- Algarve Holidays
- Tavira
- Vila Gale Tavira
This hotel is located on the banks of the Ria Formosa, in the centre of Tavira. Right in the centre of town only a few metres away from the Gilão River and Ria Formosa, and within walking distance from the shopping district and the promenade cafés of Tavira. The hotel is surrounded by Ria Formosa Natural Park, gracing the hotel with one of the most alluring landscapes of Portugal. Guests might also like to drive to Spain, which is only 40 kilometres away, or to the Barlavento area of the Algarve, 30 minutes' drive away. The on-site wellness center features an indoor heated pool and hot tub; The gym is also available so that fitness lifestyle lovers can keep fit. The rooms aim to provide effective rest in a cozy design and comfortable furniture, each room is fully equipped to make guests feel as if they were at home, so they can search for adventures in the locality and return to a optimal rest.
Pamper yourself with a visit to the spa, which offers massages and facials. You can take advantage of recreational amenities such as a health club, an outdoor pool and an indoor pool. Additional features at this hotel include complimentary wireless Internet access, an arcade/games room and gift shops/newsstands.
This hotel is in a good location the price is very affordable and the staff are lovely.
The rooms are basic and there is very little storage space and I mean very little. Sockets are in difficult to reach places so bring an extension cord if you can. We had walk in shower which was a blessing as some photos show over the bath showers. Rugs either side of the bed that we rolled up and put to one side as they were trip hazards for us.
Breakfast was nice enough, good choice and nice and fresh. We didn’t eat any other food inside the hotel as so much choice outside and the restaurants are fab. It’s busy early as the hotel has a lot of golfing guests who are up at the crack of dawn to tee off.
Drinks in the bar are of a good standard and reasonably priced. Bar staff are so friendly.
Lots of sunbeds and no sunbed wars or people reserving them. However the pool area is rather slippy and a number of people took a tumble so be wary. In fairness to the hotel they try to keep the area dry but it’s impossible to do. Pigeons also enjoy the pool!
Our room cleaning was late every day, I know someone has to be last but I do feel it would be fair to rotate this so the same rooms aren’t always cleaned late in the day.
No kettle in hotel on arrival but ask at reception and they deliver one and cups.
Mosquitoes/biting insects are rife in Tavira so bring repellent.
Partner and I stayed for a week in late September. Tavira is a lovely old town with nice restaurants, beautiful scenery along the Gilao River, great beach close-by and a castle! Vila Gale seemed the ideal place to stay given it’s central location and facilities. The hotel appears to be one of only two in the town and the one closest to the centre, suggesting there's not a lot of competition to help drive up standards and I suspect a lot of people aren’t therefore demanding much from the hotel. Still, it is advertised as a 4 star hotel and I think a review is worthwhile for anybody weighing up the pros and cons of staying here.
Pros
Cons
Lighting – hotel rooms were very dark with no overhead lighting apart from just inside the door (where there were no sockets or mirror). Just a few very dim lamps making it very difficult to read in the room especially after 7 pm and to dry/style hair and put on makeup. Partner used torch on mobile to make sure she was getting out matching earrings! Outside lights were switched on centrally across the hotel at 8, until then it was pretty dark. Outside bar was crazily dark for a good hour or so meaning you had to go into the inside bar for better lighting. Dangerous as well because of different patio levels.
Distinct lack of storage – not many drawers – including no drawers in bedside tables and not much space in wardrobes and lack of hangers
Lack of convenient electricity sockets and/or appliance cables too short. No socket in bathroom, which there usually is in Portuguese hotels. Kettle was on hospitality tray on desk below TV but had to be put on floor to reach nearest socket. Only mirror in room was too far away from nearest socket to be able to look in mirror when using hairdryer
Poor noise insulation
Refrigerator in room was welcome but wasn’t especially cold
Breakfast – cheap produce if you want a decent full English/Welsh – for example tiny, bad quality hot dog type sausages, watery baked beans and tinned mushrooms. Long queues as all eggs apart from scrambled were being made to order by only one person. Inexplicably, only small side plates were available and cutlery was dinky (like it was made for toddlers!). Guests were having to attempt a circus trick by balancing 2 side plates , dangerous as well as inconvenient! Raised with the staff but they just said it was hotel policy. Think they were probably fed up with people pointing it out. Never seen anything like it any other hotel. I was forced to go to an all-sorts Chinese shop up the road to acquire a bigger plate, like Alan Partridge! Nothing was said and I suspect the staff were wondering why the majority of people weren’t doing the same thing
I would echo much of what has been said before. The hotel is large and spacious and very clean. The breakfast is plentiful and varied but the restaurant dark, noisy and soulless . The staff are all pleasant and helpful. Our room was dark and lacking in sockets and storage, I had to hang dresses in the bathroom as the wardrobe space wasn’t tall enough. The bed was comfy. We didn’t use the bar, the muzak out me off, it was also left playing all night on one occasion and kept us awake. The shower was feeble and on one occasion the water was cold, the sink tap leaked and the drain smelled bad when we arrived but improved quickly. Overall it was fine for somewhere to sleep for a week but I wouldn’t say it was a four star experience.
We have been without hot water since we arrived here at the end of our cycle yesterday and the hotel’s response has been astonishingly dismissive. This is not a minor inconvenience; it is a basic failure to provide a fundamental facility that guests reasonably expect to receive when paying for accommodation.
What makes it even worse is the attitude of the staff. The manager has been conspicuously unavailable and is apparently hiding rather than speaking directly to the people affected.
Problems can happen in any hotel. A good hotel though responds when something goes wrong. Here, there has been neither effective communication nor visible accountability — just 2 nights without hot water and staff behaving as though guests should simply accept it.
I would strongly advise potential guests to think carefully before booking. A hotel that cannot provide hot water for two days, cannot produce its manager, and treats paying customers’ complaints as trivial does not deserve the rating or the money it receives.
We stayed here as part of a walking group. Overall the hotel is a good 4* with no frills.
The pool area was well maintained with plenty of sunbeds. My room was originally on the ground floor next to the pool but I asked to change to the first floor for more privacy.
Breakfast and dinner provided a good selection. There was always freshly good fish at dinner.
Although on half board we opted to eat out every other night as there are many good restaurants/bars within walking distance of the hotel.
The lovely beach is a short ferry ride away and is truly beautiful. The area is very unspoilt and not as ‘touristy as western Algarve.
Our walks took us along the coast and inland. All very scenic. This was our second holiday with Involved Holidays who are excellent.
The only complaint re Vila Gale was the evening entertainment which was diabolical. They could have just had a decent singer, with some accompaniment or even some nice music playing, rather than the children’s entertainers from the day time or Elvis impersonator who couldn’t sing very well. They need to up their game with this as people will just go out or go to bed. It was really poor.
