Four Seasons Vilamoura

We spent 16 nights at FSV and it was very agreeable. We rented a spacious two bedroom suite. The beds were excellent. The airconditioning very powerful. The masterbathroom was fine (with bathrobes) but taking a shower while standing in the bathtub was disappointing. This appeared somewhat outdated, as was the case for the hotel in general. And I can imagine that some people are still assuming they are booking into a 4 seasons chain resort and that is certainly not the case. (a disclaimer can be found on the website, but still is is remarkable that this name can be used..)

Our apartment was on the ground floor with a terrace with 2 simple loungebeds and a table and 4 chairs. Some semi-private grass and a fence separated us from one of the pools ( the one for smaller children, with most noise, but that was ok). And the amount of people that claimed a poolbed with their towel, almost before sunrise, was astonishing. Although it wasn't allowed , the hotel didn't seem to care. The pools were nice and clean, with plenty of beds and more or less supervised.

We had dinner in the restaurant twice and the a la carte options were very good. The pool bar food and take away food were somewhat disappointing.

Staff were very helpful and friendly. Cleaning was very good.

We found out that we had to wash our pool towels ourselves, very unusual. Although not all reception staff seemed unanimous on this topic. A washer and dryer were available in the apartment and a defect dryer was replaced remarkably swift!

What surprised us very much is that there were no complimentary drinking water bottles, especially when one is renting a relative expensive apartment suite in a 4 star hotel for quite a sum of money. We were also disappointed about the intensity of smoking of the people in the apartments surrounding us. More than once it was very uncomfortable on our terrace. The previous occupant also had left a significant collection of cigarette butts on our terrace. They were removed on request. Maybe a no smoking policy can be considered?

The gym was relatively small but nice and clean with fresh towels and cool drinking water. The location of the hotel is nice in a nice area of the village with some restaurants just across the golf course and only a 5-10 min Uber drive to the marina area, most restaurants or the beach. Also many golfcourses nearby with the Pinhal course next to the hotel with a private connecting gate. Golf was arranged perfectly and very friendly by Clare and Peter Lester (with a small shop/office in the hotel lobby) including adequate transfers, very reasonable greenfee deals especially for juniors, and lesson options. All in all we had a nice holiday and after some improvement /adjustments the FSV might live up to its suggestive name in the future. Thank you to all the staff!

Lovely hotel. Apartment was huge! And had everything we needed, including dishwasher and washing machine. 2 great swimming pools & Lovely outside dining area. You can walk to the Marina but an uber is only €5. Great beaches nearby as well.