AP Cabanas Beach & Nature | Tavira — Hotel in Tavira

If you want a quick review: ||The food was great with plenty of choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, drinks were OK, cocktails are pre mixed in a machine and not the best, the roof bar cocktails were mixed by staff but they were worse than the machine ones, I certainly wouldn't be happy paying for them if not on all inclusive! Beer is nice but it can only be served in a small glass, you can have two small beers but not one large beer, which is bonkers, no idea why this is done and I've never come across it in any other hotel, more glasses - more collecting - more washing up - more work!!!||If you want to spend time away from the hotel prepare to hire a car or pay for taxis & busses, the hotel is set in a remote location and the local town hasn't got much going on and looks a bit run down. If like us you just want a lazy week staying around a nice hotel/beach with plenty of nice food and drink this will be fine for you. ||There's not much in the way of entertainment, a singer or DJ for a few hours in the roof top bar at night and that's a bout it. Daytime is water aerobics. ||If you are sharing a room with a friend or family member, you will have to be very close as you can see right into the bathroom from the bedroom, the only thing you can do is draw a net across the 'viewing' window! lol.||Bring your mosquito repellent, they bite and they bite hard, the biggest bites I've ever had! ||More detailed info/review: ||First off I have to mention the most friendly, polite and happy member of staff we came across, I can't recall his name, but he's the young guy with the Leopard tattoo on the left of his neck. He could teach some of the other staff a thing or two! At times he'd be on his own with a line of people to serve and it didn't faze him, he was always smiling, some of the others tended to hide in the lobby bar out of the way pretending to be busy! ||The hotel is very clean and tidy and most of the staff work hard, rooms are small but have everything that you need in them. Grounds are nice but there are a few paving flags damaged and loose around the bar seating area, these need sorting before someone has a fall.||Arrival: After travelling all night we arrived at 10.30am, so we were very tired. We literally got bombarded with so much information at once and so fast, it was bang bang bang info given and pointed at times on a sheet and left to work out where everything was from there. It would have helped to have a small map on the sheet showing what was where.|Our room wasn't ready and we were asked if we'd like lunch today or breakfast on the last day? We said lunch today as we wouldn't be there on the last day for breakfast as we had early flights. We were then told to come back at 12.30 for our wrist bands, it turns out you get them at 3pm if you want breakfast on the last day! |We had no offer of a complimentary drink whilst we waited either, which was a first.||Wrist bands are confusing (Until you know): We were staying all inclusive and given gold bands, you can stay all inclusive 'plus' which costs extra and entitles you to premium drinks!|The first night we looked at the drinks menu and noticed that the gold colour on the drinks menu corresponded with the premium drinks!!! Not wanting to receive a big bill at the end of the holiday I went to reception to ask if we had been given the wrong band!? "No gold is all inclusive, it's purple/greyish for the all inclusive plus". Yet the purple/greyish colour on the menus corresponds to plain old all inclusive drinks. (Someone messed up!) ||You get the option to eat in the Grill once per stay and the Ria restaurant twice per stay. Both have set menus, so look before you book to make sure you like what's on offer! This isn't made obvious to you when you check in. ||The Grill: This was amazing and we enjoyed everything that was served. You have various meats brought out to you at set intervals and we would recommend you do it. I think Tuesday and Thursdays they do fish, be warned though: It gets booked up fast! ||The Ria: This was nice, but it felt like you were sitting in a conference room not a restaurant, so we only went the once! However the food was very nice. ||Booking for both the above needs better organisation! Basically you book the night before at 7pm in the Flor de sal restaurant (main buffet restaurant), they take your booking right at the entrance! This leads to a queue every night and people don't know if they are queuing to book the Grill, the Ria restaurants, or just to go into the normal buffet restaurant. It's chaotic and each night guest were asking each other what was going on and which queue were they in! |Simplify it, have two podiums set up somewhere out of the way, one for the grill and one for the Ria, walk up - make your booking - job done! Keep the buffet restaurant entrance clear. ||Sunloungers: Unfortunately you do get people throwing their towels down early morning and then not coming back until hours later. We even saw two selfish people hog two by the pool and two in the garden area, they'd switch between them every hour or so, so selfish. ||Would we come back?: Unfortunately no, although the food was really nice and we did enjoy our stay, there are too many little things that put us off a return visit. My job is in Kaizen/continuous improvement and at times I felt like asking management to change things around to make things run better i.e. three people taking a water aerobics class for half a dozen people, but one person serving at the bar with a long queue of people!!! ||Thanks for reading and I hope that some of the above has helped future guest and the...

To write this review, I needed to think a lot. I had to be fair and honest, as well as consider my feelings and experience. So I decided to provide enough details that the reader decides by him/herself. Hotel is close to the river. You can have a room with the view of river or view of the hotel garden and pool. It has two main buildings. In the building that reception is there, you can find a bar and a restaurant that you need reservation for it. This building probably is very noisy at night, considering live music and drunk guests that make a lot of noise. It hard to expect having a romantic or calm dinner in this building's restaurant. There is no any separation between bar with restaurant. If you like a place full of movement, probably this building could be interesting for you. The second building is much more quiet. In this one, you can find gym and restaurant that provides buffet meals. Breakfast is served in this building. Breakfast has good quality and variety. Probably, it could improve in the sweets and deserts. In the pick seasons, if you wish to have a calm Breakfast, it's better to be on breakfast before 8 am. Around 9 am you will face a crowded place. Now about rooms. I had a 20 sqr M. Room with a balcony and view of the river. Nice view and calm room. However considering the room dimentions which was around 3*6.5 m , it felt a bit smaller than the real measures. The room was connected to another room. Which is good for families. In my case, the connection door had to be closed. That's why I tried the door, and it was open, and I could also open the other room's door, which already had a guest. This was the first thing that I had to call reception for it. Safety and Privacy! They corrected this issue after 30 minutes. Bed was comfortable and clean. Room included TV, chair, refrigerator, safe, coffee bar. Bathroom did not have bidet. Some shampoo were provided. However, there were no other amenities. Unfortunately, the toilet was not clean and even one of the towels was not changed. After 3 times calling the reception, and one hour waiting, finally a nice lady came to the room and cleaned bathroom. I would like to thank her. She confirmed that the toilet was not clean and the complain was a correct one. This issue caused a lot of bad feelings that night , and I decided to give 1 star to this hotel. However, the day after, the management of the hotel called and apologized for what happened and offered us a dinner as well as a bottle of wine and a dish of fruits. On the dinner, they received us personally and apologized again for the inconvenience. I neee to thank them for recognising the issues and their customers respect. This hotel was totally full during my staying and I am sure they have always enough customers that having one upset guest does not hurt their business. However, they did their best to make sure, not even this customer would leave the place with a bad experience. This I call it A Good Management. In any business, we can have issues that could happen because of many reasons, which is important to find the root of those issues. But it is also very important to manage and control the issue in a way that do not cause a big harm. I need to congrate this hotels management for their professional reaction and customer management. That's why I changed my score from very weak to a very good. I probably could give excellent to this hotel if i see improvement in: 1) room cleaness; 2) noisy bar which impact the environment of the restaurant, 3) the closing time of the kitchen, which is a bit early (10 pm), and 4) better training of breakfast restaurant's staff (please make sure that they do not clean breakfast tables with the same cloth that they clean the sits). Final note, hote has parking. It's accessable for people on the wheelchair. I am not sure if they have a room for the people with extra needs in this aspects. The pool area is nice and comfortable. It's children friendly. Hotel provides transport to...

Spent a week in July 2025 at AP Cabanas Beach & Nature, and had the best time. The hotel is modern, clean and generally a delightful place to be. The main swimming pool is a great size, and they have plenty of sun beds directly around it, with additional beds set slightly further back from either end (though if you want a specific spot it’s best to go down early). They also have a few sunbeds that sit in the pool which is delightful. There’s a second outdoor pool on the rooftop, which is smaller but still a good size – we didn’t go in as it was a little colder than the main pool but the roof top is much quieter during the day. There is free wifi throughout the hotel, a big tv room, a free gym, and spa, though we didn’t use the gym or spa.||Our bedroom was the perfect size and very comfortable with plenty of storage space and a small balcony overlooking the pool. The room was well cleaned everyday, with new bedding, towels and two full bottles of water provided. Something to note – though it wasn’t an issue for us – is the bathroom area isn’t a seperate room, it’s located just off the entrance hallway, where the sink sits in the middle, and the toilet and shower are either side with frosted glass doors so may not be appropriate for families or friends as they are a bit see through. However you can’t see the bathroom from the bed or balcony so it might be fine. ||We were on all-inclusive which most people seemed to be, and this gives you access to the main buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as the snack bar, the two à la carte restaurants (which have to be booked), and drinks at all of the bars. The buffet itself is small but they serve a really good selection of options at each meal, including a couple of vegetarian-specific dishes at lunch and dinner, though may not be ideal if you’re a picky vegetarian. However, there were plenty of side dish options such as breads, cheeses, pasta, salads, potatoes. The main restaurant is fully self service including drinks which is actually perfect as they have wine, beer and soft drinks all on tap, only soft and hot drinks at breakfast – the hot chocolate was delish. The snack bar is a great lunch alternative, or extra for a mid-afternoon treat, it generally has hot dogs, pizza, chips, salads, and some sweet treats. We didn’t take advantage of the à la carte restaurants but they seemed extremely popular.||One of the best things about AP Cabanas is the entertainment / activities schedule – I have never seen so many people in a pool all doing aqua gym and aqua zumba every single day. Having never previously participated in aqua aerobics on holiday, I was initially surprised by the uptake but after observing aqua gym from my sunbed on the first morning, I was dying to take part in the aqua zumba class later that day. They also offer paddle boarding, yoga, pilates, a beach run and plenty of other activities throughout the week, as well as evening entertainment most nights. The team that run these activities were brilliant and so friendly.||The hotel is about 45 minutes from Faro airport, we had a transfer but Uber is very good in the area, and reasonably priced. The nearest train station which is Conceição is about a 30 min walk (up hill), or 5 min drive from the hotel and you can get trains into Tavira and Faro from there. The beach is a bit of a trek to get to, 5-10 min walk, 2 min boat taxi and then a 15 min walk on the other side. Even though I am a beach-lover, it honestly didn’t feel that worth it when the hotel is so nice. However, if you are keen then I’d advise going for at least a few hours as you can’t really just pop down. ||Overall, we can’t wait to book another holiday to the AP Cabanas, it was the perfect holiday and we’d definitely go back for longer next time.||NB: Bring a decent bug spray, we didn’t realise how many mosquitoes there are in the Algarve and trust me when I say that a cheap bug spray will...