Pine Cliffs Gardens

Pine Cliff is a slightly more expensive accommodation around Algrave, but it's definitely worthwhile. A huge property with many accommodation options, to hotel, suite, apartment etc.. We stayed in a 1 bedroom garden apartment, with full kitchen equipped. We make our own breakfast (breakfast at the hotel is expensive, supermarket just across the hotel entrance. Staff are all friendly and helpful. Clean and beautiful place for a couple retreat. Great for families with baby, too.

Downside: Abit out of nowhere but easy access by taxi or Uber. We had to pay extra 20eur plus tax every day, which was not mentioned upon check in. Also, a donation of 1eur was in the receipt (which was fine since its for charity but will be good to let us know before charging). We had room service of 40plus eur + all these extra charges became 80 less euros.

Nonetheless, this is a property to go if you can afford for a luxury getaway to spend yourself and your love ones.

Awful customer service throughout the stay. From being left waiting outside our room for an hour after being told someone was going to bring a spare key to never getting through to the concierge to get a shuttle. It is very expensive and everything is added on extra. They paid for the accommodation before the trip and then they added and extra €800 for an extra night and facility fees which they said was not included in the upfront cost but was never specified until check out.

Had heard a lot about Pine Cliffs and had always stayed maybe 5 minutes away, closer to Albufeira. Our usual accommodation was fully booked this year so we decided to try Pine Cliffs. We stayed in the Gardens, a perfect 1 bed apartment with everything needed - except a full length mirror! Would have been nice to have one in the bedroom area. The size, amenities and standard of furnishings was excellent. The kitchen area had every appliance needed and more! Full size fridge freezer if you wanted to be more self catering, although we had B&B option so didn't actually eat a meal in the apartment apart from snacking. The in resort restaurants and cafes are expensive, if you are trying to keep to a daily budget, this is not the place to eat! However, we really enjoyed the food in Zest Cafe and Corda Cafe for quick lunch bites. Staff for the most part are excellent, although there is a manager/supervisor in Zest that is a bit "sour". Breakfast is excellent, superb choice of food and the staff are excellent. Staff will bring you tea/coffee/juices, but if you go to use the self service speciaility coffee machines they are very slow so there is always a queue. They are polite and remind you when breakfast is finishing, but don't throw you out or make you feel unwelcome or turn off the coffee machines (have been in hotels that do this!) The beach is fabulous and every day when we went down we managed to get sunbeds, although in the height of summer I'd say it would be difficult. Didn't get to try Mare, but it always seemed busy and had a good buzz. Lifeguards on duty were good to have and very attentive as the sea was very rough and plenty of kids in the surf getting knocked over by the strength of the waves. The grounds of the hotel are immaculate, although one morning we were woken up at 7am by a very noisy leaf blower! Maybe no power tools before 9am would be nice. It can be hard to navigate, there are pathways everywhere, but the map isn't that good. There are some signposts but the first morning trying to find breakfast was hard, and the indoor pool entrance. Even when you find it once, every pathway looks the same and there's multiple entrances to all buildings so you're a bit confused for a while. Didn't try the outdoor pools, so cannot comment on temperature but we did get in the sea and it was quite pleasant. Overall it was an excellent stay at a resort that lived up to the reputation. We'll definitely be back.