Rocha Brava Village Resort

We booked to stay 48 nights at the resort on the extended holidays packages Jet 2 Holidays offer. Initially we were allocated apartment 266. The front door did not open. It was rotten and split and swollen so opening it scratched the floors. The apartment had not had any updates at all likely since it was first built over 30 years ago. The tiles in kitchen and bathrooms all had small cracks in them and there was a rank smell in the apartment. We soon discovered what it was. the walls under the sink in the kitchen were black with mould. The U bend in the bathroom sink had degraded so water from the sink went straight onto the floor and there was no cover over the waste in the shower. So after first shower there was a constant smell of raw sewerage. The electric heater in the second bathroom was a rusty radiant heater which looked unsafe to use. Black mould is a killer. A properly run place would have basic standards of cleanliness and health and safety.. Apartment 266 appears to have had no oversight for years. On day three we were upgraded to a villa which was set in the most beautiful grounds. It was a lot better, and no mould in the kitchen.. but the cream tiled floors were filthy. We asked for it to be cleaned and a deep clean was offered so we went out for the day, returning to find the floors as filthy as when we left. So we cleaned one of the bathroom floors ourselves leaving one tile dirty as a comparison. The covers on the sofas were dirty too.. We had sheets on our bed with holes in them and towels that were grey and threadbare. We had to ask for new sheets and towels.. As the weather changed towards the end of our stay, we noticed more and more black mould appearing on the walls in the bedrooms and bathrooms and the shower curtain had developed thick black mould on it. It is so sad that management has no passion for health and safety and cleanliness within the accommodation. The resort is 4 star, but the accommodation is far below that.. The grounds of the resort are beautiful and the swimming pools were clean. The gardens and planting and lawns are stunning and the walks around the reserve and out onto the cliff tops quite breath taking. There is so much potential for excellent accommodation, but it appears not to be the focus of management at this time.

I stayed at this hotel a few times with my family and it was pretty good, though there weren't any daytime activities. In the evening to get to the town you could either take a rather long walk or get a taxi. There was a good Indian restaurant nearby to the hotel which was very tasty, there is also a restaurant called rocha mar which went downhill a lot between our visits. The atmosphere used to be very chilled out by the pool but on our last stay there had been a warden put in place who was threatening and didn't allow any diving or pool floats or toys. The rooms were nice though me being a 6 foot teenager, I was given a small fold out bed which was uncomfortable and insufficient. Each room comes with a balcony and kitchen which are a nice addition for if you do self catering or bed and breakfast.

Lovely resort, beautiful grounds and gardens, Negatives, pity about the music around the pool area. I agree background music gives the bar an ambience but it doesn’t need to be so loud it can be heard around the pool, I go to relax not listen to the someone else’s LOUD music.