Monte Santo Resort

During our stay at the Monte Santo Resort we have experienced a family tragedy which was no fault of the hotel. Every member of staff in the hotel has been amazing . The staff in this hotel have looked after my family so well I couldn’t think of a better place to be other than my own home. Thank-you from the bottom of my heart Couldn’t have got through this without your support The place is just wonderful and you staff at the hotel deserve an award for kindness and care.

We stayed as a family for 10 nights in May in a 2 bedroom suite, our children are 6 and 11. We received a warm welcome and were taken to our apartment with our cases on a golf buggy, which the children thought was fun.

The resort is geared up for families with a large outdoor pool, a warmer indoor pool and lots of sun loungers. When we arrived it was very quiet and we almost had the place to ourselves, it got much busier towards the end of our holiday and still we never struggled for a sunbed. You get new pool towels everyday, which was great.

The apartment was large and spacious with two big bedrooms, well equipped kitchen, two bathrooms, a dining area and living space. For us it was perfect as we do like to self cater for breakfast and lunch if we're having a pool day, even more so given the lunch offering at the bar was expensive. Our balcony was big enough for us all to eat outside, which was lovely. Some have said the rooms need updating but we didn't feel they were dated and were very happy with the accommodation. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained. There's a pond with turtles and some noisy frogs, which were lovely to watch.

There isnt much around Monte Santo so you have to walk or taxi if you want to venture out. We caught an uber to Aldi and back twice for a big shop and topped up with trips to the supermarkets in Carvoeiro and the little spar shop 10 or so minutes walk from the complex. Carvoeiro is a 15 minute walk away, we did this quite a few times and despite being uphill to come back it isn't unpleasant. Carvoeiro itself is nice, we did struggle to find the traditional restaurants we're used to from the other part of the Algarve we usually go to, but that may have been poor research on our part. The beach had an algae issue so we took a taxi to Praia Grande one day, which was a lovely big beach with relatively still water, it was definitely worth a visit.

We were surprised there is no evening life at the club house and on the odd occasion we went to play pool after going out for a meal we would be the only people there. That said, the cocktails were amazing so we weren't complaining.

We loved staying at Monte Santo but might not stay again, mainly due to us not finding what we wanted in Carvoeiro. We had a lovely holiday but ultimately prefer other parts of Portugal.