Vila Gale Cerro Alagoa

My wife booked this hotel as a surprise for my 50th birthday. We paid around £2,000 for an 8-night stay in a Junior Suite with a pool view. What we actually got was a tired, dirty room overlooking the roadside. Not quite the birthday surprise we'd imagined!

We lasted one night out of eight before deciding life was too short. We packed our bags, paid for another hotel ourselves in Vilamoura and never looked back.

The room was filthy. There were dirty walls, paint splatters everywhere, stained curtains, damaged furniture, cobwebs, marks throughout the room and even the toilet roll looked damp and unusable. The attached photos speak for themselves. I genuinely cannot understand how this hotel is classed as 4 stars.

The hotel was also full of large groups, including stag parties, creating a noisy atmosphere that was the complete opposite of the relaxing holiday we had booked. Loud music carried on into the evening.

Breakfast offered plenty of choice, but most of the hot food was only lukewarm.

When we complained, we were offered an alternative room. We were later told the manager had tried to call us, but both room phones were beside us the entire time, no calls came through and nobody knocked on the door. That explanation simply doesn't add up.

The only positive was that TUI kept communicating with us throughout. In the end, though, we solved the problem ourselves by paying to move hotels.

Thankfully, we managed to save my 50th birthday by moving to another hotel in Vilamoura. Had we stayed here, it would have been a completely different story.

Would I return? Only if I accidentally got on the wrong coach.

We stayed at the hotel with our 9 yesr old girl who had an amzing time with the animation staff, carolina and Paula. They were very interactive with my daughter and always had a smile on their face and happy to help.if we got stuck with anything in the hotel.