Tropical Sol

I booked our Albufeira hotel rather last minute and really wanted a pool so there were very limited options in my price range that were in a good location (walkable to restaurants/bars etc.). The place is popular with the Jet2, EasyJet, etc. vacation package crowd. The room was fine – apartment style with a kitchenette and large living room area albeit dated with details from the 1980s. The bedroom had two very firm twin beds pushed together that meant you had to visit each other for you know what or fall in the chasm between the beds when they pushed apart. The living room sofa has a trundle so the room can easily accommodate four people. The kitchen equipment seemed geared mostly for making pasta, but the knives were sharp and all of the essentials were provided, except for dish soap and a sponge/scrub brush. Also, there were no shot glasses so we used one of the many egg cups. Who really needs eight egg cups? There were a few broken items but the things we needed fixed were taken care of the next day. The safe was broken but we did not ask the staff to fix that. Staff were friendly to us and we did ask a fair number of random questions. The pool was very dirty when we arrived – scummy from sunscreen and there was trash and wrappers in the kids’ pool along with an unknown brown scum. They did clean it the next day and it was much better after that. They do not provide pool towels and you are not allowed to bring outside food to the pool. In general, they are pretty skimpy on the towels. They will not give you a new one without turning in a dirty one. There is a snack bar at the pool. Prices seemed reasonable but I only had the coffee. Street parking readily available and walking distance to a large grocery store.

Our stay at Tropical Sol was shocking. It began with poor maintenance - a leaking air conditioner, unhelpful reception, and hygiene issues including multiple cockroaches and ants in our room. It escalated into an incident involving a physically aggressive receptionist. After raising concerns, I was followed, blocked from leaving, verbally harassed, and assaulted. We were banned from our room, watched while packing, and left shaken with nowhere to go. This hotel is not safe, particularly for young women. Avoid at all costs.

This hotel is a hotel full of teenagers and I can't say a bad word about any of them, all behaved with maturity, but Jet 2 should however make travelers aware of this, felt like we shouldn't of been there. Its for the youngsters. The hotel was filty and the rooms, on the last night we found cockroaches in our room!! Maria on reception, is so moody, reading other reviews it's not because your young, she seems to just not like anyone. The best thing the hotel could do is hand the hotel over to the people that run the pool bar, best thing about the stay. Also poo in the pool on one day..so won't be going back. Don't be fooled by the 4.5 out of 5 reviews. The hotel is dated and dirty.

Overall the hotel was nice and clean with big rooms but the experience we had with the hotel receptionist was awful. Myself and my 2 friends (22-24) one of which was pregnant arrived at the hotel to be greeted by the rudest staff member Maria. As we were checking in we were given a printed list of rules- the usual things you would expect when staying in a hotel. Maria told us very bluntly that “we best read over these rules as us young ones cause trouble” she reiterated the 3 strikes and your out policy many times. I understand why these rules are in place as young tourists but Maria had already made her mind up about us. As we stood waiting for our key card Maria then accused us “finding something funny” and laughing at her. In shock we made it clear we found nothing funny. We were instantly put on our second strike and told that one more comment from us and we’d be out. (We hadn’t even been handed our key yet). We made it very clear that we were here for a chilled holiday as one of our friends was pregnant and we wouldn’t be drinking alcohol. We then made it to our room and the key didn’t work. I had to then have another interaction with Maria where she questioned what we had done with the card to make it not work (nothing). As I said thank you and walked away she leaned over the counter and shouted “YOUR WELCOME” very angrily obviously not hearing me say thank you. The next few days our every move was watched going in and out of the hotel. We felt very nervous as she had already threatened to put us out over nothing. When at the pool there were older couples that took it upon themselves to reinforce the “no ball games” rules. Again I understand that the rules are there for a reason and for other guesses to relax but there was no lifeguard and no staff members monitoring this. There was a group of young boys- causing no disturbances- not drinking alcohol and not being rowdy that were playing with a pool ball. The guests as mentioned above started causing a scene, shouting and took the ball off these young boys and started taking photos of them to show Maria on reception. This made me feel very uncomfortable again feeling like my every move was being monitored and potentially photographed. These young boys had also said they had the same experience with Maria and were given strike 2 on check in after given the rules to read over. It made me very uncomfortable that if these boys were put out of the hotel for simply playing with a ball that they would have no where else to stay and come to some sort of danger (as this is all you ever hear on the news) I can’t complain about any of the other staff as they were all lovely and accommodating but Maria had really ruined our overall experience. We had payed 100s of pounds each to stay for just 4 nights and felt so disappointed. I feel that as younger traveler's we were instantly labelled as “trouble makers” and not given the same service and respect as older guests. I would not recommend this hot

We had a studio apartment right near the pool, a great location near the poolside snack bar. The snack bar served basic sandwiches and alongside a limited hot selection, really good service and grub. The bar was reasonably priced also, refreshing for a hotel. Our room was basic and clean, desperately needs upgrading though. The bathroom was a bit grim, however, it was clean. We did have an intermittent problem with a drain smell within the bathroom but it was only occasional, the kitchen also was really tired, particularly the halogen job that I didn’t use as it didn’t look that safe to be honest. Along with dodgy silk flowers and melamine furniture it is a bit disappointing. The hotel itself is in fantastic location, we would revisit if they upgraded the rooms,