This beach hotel in Santa Cruz (Madeira) is situated directly beside the sea. Funchal is just 15 minutes away, while Funchal airport is only 5 minutes from the hotel. The promenade and the aqua park are also nearby. There are also stony and pebble beaches in the area. The hotel, which was built in 2006, has a total of 262 room on 4 floors, where we feature 4 junior suites suitable for families. The hotel offers a fully air-conditioned environment with spacious lobby, lifts, 24-hour reception, hotel safe, three bars, two restaurants and parking facilities. It has congress centre (890 m²), room and laundry services, as well as a kids club and games room. All rooms with en suite bathroom, balcony, air conditioning, individually adjustable central heating, direct dial phone, clock, satellite TV, CD / DVD player, radio, safe deposit box, hair-dryer, fax / modem connection, minibar, electronic security lock and 24 hour-room service. It offers an outdoor swimming pool for adults and children, indoor swimming pool (for a fee) and spa facilities with Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room / Turkish bath, Vichy room, a gym, studio for classes, 4 massage and treatments rooms, physician's office. The nearest golf course is only 10 minutes away and the hotel provides a golf desk and clubs closet. A breakfast buffet is served each morning. Lunch and dinner may be eaten from a buffet or a la carte. The following are all accepted as methods of payment: American Express, MasterCard and VISA. There is a transfer service to Funchal available.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Modern
Mid-range
Languages Spoken
English, French, Spanish, German and 1 more
Location
Rua Sao Fernando 5, Santa Cruz, Madeira 9100-173 Portugal
Name/address in local language
Vila Gale Santa Cruz
1,570 reviews
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travelers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
Hotel well located next to the village of santa cruz! Fomosnem.casal spend a birthday. We were caught uncomfortable to know that the resident of the island we have to pay tourist tax. Ridiculous! At the level of food is excellent. Restaurant staff are friendly. Room cleaning was done by doing... there was no replacement of bath gel. We didn’t have much when we arrived and we didn’t even get the job.
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Date of stay: November 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Levem toca para a piscina interior
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The hotel was clean and well maintined. Our room was a decent size. All the staff we encountered were approachable and friendly (from the cleaners to the receptonists). The are two outdoor pools, a smaller "paddling type" one with slides for little ones, and a main larger swimming pool. We never had an issue getting sun-loungers (and we went for two together, complete with a small table and a parasol) - although the choice was a bit reduced after 1pm. You could hear the sound of the sea whilst sunbathing around the pool - nice :-) We stayed on a bed and breakfast basis - typical buffet style breakfast but done well with a good selection of fruit, cereals, yougurts, cheese, cold meats, hot breakfast foods and pancakes, breads and pastries. In short, the hotel did everything the brochure said it did. One word of caution, the free hotel minbus into Funchal fills quickly so book early at reception (ideally early the day before) - we found the local public buses really crowded and ended up standing both ways. Although we liked the hotel, and the people we met in Santa Cruz were lovely and welcoming, it is not a large resort and is relatively quiet - we don't like things busy or full of late night bars/nightclubs, but would have liked a little more choice of places to go. You will both hear and see planes on their approach to the airport - but we quite liked this and were awarding marks for the approaches! :-)
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Date of stay: July 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:We travelled with Jet2. No Jet2 Rep visited during our stay - we did notice a Tui lady in reception.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vila Galé Hotéis , General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded Jul 30, 2024
Dear 103, Thank you very much for choosing the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel for your stay in Madeira Island. We were very pleased to read your message about our hotel and team. Your comments are very valuable for us and for our future guests. We look forward to having you back again! Yours faithfully, Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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We stayed here in September with our 9 month old baby. The hotel staff were so friendly and helpful as I had rung up before we arrived and they had already made a note and arranged a travel cot for us in our room. I had to phone down to reception when we arrived to request the kettle again so we could sterilise the baby bottles so if you are travelling with a small baby, you can get one if you need.
The hotel is spotlessly clean everywhere including the rooms. The pools are pretty chilly for young babies but we enjoyed some lovely swimming indoors with him. You have to book the indoor pool and wear a swimming hat. You can take your own or buy at reception for €4.
There are always sun beds available but by the pool it is very quiet, although out of the summer holiday season for kids we didn’t see any other babies and only one other child while we were there so I would say if you are looking for a quiet place to relax, this would be perfect! Maybe more noisy and a bit more going on during the summer holidays for families.
The restaurants and food we couldn’t fault, the only complaint would be how hot it was, the staff told us the air con was broken so I was glad to have my handheld fan with me!! There are high chairs available for babies. The waitresses were all so hardworking and were great with our son.
Santa Cruz also has restaurants and a few bars with a couple of supermarkets and a few shops- again it is a quiet area but does have a kids play area outside by the beach front for children.
We enjoyed our stay very much, it was just sometimes challenging getting around Santa Cruz with a buggy on cobblestones and up the hills- bear this in mind if you come to Madeira with a baby!
Thank you for a lovely first holiday as a family of 3!
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Date of stay: September 2023Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Lucas Aragão, General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded Sep 28, 2023
Dear 878hayleyg, Thank you very much for choosing the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel for your stay in Madeira Island. We were very pleased to read your message about our hotel and team. Your comments are very valuable for us and for our future guests. We look forward to having you back again! Yours faithfully, Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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This hotel is more 3 star than 4 the room advertised and based our booking on were mis advertised by travel company and I am following that up, however the rooms and corridors are carpeted and walls and furniture are dated and tatty and have a horrible aroma, entertainment very poor, all inclusive is shocking we knew about drinks but the basics of water is given by the glass at mealtime and it’s warm, one large complimentary bottle of water on arrival and a mini bar that did not include bottles for all the family, water and ice cold fresh water at that, has never been an issue in all my years of holidays, so this hotel was a disappointment for the basics of water plus the one cocktail daily. The variety of food is shocking the best was the al a carte meal. Pool freezing cold but area was pleasant around the pool. The rocky beach wasn’t for us but we did enjoy watching the planes come and go. Rooms and all inclusive package and variety of food do not make this hotel anywhere near a 4 star.
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Date of stay: August 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vila Galé Hotéis , General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded Aug 15, 2024
Dear Jay, Thank you for your comments. We apologize if we couldn't be up to some of your expectations but let us express our gratitude by thanking you for sharing your comments with us. Your comments are an important tool and only help us to continue our constant pursuit of service improvement by solving those and continue trying to exceed expectations. On our own behalf and on that of the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel team, we hope we have the honour of hosting you again in a near future. Kind regards Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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We were fortunate to stay at this resort for one night when our flight on Azores Airlines was cancelled and, as compensation, they shuttled everyone here. My family of 4 was given two rooms. The rooms were typical hotel rooms with balconies, very decent. The resort has a big pool, a ping pong table, trampoline, and chess board outside. The location is just a few miles from the airport and you can see planes landing. The location is also pretty windy, but the U-shape of the building blocks the wind when outside. There is a promenade to walk along the water and a small park with exercise equipment next door. The little town is very quaint and you can easily explore the streets and visit restaurants. The resort has buffet-style eating in the one restaurant, however, I saw signs that you can order from a menu if preferred. The airline covered our dinner and breakfast at the resort and the food was decent. We’re not fans of buffet dining experiences, but the selection was very large, seating was indoors and outdoors, and they have a character dressed as king trident walking around to say hi and take pictures. They have a calendar of events to participate in, which was very minimal for Easter break, but I imagine it is quite full in the summer. Given the small size of the resort I gave it 4 stars as we had easily done everything in an afternoon and this would not be an ideal place for a longer stay for our style of vacationing (may be perfect for others so take this with a grain of salt). The beds were really good, there was a mini fridge in each room, views were very pretty, employees were nice, food was decent, just a small size.
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Date of stay: April 2023Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vila Galé, General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded May 1, 2023
Dear Bean, Thank you very much for choosing the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel for your stay in Madeira Island. We were very pleased to read your message about our hotel and team. Your comments are very valuable for us and for our future guests. We look forward to having you back again! Yours faithfully, Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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We booked a last minute half term break via Tui. We vowed we would never do an all inclusive again after a disastrous experience with jet two I. Mallorca . But for the price we decided to give all inclusive another go. The hotel is delightful. The staff are friendly, however I would say they need more staff.. the restaurant is more like a dining hall, large and noisy. It’s a buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each service has a cook station. The meat didn’t look very appetising at either service. I tended to stick to the pasta and salads at lunch or dinner and tomatoes and mushrooms for breakfast. In my opinion the food is just passable, but for the price we paid good value for money. The staff made Sure we didn’t have empty glasses of local and quite drinkable wine I enjoyed Sandwiches from The pool snack bar the most. All the staff either in the restaurant, snack bar and the bar were lovey, Worked hard too as clearly there is a shortage of staff. The Spa is lovely and I had a great Pedicure by Christiana and there is a wide choice of treatments on the menu. The indoor pool is lovely, but remember you do need a swim cap . Not in the outdoor pool tho (not sure of the logic there). I had read trip advisors that said the hotel was dirty, there were queues for drinks etc. I found the hotel to be spotless and the queues very small, despite the hotel being very busy. We haven’t experienced the ala cart yet and I’m hoping we won’t be disappointed tonight . The hotel is minutes from the airport, for us it was a plus and I love watching the planes take off or land: other people may not. Don’t forget To book a place On the Mini bus to Funchal All in all we have definitely had value for money. Thank you villa gales
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Date of stay: October 2022Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Breakfast late If possible
If you like wine by the pool bring a plastic goblet
The cups are very...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vila Galé, General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded Oct 28, 2022
Dear SharonS198, Thank you very much for choosing the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel for stay in Madeira Island. We were very pleased to read your message about our hotel and staff. Your comments are very valuable for us and for our future guests. We look forward to having you back again. Yours faithfully, Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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We stayed there for 2 nights due to a flight delay and for us it was not worth repeating. We would have changed hotels if Tui had confirmed to us in black and white that we would be refunded.
The room is very outdated. Wall-to-wall carpet, creaky beds, old furniture, etc. The room was clean. The bathroom was small and the shower in the bath not practical. What was a plus were the large bath towels. The air conditioning in the room barely worked and the minibar did not work.
The food was of poor quality, but since this was organized by Tui, it may be that the hotel could only offer that for the price that Tui wanted to pay. The food was cold and there was hardly any choice. The breakfast was better but also poor quality.
There was a festival going on during the two evenings, so we didn't sleep a wink until 4 am. But the hotel itself cannot do anything about that.
The hotel is close to the airport but the village has nothing to offer so you need a car as there is no good bus service.
We would not recommend this hotel.
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Date of stay: January 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Logeer beter ergens anders
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We we all dog-tired and needing to relax and clean up after our early flight from Lisbon but we're informed by a very inexperienced and unprofessional young lady that our rooms would not be ready until between 15&15:30. That was around 10:30. We were of course able to store our luggage and use their toluets near reception and then we walked along the seaside and town until another more obliging man finally agreed around 14:30 to give us our keys. The rooms were an adequate size and nearby (us and our friends). Clean and well air conditioned. We had only B&B treatment as we wished to discover what the local restaurants and those in nearby towns offered. Buffet breakfast was plentiful though very ordinary . The fresh fruit was the positive exception with the almost always malfunctioning coffee machine running out of milk being the negative. It set one up for a good day of touring anyway. The staff WERE friendly after all and we were able to forgive the bad start. It became very evident that the cleaning staff numbers are far too few as our rooms were always cleaned mid-late 15-17:00 afternoon. Twice we put out the Do Not Disturb and skipped the cleaning cycle. All in all, we would go back.
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Date of stay: March 2023Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vila Galé, General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded Mar 26, 2023
Dear Colm, Thank you very much for your comments about your experience in Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel. We apologize if we couldn't be up to some of your expectations but let us express our gratitude by thanking you for sharing your comments with us. Your comments are an important tool and only help us to continue our constant pursuit of service improvement by solving those and continue trying to exceed expectations. On our own behalf and on that of the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel team, we hope we have the honour of hosting you again in a near future. Kind regards Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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The hotel is really worth the price, well-kept in a modern style. Very clean, rooms cleaned every day. There's really nothing to fault when it comes to the hotel. However, it has a big minus when it comes to free parking at the hotel, unfortunately people outside can park there because it is located close to the beach and it is difficult to find a place for people who rent a car as hotel guests. Of course, there is a paid option: underground parking in the hotel or paid parking spaces next to the hotel on the street in the parking meter. And the last minus is that at the reception during check-in check-in, we were not informed that the minibar in the room, which was stocked with drinks every day, was payable at check-out, we received a bill to pay, which surprised us and not only us but also other guests! Despite this, we would go back there again because the hotel is truly worth recommending.
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Date of stay: February 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We stayed five nights and liked the room - would have preferred a proper big bed not two singles pushed together though. Fridge and air con both worked well and were quiet.
We were all inclusive. There was a decent range of hot and cold food available, at times items on the buffet were Luke warm which was disappointing but the show/grill kitchen was reliably good for fresh hot meat and fish. Staff usually attentive with drinks at dinner and constantly cleaning used tables. Some of the feta/mozzarella cheese was definitely silk tofu as the texture and flavour was not right. Could do with having more vegetarian and vegan options. Not having to pay extra for Magnum ice creams or vodka/rum/whiskey/pop/wine/draft lager was a good call with the all inclusive deal.
The outdoor pool was cold especially when the sun wasn't out, as it is often in shade and wind and isn't heated. There were a lot of sunbeds and umbrellas but these often move in the wind! The children's small pool slides were fun though. Could do with staff clearing the area of plates/glasses/rubbish more though as plastic glasses blow over easily and I fished used face masks out of the pool more than once.
Massage at the hotel spa was decent, no issues with any staff or equipment, if I could change something it would be to have a later shuttle bus back from Funchal than 5.30pm - maybe 9/10pm to reduce drink driving and taxi fares.
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Date of stay: September 2021Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Free car park on site often busy. Bring strong clips/clamps for your sunbed towel. Bring your own...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vila Galé, General Manager at Vila Gale Santa Cruz
Responded Oct 5, 2021
Dear Guest, Thank you very much for choosing the Vila Galé Santa Cruz Hotel for stay in Madeira Island. We are really sorry for the situation and we hope that you are better. As soon as you informed us the situation the room, the reception provided another room and asked you if you are well and if you needed any support. It was replied that it was not necessary. We look forward to having you back again. Yours faithfully, Luis Caldeira (General Manager) Yours faithfully, Luis Caldeira (General Manager)
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Birmingham, United Kingdom12 contributions1 helpful vote
I didn't purchase any soft drinks during my stay but best to ask. Outside hotel, it's a bit hit and miss, some places said yes immediately but could only offer coke or 7up zero sugar
There are more places to choose from in the Santa Cruz area.
PRICE RANGE
$111 - $214 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
vila gale santa cruz hotel santa cruz, vila gale hotel santa cruz, santa cruz vila gale, vila gale madeira
LOCATION
PortugalMadeira IslandsMadeiraSanta Cruz
NUMBER OF ROOMS
262
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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