Vale Do Lobo Resort

Location

Needs refurbishing

Absolutely beautiful. Just home from our second stay at VDL resort. It’s such a wonderful place. The apartment was spotless, and so well appointed with beautiful decor and high ceilings. It had everything you could need for a break away. Facilities, including the beach club are all gorgeous, shuttle around the resort is so handy. All the staff we encountered were so friendly and attentive. We’re looking forward to next year already.

The only minor downside to our stay was that we felt breakfast at Doce had gone downhill a little since last year. Limited buffet on display (and one morning the “hot” food was cold) Had to ask at counter for things like yoghurt, fruit, charcuterie, which was little confusing, would be nice if you had a printed menu of what was available to order so it was a little clearer for guests. We didn’t make it to Smash to try the other breakfast offering as Doce is so close to the beach & pool it was our preference, so maybe that was better.

shuttle, beach club & breakfast included

Coffe machine wasnt working but they repaired it while we were there. Bathrooms a little tired

Good sunshine throughout the day (some other properties lose the sun relatively early). Very secure. Good aircon. Netflix on TV. Good WiFi. Uber service was fab and cheap. We had a great holiday.

Quite a few disappointments. Downstairs bedroom had no shower facilities (villa has no common bathroom meaning the teenagers had to come up and use one of the en-suites) Downstairs bedroom had no drawers or wardrobes - pretty basic requirement. Only 4 sun loungers in a 6 person villa (the resort did source us two more after a couple of days) Outside dining is for 4 persons. Loungers pretty uncomfortable after a while Showers were very small (we are not overweight or overly large) would not suit folks with mobility issues or larger folks. Tiles falling off pool, decking also requires some maintenance (loose boards and doesn’t appear to have been oiled in ages) Continental breakfast was included but it’s a 2km walk (there is a shuttle and easy cheap uber) and the staff and quality of breakfast at Doce is terrible - the staff clearly don’t want u there, they prioritise other customers over u and downright ignore u. We only ordered the resort shuttle once - waited 30 minutes and were then told another 10, we gave up (resort apologised and said this shouldn’t happen and is not normal) We understand the individual properties are the owners responsibility but Vale De Lobo resort should be setting the ‘standard’. Some of the above may seem a bit picky but if u advertise 5* there’s an expectation level. We are unlikely to chose VDL resort again for the above reasons.