Santo five stars. It was a glorious holiday, and the only problem is wishing we were still there! Thoroughly recommended, thank you for an...

The biggest plus point with this hotel is the staff. I have travelled a lot and these are quite possibly the friendliest, most helpful I have personally come across. All were easy to speak to, they always said hello and made us feel welcome. If nothing else, the hotel has this aspect totally correct - employing nice people and ensuring everyone is friendly. The buffet food was ok (it must have been as we didn't miss a meal for seven days) - the fish was sublime and the guy cooking it again was a lovely friendly person always happy and helpful. There were occasional delays, but the staff worked hard to keep them to a minimum.

The hotel was spotless and our room was quiet (as we requested). Access to the beach was good and the beach itself was beautiful. The evening entertainment was ok, but didn't really keep me interested enough to watch it for more than a few minutes.

The only thing I really could not understand having travelled to a lot of hotels in my time, is that the sun beds around the pools were all reserved such that the pool area was almost a sea of towels i.e. you'd search for a space near the pool at say 15.00 and there would just be towels on 60% of the beds, but no one on them.

This wasn't a major issue for us as we simply went to the pool next door at the Pestana Columbus which on every occasion had a few spaces. But we shouldn't have had to do this and should have had a choice of which hotel we could lay by the pool in, but we just could not find a spot no matter how many times we looked. Only reserving a space at 9.00 am with a towel would guarantee a space.

I spoke in passing to the Tui rep as to why this was (because I was curious), but he was very defensive and disagreed about this as if I was mentioning a problem that didn't exist. But, I would simply argue that if Sun Bed availability isn't a problem, why are so many (the majority) being reserved for the whole day? Clearly people are worried they wont find one at all if they don't get their towel in first. Then keeping the towels there until sun down regardless of if they want to use it or not. I think I was more irritated that the TUI rep was dismissing what I was saying out of hand, instead of giving a reasoned explanation - or even to talk to the hotel management.

My thinking was perhaps its something to do with Covid restrictions and limiting the number of people on beds in the area? If it isn't that, then it seems very self defeating by not simply buying a few more beds and putting them out near the pool? The Tui rep said there were spare beds outside the pool side rooms, but these were private for the rooms only and these were mostly not being used by the occupants. We could hardly take a private bed outside someone's room.

The other bizarre thing is that when we did go to the Columbus hotel to use the sun beds for the odd hour, there were limited sun umbrellas. This again is strange as most hotels I visit, always have sun umbrellas available for sun beds, not for just 60% of them.

So, in summary, the hotel is fine, but the bizzare (and unusual) lack of sun beds resulted in the rush to reserve them with towels at the break of dawn. This was really quite silly and avoidable, but is easily fixed by putting more out. Also, more sun umbrellas are required at the columbus.

All in all, I would return and would recommend it for the beach and the very friendly staff. But be warned, If you want a sun bed, be prepared to fight your corner...

I stayed at this hotel in October 2024 as a solo traveller from London for a bit of remoteness and peace and quiet. However, this hotel has to be the worst i have ever stayed in, poor staff service and terrible hygiene were the main concerns.

First of all, the staff have had to be the most unfriendly and sour faced i have ever met at hotel, especially at the reception with never any smile or greeting. Bar staff were miserable and some didn't even look at you when serving and seeming a bit lost behind the bar with not knowing where drinks were or how to make them, sometimes they would slam drinks down on the counters. I was under the impression a lot of staff at this hotel are treated badly by the management an are under a lot of pressure and suffering with mental burnouts.

The hygiene was horrendous here. I have never been served a wine glass this filthy in my life, a long grey hair found in a bowl of pasta served from their Italian restaurant. The glasses in the self service adult lounge bar were crawling with ants and had mouth marks round them, but worst of all i reported a blocked sink in my room to the unfriendly receptionist and returned to my room later in the day to find the maintenance team had cleaned it out with tissue and thrown it down the toilet and DID NOT flush. 1 - This can cause further blockages, could have been placed in the bin next to it. 2 - This meant someone who has paid over £1000 for their solo holiday has to look at that, and again it could have been placed at the bin next to it.

Some health and safety remarks also, cleaning equipment consisting of a long net and brush along with a pipe were left unattended in the pool on 2 different occasions for a long length of time. Forcing those using with pool to swim under it which is very dangerous as some people had children with them, and the long poles could have been used as weapons. This is something i have never experienced before in a hotel pool and is certainly unacceptable.

Food was also an issue as nothing in the buffet restaurant stated if it was suitable for vegetarians, vegans, lactose/gluten intolerant and put those with dietary requirements at a major disadvantage. I myself am a vegetarian who does eat cheese and i found some meal times a struggle there from one evening only being left with plain pasta as there was no options suitable other than bread and salad. At times the food did seem like a least of the concern after the hygiene and the poor quality from the staff.

I am flabbergasted on how this hotel can maintain a 5 star status, does what i have described sound like a 5 star hotel? I have been privileged to have stayed in many hotels in Europe of a 4 and 3 star status who have been top notch in all areas i have covered. The Pestana in Porto Santo definitely seems to be using its sun bed, garden and lagoon pool beauty and picturesque beachfront location as a cover up for the fact there is a serious management issue somewhere here, in fact i ended up feeling sorry for the staff at the hotel.

I will end my review there, if you have made it to the end then congratulations as it was a long one with not many happy stories. All experiences...