Vila Gale Nautico

We stayed for a week in the Vila Gale Nautico Hotel. The hotel itself is well-kept in communal areas/the pool, but unfortunately is massively let down by poor customer service. The pool bar staff were rather rude and unapproachable and quite slow with serving drinks; it felt as if we were a burden to their socialising. The main restaurant left little to be desired - breakfast was OK, but lunch/dinner not fantastic. The service again in the main restaurant was poor; my partner is dairy-free and asking for oat milk was a gamble, as non-English speaking staff seemed to make no effort to find someone to help us and just walk away - in the end we gave up asking. The tea and coffee from the water boilers in the buffet were cold every morning; we reported this to a waiter, but it was dismissed. The Italian restaurant (a-la-carte) is woeful; we had about an hour wait for our mains after receiving over-cooked and tasteless garlic bread, and when the mains did come they were not great. The Italian restaurant also appeared to be only half-full (despite being told at reception it was busy), and they had only one (very polite) waitress running the whole restaurant. We found that there were much nicer places locally and we decided to eat out every night, which was nice but defeated the point of an all inclusive package - finding out what is included on your all-inclusive package is a challenge, too, when you first get there.

Our major issue was with housekeeping in the room. We had to request our bed sheets were changed on the third night, as they had put sheets with yellow stains all over them on the bed, and did not replace any of our towels. The following day we came back to our plugs having being taken out of the wall, and my partners' travel plug had been snapped in two (probably with how it was just yanked from the wall). There is no reason for personal items to be touched or things to be unplugged, as the electricity is turned off when you remove your key card! Reception were apologetic and gave us a temporary replacement, but there was no talk of being compensated for broken property, and no proper apology from a manager either. On checkout, we were not asked how everything was.

The inside bar is great in the evening, though. One gentleman in particular served us for the entire week and was very chatty and cheerful and made excellent cocktails. The nearby promenade and beach is brilliant and the pool is very well-kept with plenty of sun loungers for everyone.

All in all, good setup but hotel is hugely let down by its customer service and food.

This is not a 4* hotel, it’s a 3 at best.

We stayed in a junior suite with was supposed to be 2 bedrooms but in reality it was a 1 bedroom suite where the living room was turned into a bedroom. The only storage was a wardrobe, there was no draws anywhere (not even in the bedside) so unless you wanted everything in the wardrobe all your stuff is out on display which makes the room constantly looked cluttered. The shower ran from boiling hot to freezing cold which is dangerous for a child - we asked for it to be fixed but it never was so I expect this a known problem which they consider normal.

Breakfast was not great - they were constantly things running out - juice, fruit, condiments etc and you had to ask at least 4 different people who were all generally rude, would disappear and reappear without what you asked for. To be fair the men cleaning the tables outside were always friendly and working hard to keep clean.

The location is excellent if you want to easily walk to lots of restaurants and the beach is just over the road. There were no sun bed wars either which was a nice relief, we often went down late morning/early afternoon and could easily get a bed - most times right by the pool. The pool was chilly, even in mid August so definitely not heated.

Overall if you are looking for a proper 4* hotel avoid or lower your expectations. Personally so would not visit again.