My husband and I have just returned from our honeymoon in Sagres. We stayed at Memmo Baleeira for a week, and I can honestly say we loved it.

I'm always a bit wary when hotel websites are as professional as the Memmo one, as all too often they don't live up to the impression they give online. However, in this case the opposite is true - the hotel was everything we expected from our website research.

Our first impressions were good - lots of parking, including many in shady spots. The hotel has a beautiful view out over the harbour and the sea beyond. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived at about 13:00, so we went to the bar for a drink. The bar has a lovely vibe - there are about 12 large white sofas spread around, and the most wonderful view over the harbour. Drinks aren't cheap - we paid €3 for a small beer, and only discovered on our last night that in a bar only a stone's throw from the hotel we could have had a bottle for €1! Live and learn......

Our room was simple but clean and contained everything we needed, but my husband was disappointed not to have tea and coffee making facilities. The small balcony overlooked the pool area, gardens, and then further out the harbour and sea. A beautiful view!

Breakfast was a real treat - we could eat as much as we wanted, and chose from fruit juices, tea, coffee, cold meats, cooked food, lots of fruit, yogurts, bread, croissants, pastries, the list goes on......

We ate in the restaurant once during our stay, and while it was adequate I can say that we had much better meals elsewhere. We would recommend especially Vila Velha, and Bossa Nova (attached to Dromedario on the main street).

Sagres itself is pleasantly quiet. We chose it because we wanted to get away from the Algarve, and experience more of the western corner we'd visited many times on our last trip to Portugal three years ago. It was the right decision - we had a very peaceful, relaxing, enjoyable week, and both of us have agreed that we will be back!

Very nice modern hotel.
Not to miss breakfast.
Great landscapes!
A perfect place to relax and destress.
G.

My daughter and I spent 5 days at the Memmo Baleeira. We found it on the internet and the price was reasonable. We liked the look of it - very sleek and all white (moorish influence).
We arrived mid-morning. I had written several times to see about hiring a taxi from the train station but they never gave me a solid answer. They originally said they could get us a discount but then there was no follow up. We paid 135 euros and they told us we should have only paid 90 or 95. They organized our return taxi as it was at 3:30am and it was 95 euros.

The staff at the front desk was positively humorless. There were no friendly welcomes or smiles We were taken to our room - it was small but very nice. The view over-looked the pool and the marina. The room lacked a mini bar, bottle opener, iron, ironing board. No place in Portugal's hotels did I find an iron and ironing board. At this hotel, you were not allowed to iron in the room and had to pay quite a bit to send your clothes out. The bed had a very good mattress and was very comfortable.

Unfortunately, the weather put a damper on our stay as it was overcast and cool. The sun came out early in the morning and by noon the cluds had moved in. The pool was large with plenty of lounge chairs but there were not any umbrellas to shade from the sun (just in case there was some). Perhaps you had to request them. Cabanas would have been nice. There was no bar or food service at the pool.

The breakfast was very good with a lot of variety. It was probably one of the best ones I had while in Portugal. You could sit inside or outside and the view was very nice.

We ate one time in the hotel restaurant. Unfortunately, we did not read the guide book and did not know that if they offered you an appetizer and bread and sometimes olives - it cost extra. We ended up paying 8 euros extra.

We had an excursion to the beach and found it littered with trash. No one was actually on the beach. We wondered why the hotel did not take responsibility for cleaning it up. It would have extended the enjoyment of the property.

We enjoyed the small gym with its excellent tread mill, sauna and steam room.

There was a very nice lounge room with a huge wall television, books and comfortable chairs. It would have made a cozy area to have a drink or snack. We never saw anyone make use of it.

The bar area was not at all inviting but you could go out to watch the sun set (except when we were there in May - it was too cold.)

The use of the internet was very expensive - one euro for 5 minutes. You could go into the town and eat at a restaurant/bar and use one for free. Most Portuguese hotels we stayed in had ridiculous internet charges.

My daughter and I are both vegetarians and found it somewhat difficult to find meatless dishes. There is a vegetable soup on every menu. It is always a puree and quite different from our vegetable soups. I lived on fruit, bread and olives and the vegetable soup. The larger cities and towns had more vegetarian choices.

The town is within walking distance and you could go out to find meals but mostly local foods. We found one place that served - salads, vegetable soup and wheat crusted vegetarian pizza. The waitress spoke English and was from Ireland. She was very friendly!

There were very few shops and what we did find was of very little interest.

We were able to take a local bus that stopped at every little village and town and go to Lagos. That made for a very good day trip and it had a very interesting old town with lots to see and do.

They offer no shuttle service to any place or to the airport which is an hour and a half away. You really do need a rental car to get around the area and see what is there.

All in all we had a nice and quiet vacation. The views were lovely and the sunsets very nice. I do wish we had chosen a hotel in a larger town with more choices of restaurants and shops.

The hotel is located on a cliff directly above a small beach near the harbour. The view from the sea facing rooms is magnificant and well worth the extra money. Its very peaceful.
The rooms are very light and tastefully decorated and very clean.
The hotel is relatively new and one block of the hotel is still being built but only interior work is being done so it wasn't noisy.
The breakfast buffet was excellent. Dinner at the hotel was nice but not cheap and the dinning room lacks a bit of atmosphere. Sagres has plenty of restaurants in walking distance. Nice pool outside and a small but nice indoor pool. Staff were very friendly.
Only downside was that the soundproofing in the rooms wasn't the best (but I am a light sleeper). On occasions we heard the neighbours.
We happened to have the rainiest week of the whole year there. Supposedly it rains the most in Sagres in April. So if I went again I would probably choose May. Its definitely worth visiting the surrounding beaches, especially towards the North of Sagres.