My partner and I stayed at Hotel Cristal for a week in July 08 and were very impressed.

The hotel is on the top of a cliff, so great views of the rocky coastline and sea, and is a pleasant 20 min stroll into the town centre of Carvoeiro. Within 10 mins walk are two lovely beaches and a handful of restaurants. Centeanes beach is large and bustling and offers watersports. Vale de Covo is smaller and quieter with a large cave on one side. It is accessed via a path beside the Tivoli Almansor hotel- quite hidden but beautiful and definitely worth checking out.

The pool area of the hotel is lovely as you will see from the photos, with plenty of sunloungers and parasols. The rooms are a good size and are kept spotlessy clean by the friendly maid service. Only criticism would be that the balcony was quite small so we didnt use it all that much, despite paying a little extra for a sea view. The breakfast is tasty with plenty of choice. If something ran out there were always staff on hand to fill up. The dining room looks out to the pool area and sea. The hotel is smaller than some others in the area (e.g. the Tivoli and Colina) and I think this, plus the clifftop location, made for a very peaceful stay.

Our favourite restaurant was the Italian 'Villa Medici'. Same price as the rest but the service, food and ambience are a cut above. Ask for a table out the back! I also recommend the 'O'castelo' curry house for good indian food and views across the bay.

I would certainly recommend Hotel Cristal for small groups of adults and couples wishing to chill out in the sunshine, though not sure about young children, disabled or elderly due to number of steps in hotel and down to beaches.

We were allocated a room on a corridor, we were disturbed a lot by banging doors & shouting children running up & down the corridor. At 6.30am in the morning we were awoken by children shouting & running about in the apartment next door. This carried on for about an hour. The Hotel staff were very helpful & allocated us a much quieter room on the fourth floor, which proved to be somewhat of a little haven.

We were disappointed to be told that the transfers to the resort centre would not operate on Good Friday Saturday & Easter Sunday, though I suppose it is understandable over the holiday period. It seemed a bit of a trek to & from the resort centre especially if you were going there both in the day & night plus a lot of the way there was no proper raised pavements just like cobbled sidewalks to walk on right next to the road and sometimes cars were parked there anyway making it more difficult. I thought that it was a bit spooky walking some of the darker sections on a night so may be better to catch a taxi. The resort itself was very nice & charming but probably a bit too quiet for us.

The hotel staff are very helpful, facilities good, recommend the heated indoor pool & jacuzzi & table tennis. Breakfast was good, bacon scrambled eggs, rolls, bread, croissants, cheese, hams, tea, coffee, orange etc.

The hotel left a little box of chocolate sugar coated eggs on Easter Sunday which was a nice touch. Also when we requested an early morning call as we had an earlyish flight, they asked us if we would like some breakfast providing in our room (as was before breakfast started), again a nice touch as not requested but still offered.

Would recommend the Mona Lisa Restaurant just up the road from the hotel for first class Italian food & a bit of amusing banter from the staff.

We had a lovely time at Cristal hotel. The hotel is very clean if a bit dated and the staff very friendly.
We were a family of four and sayed on a halfboard basis .
Breakfast and dinner was buffet style and I would rate as just slightly above average, plus there was lots of choice for the children too.
There is no internet access in the rooms, but there are internet hotspots around the hotel.

We had the usual problem of people hugging the sun beds in the morning, but the pool was very clean .

It is quite close to a very lovely clean beach ( 5 mins walk) and not too far out of the town .


We would go back and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a relaxing holiday.

We stayed at the Cristal Hotel for 7 nights and thoroughly enjoyed it. The rooms were on 2 floors so plenty of space. The whole hotel is spotless, and the rooms were cleaned every day. The staff were very helpful, they were always polite and had a smile! We hired a car for the whole of the stay which we think you need as the resort is a bit out of the way, but we did walk down into the town every evening for shopping and meals out. Although the hotel is quite big it is very quiet and also had indoor pool, jacuzzi and steam room. We would definately stay there again!!