Solar da Bica — Hotel in São Vicente

REPLY TO HOTEL REPLY:

Maybe it's accurate on your official website, but on booking.com it was not. I attached photos of info of my reservation and a real view. I wouldn't complain about it if I knew it was ground floor with balcony.

Original review:

It's a dirty simple hotel. I booked room on Booking.com where it was mentioned that the room has a balcony, and they added a photo of this balcony. In reality I had a room with a garden in front of shared common area where people were constantly sitting and talking. I cannot blame other guests, because, well, it's a common area to sit, drink and talk, but it was very noisy and loud inside the room. I felt stupid asking people to be more quiet so we can sleep.

But every time anyone went to hotel or from the hotel - we heard their steps, it was just noisy.

The room itself is very simple, and quite dirty. There were ants everywhere (even near the bed and on our mobile phone), but they were especially active during the night and were everywhere in the toilet. I understand that ants are typical for Madeira, but other hotels are doing something about it. This hotel's solution was adding cinnamon on the floor. Fine, you want to be ecological, but this is just a joke. Hotel staff were not able to help.

When we asked about changing the room - the only one alternative was on the opposite side, where garden was just in front of the wall. I tried to explain that I booked and paid for a different room (with balcony on the photo and description), I got nothing for that, even "sorry" was not the first response.

Check-in process was fun. It said that it starts at 15:00, so it really starts at 15:00. We arrived earlier (like 14:30) and we were told to wait. Nothing was happening with the room (it was already cleaned), so we were just sitting and around 15:00 the very same hotel staff on reception said: "Okay, we can start the checkin". Why does hotel need to be so official and not flexible? I can understand if the room is not ready, but it was just literally next to us, so we saw that no one was there.

I wanted to get refund (still want to because of the misleading information), but they just told me "sorry". It's not a family hotel, it's yet another...

This has to be the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. This was our first holiday with our 9 month old and everything about the hotel made this so easy. We asked for a travel cot in our room and the staff made it so comfortable for her. She never usually sleeps well in travel cots but she did in this one. The shared lounge area meant that we could enjoy our evenings with a glass of wine and a picnic tea while she was asleep in our room. The buffet breakfast and fruits from the garden were delicious and we found lots of things for her to eat. They even had a pancake station so we made a couple of extra ones for her snack in the day.

Everything in the hotel was immaculate. Our room was cleaned twice during our stay which we hadn't expected. There were so many thoughtful touches around the hotel such as a gift of local produce, the honesty shop, a boot cleaning area, areas to hang any wet clothes and 2 terraces to sit and enjoy the evening sunshine.

The location was perfect for us as we wanted to explore the entire island, not just Funchal. The hotel is located a maximum 45 minute drive from anywhere on the island. As the hotel and other reviews say, it's best to hire a car as the hotel is out of the heart of the town which is why it is so tranquil.

We couldn't recommend staying here enough if you're looking for a calm, cosy bolt hole for your holiday.

Thank you Solar da Bica, the memories we made on this holiday are ones we'll treasure for a life time and many of those are...

I had a very disappointing experience during my stay at Solar Da Bica. Firstly, the location was less than ideal as it was not within walking distance to any amenities, requiring a 10-minute drive into town for food.

The beds were uncomfortably hard, and the pillows were of low quality. The absence of air conditioning in the rooms made it quite uncomfortable, and the only option was to open the terrace doors. Unfortunately, there wasn't much breeze at night, rendering this solution ineffective. Additionally, I noticed mold in the bathroom. If our stay was any longer we would of left to go to another hotel and eat what we paid.

Despite informing the resort that it was our honeymoon, no special amenities were provided, which was a stark contrast to our experiences at other hotels on our trip.

On a positive note, the breakfast and the staff were highlights of our stay. The staff kindly accommodated our early check-out by providing breakfast sandwiches. The terrace offered a beautiful view of the mountains, although the constant barking of dogs somewhat diminished the magic.

In summary, I would not recommend staying at Solar Da Bica if you're looking for a romantic getaway. While the staff and breakfast were commendable, the drawbacks, including the location, uncomfortable bedding, lack of air conditioning, and the presence of mold, make it less than ideal for...