Vale Do Lobo Resort

Having visited the Vale do Lobo for the past 20 years every September, it's sad to see the changes. I rent privately through a lovely lady and the accommodation is perfect. The Praca however, is now practically empty this time of year where it used to still be buzzing. I was shocked to be asked 45€ for a sunbed for the day... its 28€ if you have a guest pass, which is still extortionate! Montys has sadly gone! Why on earth would they change that!! Amore has gone and another restaurant around the corner has also disappeared ! The Beach Bar is still one of my fave places, but even some of the starters on the menu are 20€!! The Tennis Academy, thank goodness, has had a makeover, and 12€ to use the pool, with lovely facilities and eating area. This is definitely a place to spend the day! So basically, I'll continue to go, as after sadly losing my partner it's somewhere I feel close to him and also feel very safe going solo. But, what a shame these changes have been made. They clearly want to cater for the more wealthy and its just sad to see, what used to be a vibrant, busy resort even towards the end of season, turning into a ghost town! The changes, in my opinion, weren't needed and the prices are ridiculous!

Weve stayed on this resort a few times before both in private villas and the resort townhouses but due to our circumstances we could only book about 4 weeks before travelling it limited our options but as VDL is a very reputable resort we thought we would be fine with one of their apartments.

I have to state we were extremely disappointed with the standard of accommodation, our first apartment was unfortunately below a very lively golf party who woke us a 2am then again at 7 am , although we did ask them to reduce the noise the comment oh hes deaf then proceeded to stand outside our bedroom window shouting and swearing shows little respect for others .

We explained all this to reception and our concerns about cleanliness and our disappointment only to be offered a 3 bedroom villa at nearly €2k for 4 nights . We didn’t need 3 bedrooms and couldn’t justify this for our final stop on our Portuguese roadtrip .

They did move us a few doors away but the apartment was still very old tired and shabby .

Another issue we had was housekeeping in 5 days no clean towels ; we had to beg and the same for toilet paper , even though we explained and reported this and even though the cleaner was in the next apartment these had to be brought in a separate vehicle !

We love the resort and will go back but not rent from VDL - their standards are well below par ! It may be ok for short term golf party’s but they don’t make concessions for couples or families

VDL is our home from home, I have been visiting for 35+ years now and seen many changes. Whilst I welcome some changes I don't think they are working. The praca has undergone major changes over the last few years, I think the change in restaurants is positive as it's good to change menus etc, it's not really working sadly. There is quite clearly a standoff occurring between the owners of Creperie, Sandbanks and VDL. Resort cards don't offer the discounts in these places anymore and this is not made clear. Who is to know whether it's a VDL restaurant or not? Have to mention Doce we loved this addition last year, yet this year the service was awful on several occasions. Staff kept saying they had been really busy but they hadn't, other members of the family had been in during the "busy" period. This excuse became tired after a while and we gave up going. The Praca pool is unbelievable! This used to be a family area, out children spent their childhood in this pool . Now it's a glorified nightclub. Tried this area a couple of times but were out off by the loud music and members of staff smoking hashish and blowing it over us. Really feel VDL has lost its way as a family resort. The golf is as good as ever, glad to see the tennis centre has been revived, but the heart of the resort at the praca is now really lacking. Many a time we could walk from beach to praca at any time of the day and it was humming. No longer the case sadly. The ice cream place was always busy this doesn't seem to be. On several occasions we witnessed severely intoxicated individuals in the middle of the day causing a scene. Again not really what you would expect A positive if the resort bus! Much easier and more regular. So to the new owners I ask ease look again at the whole praca set up it's not working.