Dom Pedro Garajau

“Ideal hotel for Garajau Marine Reserve”

This is a comfortable hotel with many nice features. It is good at what it is, and an ideal place to spend the night after diving at Garajau Marine Reserve. It is not a 5-star hotel, and people who stay here should understand this. My personal preference would be for brighter lighting in the room a… more

This is a comfortable hotel with many nice features. It is good at what it is, and an ideal place to spend the night after diving at Garajau Marine Reserve. It is not a 5-star hotel, and people who stay here should understand this. My personal preference would be for brighter lighting in the room and more attention to minor maintenance. A couple of things were not working as they should, kind of like at home, yet I can't believe staff don't know about these things. That said, the room was clean, so I'm giving them a 4 out of 5 rather than a 3. (This hotel is a solid 3 1/2, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt). We appreciated the fridge and balcony. Living without WiFi for one night was interesting, and said as much about me as it did the hotel room. We played table tennis and foozball/ table football next to the bar-- after checking our phones! There were a wide variety of choices at the breakfast buffet. For dinner, I recommend the Snack Bar Restaurante Neptuno, a 2-minute walk down the road , although vegetarians may struggle with a choice of an omelette or salad.

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“Lovely with managed expectations.”

Having paid an almost ridiculously low price for this last minute holiday and having read reviews going back a long way...we arrived with "managed" expectations. And it paid off. Yes we were a long walk from reception, the beds were "firm" (and two singles pushed together), the coffee and eggs were… more

Having paid an almost ridiculously low price for this last minute holiday and having read reviews going back a long way...we arrived with "managed" expectations. And it paid off. Yes we were a long walk from reception, the beds were "firm" (and two singles pushed together), the coffee and eggs were indeed diabolical and it'a slightly hairy bus ride into Funchal. And yes it was rather sad to read in the display cases of the illustrious history of Dom Pedro Garajau and then look around at how dated it is now. BUT. ... the rooms though basic are spotlessly clean, the showers hot and fast and what the breakfasts lack in variety and quality...they certainly make up for in quantity (orange madeira cake to die for) and the staff are just lovely. And honestly...I didn't miss WiFi in the room at all. In fact it was quite liberating to just have a quick catch up in reception a couple of times a day and then forget the world. The pools were very clean and we always got a table at breakfast but on those two points I can well imagine this might not be the case when the hotel is fully occupied. The football team were very high spirited around the indoor pool on Saturday afternoon but other than that we heard nothing from them. You can hear your neighbour through adjoined rooms but the two different parties who were in the next room during our stay were respectful and quiet as we were. Garajau itself has several lovely restaurants ranging from cheap and cheerful to very posh...and all of them treated us very well. So..if its luxury you're after..look elsewhere...but if its value for money...sunshine (26° almost all week) round almost empty pools and sun beds..stunning gardens and high standards of cleanliness and you don't mind a bit of a walk to your breakfast...try this hotel in the off season and swap February weather for June.

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