AP Oriental Beach Adults Friendly

We are currently are guests of the hotel and the calmness, the character is unbelievable. Absolutely beautiful location and the staff are great. The food and drinks are tiny bit overpriced but you would expect that from a beach location. Would definitely recommend.

Good location overlooking a lovely beach, close to restaurants/bars, but quieter area. Unfortunately, works started on the beach shortly after our arrival so most of it fenced off and lots of machinery/workmen. Seems they’re setting up for a festival on the beach early July. Good size rooms and we did get a room in the location we asked for. Unfortunately, they were aware we weren’t a couple and allocated a double room. We asked to move but were told the hotel was full. Agreed a compromise they suggested and they said it would be sorted asap. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sorted during our stay. Most 4 star hotels would have had housekeeping resolve straight away, it was only 3pm and would not have taken long. Many hotels have zipper beds that can be either a double or 2 singles. Food in restaurant was generally OK. Would have liked some pasta dishes that were not vegetarian, all the pasta dishes served were vegetarian, should have been a variety. All the restaurant staff were good and worked hard. However, Claudia and Carlos stood out as always welcoming guests with a smile and good morning or evening. One of the best things about the hotel was always being able to get a sun lounger. Only a few seemed to be reserved with towels.

I am unsure why this is named the oriental when it is decidedly Moroccan in decor, nevertheless it is a stunning hotel, well placed near the town centre and beach. I went with my sister and we were given a room upgrade, a lovely surprise. Our room had twin beds and a settee; and was clean and spacious. The bathroom equally so. There is a minibar however this didn’t have much in it, just water and a small bottle of red and a small bottle of white wine. Perhaps if it had more to offer, we would have used it. We had a beach view balcony, which was great. The staff were great, friendly and welcoming except the bar/dining manager guy who behaved very differently with us compared to how he behaved with other guests. We could not think why this was, he was distant, curt, and at one stage accusatory. We could only think maybe he thought we were a single sex couple, rather than relatives, we were unsure but either way he certainly held something against us making us uncomfortable. Because of the weather (mainly rain due to storms), for 3 out of 4 nights we had the hotel’s evening buffet: we were not sure what the evening ‘themes’ were supposed to be, rather eclectic, but the food was edible; nothing great but ok for the price of €29 each and we didn’t have to cook. Breakfasts offered a good selection. The local shops and restaurants were as expected for a tourist spot but we found it hard to find Portuguese traditional food which was a real shame. I guess they mainly cater for those who leave the UK and who cannot tolerate anything less than a big English breakfast and pizza & chips! We highly recommend this hotel and we would certainly return.