Cerro Mar Atlantico & Cerro Mar Garden

Lovely hotel very clean & friendly staff, in a quiet area close to plenty of entertainment a short walk down the hill

There’s a lot to like about this hotel; the garden and public areas are generally smart and well maintained and the location is spot on if you don’t mind the steep hill and stairs down to the square. Quiet area, not too much noise. It has declined in some areas since our last visit 10 years ago, the rooms (while generously sized with great views) are feeling a little tired and dated at this price-point. Access to the inside pool and changing facilities through the exterior glass doors is now blocked and the sun loungers are well past their best – and not enough of them for the amount of guests, particularly as a large number arrive from surrounding hotels to grab them early (we’d often spot them from our balcony crawling underneath the rope at the crack of dawn). I don’t know why this is still a thing and people don’t just use loungers when required rather than ’reserving’ entire banks of 6 loungers at a time with selfishly placed towels for hours on end, but hey, that’s just people for you. The hotel can get a bit stag and hen Thurs-Sunday, but all the younger people we rubbed shoulders with were polite and respectful of families and guests around the pool. When it comes to Albufeira itself, the old town has also sadly declined in the past decade; it’s lost its relaxed vibe and is significantly more busy with the more tacky joints along bar street now encroaching into the old square where tightly-packed sport and karaoke bars have pushed out the more relaxed and open café bars. It still retains some of its charm in surrounding streets, but no longer a case of take-it or leave-it nightlife, sad to see how much of the town has given way to sticky pavements and happy-hour noise.

I travelled with my family and we went self catering, this hotel is quiet and relaxing, the rooms are a good size and had everything you need (except an iron and a dustpan and brush for the mess my kids made!) If you wanted a sunbed you needed to get up at around 7.30/8 am and put your towels down, even though the pool opened at 9am and there was signs saying you could not reserve beds, this led to a couple of sunbed wars where at around 11/11.30am people got fed up of the beds being reserved with no-one on them and took the towels off. The restaurant at the hotel, I found ok but the food in the old town was definitely better quality for the same price or cheaper. To access the old town you needed to use a set of steep steps (98 steps!) Which was hard work in the hot weather. I would recommend this hotel but wish it had more entertainment in the evenings and although it didn't impact us as we had quiet neighbours, I think if people in other rooms on my floor were noisy you would definitely be able to hear them especially in the corridor as there was a big echo and it was a tiled floor.

Hotel put us in old building and old unit. Furniture was beat up etc. we paid for upgrade of 20 euros per day for 3 days as did our friends. Front desk staff were excellent especially Miguel in making things right. Beds and pillows are terrible in this hotel compared to My Story Hotels and Evora Olive Hotel.

Good location.

Lovely hotel nice staff Pool areas are very busy they could do with lot more sun loungers, you rarely get a place by the pool. Also need some pool toilets as you have to walk through the hotel wet to use the loo. Apartments are nice, need more furniture on balcony (family 4 but only 2 chairs and 2 beds ) and hooks for towels in bathrooms. But a good space for self catered hotel. It’s a steep climb to the town via steps, we actually like this as it’s good exercise but I can appreciate those less abled would find it hard work.

Lovely place to stay, away from the hustle and bustle of the town. We stayed B&B and had a two bedroom apartment with a partial sea view?? (see photo).There was more than enough space for the four of us and a great kitchenette , which came in handy. The complex is clean, well maintained and a great view. We found the staff very approachable and helpful. The restaurant offers a fantastic buffet breakfast as well as al a carte or a buffet evening meal. We tried both during our stay and found both very good and prices comparable with other restaurants in town. Being a musician, I also appreciated the live music in the evenings. Pool was very good and very much used, especially by the kids. We had temperatures hitting 35°c whilst we were there. Only downside, which is not the hotels fault, are the steps down to the town. 5 minutes going down and a lifetime coming up . !.. Especially in 30° heat ....Btw. I'm old! Lovely stay

In our opinion it would be more like a 3 star accommodation. The positives: We found the staff very efficient and professional. Nice but not over friendly and always helpful and polite. Cold water and lemon flavoured water available to help yourself to on arrival. Check in was efficient with our apartment available early. A lovely sized one bedroom apartment which was cleaned to a high standard everyday and fresh towels provided. It didn't matter how late we left our room in the morning the room had always been serviced when we returned. The kitchen area is great with a full sized fridge and freezer compartment at the top where we could make ice for drinks and store ice lollies. The air conditioning works a treat. We went to the hotel barbecue across the road at the sister hotel which was on the rooftop. It was a great experience with a singer and a band playing whilst we helped ourselves at the barbecue. I think this happens every Wednesday and tickets are available from reception. The food was nice with 3 courses available and there was wine included in the price. I'd highly recommend this and the staff really looked after us. We ate out most nights in the old town through choice but did have the hotel buffet on one night which was okay, not a lot of options for us but that's just our personal taste. Lots of fish, also duck. We found something, so were ok. The food that we had at the pool bar was really nice, tasty cheese burgers and omelettes. I enjoyed a number of cocktails with the pineapple daiquiri being my favourite as it was delicious and refreshing in the heat. Now for the negatives unfortunately We had a low down apartment that looked out over grass and the reception roof. We could see some sea but other rooms overlooked the pool area and had a better sea view. I did ask to change if possible but was told through the TUI app that the hotels response was that we were given the room that we had booked. Not sure if there was an option to upgrade to a better view when booked but I would have done so if there was and had I of known. The sun bed situation is dire, there aren't nearly enough to go round with quite a number of them being broken. We spent a day on 3 really uncomfortable beds with a dip in the middle of them so obviously broken. The next day there had been some attempt to fix them as they had been tied but were still broken. The only entertainment around the pool is very irritating instrumental tunes which went on all day. I found it very boring so when the youngsters arrive in the afternoon unlike other reviews on here I found it quite entertaining with them just having some harmless fun. It's a question of personal taste I suppose. If there weren't any sunbeds available, which there weren't after 8.30am really, as all reserved, we would just go to the beautiful beach as we were stuck as to where to sit at the hotel. All in all an OK place to stay and we had a good holiday there. Just a few things that could improve it.