3HB Golden Beach

This was our third stay at 3HB Golden Beach, although our previous visit was around ten years ago. The hotel itself is still stunning and has been maintained impeccably. The apartments, grounds and communal areas are beautifully presented, and the staff were lovely throughout our stay. It’s clear that the hotel works extremely hard to maintain its high standards.

Sadly, the surrounding area has changed considerably since our last visit. That isn’t the hotel’s fault, and it genuinely makes me sad because we previously loved coming here. This time, however, we travelled with our toddler and my parents, and the noise, atmosphere and lack of suitable amenities nearby made the location disappointing for a family holiday.

On arrival, guests are asked to agree to rules including no reserving sunbeds, no smoking around the pool and restrictions on inflatables. These are sensible rules intended to keep the hotel pleasant for everyone, but unfortunately they weren’t consistently enforced. People regularly smoked around the pool and large inflatables were used despite the rules.

Ironically, our towels were removed from our sunbeds on the one occasion when I’d only briefly gone back to the room to collect my husband and son! This led me to question why that particular rule had been enforced so strictly when the smoking and inflatables were largely being ignored.

The most serious issue occurred on the second night of our ten-night stay. Another guest spent much of the night repeatedly coming out of his room, slamming the door and arguing loudly with his partner in the open area immediately below us. When I called for help, I was told that reception was closed and that I would need to go downstairs and find the security guard myself. That would have required me to walk directly past the guest who was behaving aggressively, so understandably that suggestion didn’t land particularly well.

The hotel moved us to another room afterwards, which we appreciated. The staff were clearly embarrassed and upset by what had happened and handled the situation sympathetically once they became aware of it. However, the replacement room was noticeably more tired than our original apartment.

Being moved did at least reduce some of the noise coming from the direction of the Strip, which would otherwise have really affected our holiday.

My parents’ room was at the rear, facing a large hotel that appeared to cater mainly for younger groups. They usually enjoy sitting outside on their balcony in the evenings, but the amount of noise from the hotel opposite made that difficult. Again, this wasn’t caused by 3HB Golden Beach, but it’s something potential guests should consider carefully when choosing a room. I would strongly recommend paying for a sea-view room at the front of the hotel.

We also used to really enjoy visiting Albufeira Old Town, but this time it felt dirty, seedy and run-down in places. There were large groups of men, hen/stag parties and younger groups spilling out from the bars – with the football being shown during our visit adding to the atmosphere. It simply wasn’t what we wanted from a holiday with a toddler and older parents.

The difference compared with our previous visits was striking. The Strip existed ten years ago, of course, but the wider area now felt much noisier and more unruly, with the effects spreading considerably beyond the Strip itself. The general area felt dirty and run down.

I want to be very clear that this isn’t a criticism of the hotel’s appearance, cleanliness or general service. The hotel remains immaculate, the pool area is lovely and the staff genuinely seemed to care. They’re clearly trying hard to preserve a high-quality environment despite what is happening around them.

Unfortunately, location and atmosphere are still part of the overall holiday experience. As beautiful as 3HB Golden Beach remains, I couldn’t now recommend it to anyone looking for a reliably quiet family holiday. That’s a real shame because the hotel itself deserves better from its surroundings.

We had an amazing 5 night stay in the 3HB Golden Beach. This was my second visit and the first time to stay with my family. We arrived after an early morning flight and were warmly welcomed and given a fantastic upgrade to a two bedroom apartment. This was perfect for our family of four (kids aged 15 and 11). The apartments are spotlessly clean, really spacious and well maintained. We were also given a lovely welcome pack with some basics like milk and crackers and re-usable water bottles which we made great use of all week. The complex was busy and the only slight drawback is that there probably aren’t enough sunbeds to go round. However I was happy to get up and get some early in the morning and enjoy reading in peace and quiet for a couple of hours before the place filled up. The pool area is lovely and cleaned every morning. There is a good pool bar which serves nice food too. The location is brilliant, just down hill from the strip and above the beach but you wouldn’t know it as the place is so peaceful. There is a lovely bakery and a couple of shops and supermarkets two minutes walk from the apartments. We hopped into an Uber into old town most nights which was great but I was glad not to be staying down in that area. Overall I couldn’t rate these apartments higher for their helpful and friendly staff, great location and the rooms are fabulous, so clean and well maintained. We will definitely be back!