I have just returned after a 3 week stay and had to write a review, whilst it was fresh in my mind. This is a great hotel with great staff at every level. The rooms were clean and cleaned daily. Wonderful selection at breakfast and a very acceptable choice for dinner with fresh vegetables.The fish was always fresh and portions generous. Deserts were superb and fresh fruits were always available. House wine is nice and at an acceptable price. The gardens and pool are delightful and so well kept. Location was very good,with a short walk to the seafront paths, with spectacular scenery at every turn. Funchal is a pleasant downhill walk of about 20 mins. The only slight drawback is dog barking, at different times. I understand the management are attempting to deal with this problem. I will definitely return !

My husband and I spent one week at Hotel Girassol in January. We asked a room with a view to the pool and sea and it was worth doing it. The views were great. We were on 9th floor without any noise. There was only one dog barking in the neighbourhood almost every morning and we heard it very well to our room. But the hotel can do nothing about it.
The breakfast was excellent. The wide collection of fresh bread every morning, very good bacon and scrumbled egg, The fruit salad was the best so far and we have traveled quite a lot.
The staff was nice, only the reception staff could have been more polite. They just did their work but "to do my best" was missing.

We booked into this hotel Easter Sunday 8th April 2012 for 1 week. Thank you to the travel department for choosing such a fabulous hotel.It has left wonderful memories.We enjoyed the food -what a great selection of desserts ! The staff were so professional, helpful and friendly.We loved the lounge and balcony.Everything was so clean and tidy.The only setback was that the bed was very hard and I mean very hard. We enjoyed several walks into Funchal and along by the seafront.We also enjoyed sightseeing on Maderia Island.It was important to my husband and I to be able to come back such a nice homely hotel.

I did not used to write reviews but this time I decided to do so to prevent others from Hotel Girassol. Unfortunately we were totally misled by positive online reviews and decided to stay here. At least, I can help others to choose better.

The hotel is definitely not up to 4-star standard. The overall mood of this hotel resembled us to trade union's hotels from 80s, 70s in Hungary. Furniture, design looked dusty and in some cases even rotting like the lower part of our bathroom door!! There was a terrible smell of blight or whatever in lobbies and even at our room.
I cannot say anything positive about breakfast neither. When comparing the standard to relevant Hungarian hotels, we can say that the choice, the variety and the quality of food here is somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.
Internet was fast but it was not for free! It was a bit of a shock in a 4 starred hotel.

This is not a value for money hotel either comparing room prices to other Funchal 4 star hotels.