Hotel was excellent much more than what I expected. The website images of the hotel was exactly as seen. The people at the hotel were friendly and helpful. The hotel was peaceful and was perfect to destress and collect your thoughts, it's more of a couples hotel.

They held yoga lessons which I was more than happy to attend and would like to say the teacher was very good. The food was well presented and tasty BUT my partner was not too happy with the choices on the menu. We ended up eating outside of the hotel for the rest of the other nights, there are many places to eat and is much more affordable; fish at the beach restaurants, curry and pasta a good 10 minute walk, chinese a 5 minute cab drive away, italian at the marina......1 major glich was we were only notified on arrival that the jacuzzi, sauna and spa was out of order and was only given a letter of apology.

The beach was only a 2 minute walk which was a bonus. My partner and I had a very nice holiday and I would definatley visit this hotel again.

We have just returned from a week at this beautiful hotel. We arrived in Faro and was met by a taxi arranged through the hotel which was a nice touch. We arrived at the hotel to a pleasant surprise, it was everything the pictures in the magazine had described was immaculate and very clean. We were greeted at reception with a cup of tea (not the tea you will be used to in England) and a cold flanel to cool us down, as by this time it was quite hot outside (29). We were showed to our room which was lovely, we had a huge bed, and I mean huge I woke one morning to wonder where my partner had disappeared to find that he was just the other side of this enormous bed you can certainly spread out, if you are used to doing this at home. We also had candles, fruit and was also given a bottle of champagne with strawberries a truly good start to the holiday.

The hotel only had one restaurant but served really nice cusine and would also arrange a meal for you if there was nothing on the menu that you lliked, although this was not common knowledge and was not advertised that they did this, but as I was a fussy eater this helped slightly. The menu did not change in the restaurant but the ambience was nice and it was quiet and very relaxing - it is not a hotel that is rushed so be prepared to wait for your meal and the price was not exactly cheap!

We did venture out most evenings as there is so many restaurants, it would pay you to venture into the local towns. Unless you have a car which is ideal as the Hotel is quite away from any of the nearest towns, reception are happy and very helpful to point you in the right direction of the evening entertainment and also arrange for a taxi to pick you up.

During the day is when I found the hotel to be a bit too quiet for my liking, I am not exactly in my twenties anymore but I do still like a bit of chatter round the pool or at least some atmosphere amongst the other guests of the hotel, but unfortunately it was a bit like sitting in a Library and everytime you needed to move a deck chair (which I have to say unless you get the right one they are very uncomfortable) made you feel that you should be quiet and was looked at by the other guests, I personally found this quite amusing. Fortunately for us the beach was a stones throw away which is where we spent most of the holiday the beach is beautiful and is nice to see the sunset very picturesque, also there are some nice cafes to have lunch which overlook the beach - the only downside is the sea is so cold so you will have to be brave to enter (I would just jump in if I were you).

Overall it was lovely very relaxing holiday especially the massages (do have one if you are there) the service was exceptional.

Location: The proximity to the beach is a definite draw of this hotel. A 200m walk leads you to a fabulous long golden beach with excellent facilites; sunloungers, toilets, changing facilities and eateries. Praia de Gale itself is made up of a few hotels, lots of villas and not much else but there is a mini-market and cash point 10 minutes walk form the hotel. Although car hire is undoubtedly an advantage on the Algarve, we managed adequately without and the hotel can organise day excursions for you which include return transfers at a small extra cost.

Rooms:Quite minimalist in design but comfortable with nice little details such as joss sticks and candles. Its probably worth paying the extra for a pool view. We opted for a garden view room only to find we spent the week looking at the gardens of adjacent villas and a small plot of waste land.

Food: The restaurant decor is reminiscent of something you would find in a trendy Soho establishment. The menu I felt was somewhat limited and doesn't change throughout the week so you would be pushed to enjoy something different every night if you were to only eat in the hotel. You can ask for alternatives such as pasta and salads to be made up for you although this isn't publicised. The food is described as Mediteranean/Asian fusion and was actually pretty average although attractively presented. There are 3 restaurants overlooking the beach which all offer great seafood with stunning views although the prices aren't necessarily a huge amount cheaper than the hotel.

Facilities & Service: Lovely outdoor pool and a tennis court if you are feeling particularly active. The Satsanga Spa houses a massive jacuzzi which was out of order for half our stay and you have to pay a small supplement if you want to use it but use of the facilities are included if you opt for a treatment.
The service was generally of a very high standard. Reception did let the hotel down a little though. In keeping with the minimalist theme, it consists of just a fairly small table which means they are unable to cope with a few people at once. The reception staff were friendly but a little inexperienced and didn't really go the extra mile to attend to things.

This is a very nice hotel. I have been there before and I was so pleased that I returned, but currently it is full and there is definately a shortage of sunbeds sometimes. Some of the sunbeds are also not very comfortable as they have a metal bar at the back of them. The rooms are very nicely appointed and the staff are very pleasant.

The flat screen tv's are great but currently you can't get any english language programmes. When asked why I was told they are waiting for a man to fix the satellite but they didn't know when this might happen.

All in all a very good holiday but not without the odd problem or two.