Hotel Porto Mare, Funchal

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We have only been to Madeira on two previous occasions at the neighboring Eden Mar and the Cliff Bay before this holiday. All three holidays were with the same hotel chain, Porto Bay. Our room was outstanding, spotless throughout and offered us a super sea view. The hotel is in a good position and they also run a free bus service into the centre of Funchal.

It was low season and the hotel clearly wasn't full, but there were enough facilities on offer to keep us entertained throughout our week. Breakfasts were good, with plenty of choice and something for everyone. Evening meals also offered a high standard of food with plenty of variety - unfortunately, because the hotel had so many vacancies there wasn't enough customers around towards 9pm to create any atmosphere and it felt like all the effort that the staff had made to create the buffet was wasted. Although we were on half board, we elected to have 2 of our evening meals in the "Med Restaurant" and take advantage of a 17 Euro credit per person for customers on half board. The food in the "Med Restaurant" was 1st class!

Overall, the good points are the staff, the location, the rooms, public spaces, food choice, food quality, free Wi-Fi, bus to town, TV channels including BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Sky News, BBC World & BBC Entertainment.

I do have 2 niggles to write about - they are minor, but here goes. First, the pool bar plays the same CD's all day long with tracks in the same order - please treat the pool bar to an MP3 player loaded with thousands of tracks/melodies that can be played out on shuffle! Secondly, the evening resident duo goes through the same songs every night, very repetitive and just when they create a good atmosphere with people dancing - they take a break and return with 50% of the customers having left the bar!

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Just got back from Porto Mare Hotel. The hotel is very nice staff very helpful. Rooms very big and very clean.

Swimming pool area very nice and clean. Food very good but second week the food was the same as the first. Food at lunch time at the pool bar was very good but very expensive 48 Euros for 4 sandwiches and 4 drinks. In the brochure it says the promenade is full of shops, bars and restaurants. but there is no shops or bars and about 8 restaurants. And in the brochure it does not tell you how hilly it is. Everywhere you go you have to go up very big hills or lots of steps to get anywhere.

Much cheaper to eat outside at lunchtime. Down in the town there is not much there, the shops were not that good the cable car is really good if you don't mind heights.

Not much to do if you are a family in the hotel, the evening entertainment was not very good and the second week was the same as the first week. If you like the beach we did not find the beach the rep never mentioned it at the welcome meeting.

Overall if you want a quite holiday it's ok but if you want lots to do it is not suitable by the second week we found we were getting bored.

On arrival our suitcases were taken from us and put on a van to be taken to the hotel so they did not come on the coach with us. When we got to the hotel the van was already there but 2 of our suitcases were lost. So not a very good start. but they were found quite quickly, but no idea why they did not come on the coach with us.

Would not go back to the same area again.

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My wife and I recently returned from a one week holiday at the Hotel Porto Mare which we booked to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary. What a marvellous week we had. Wish I could have afforded this exceptional hotel complex on our first honeymoon. In recent years we have enjoyed holidays at numerous good quality hotels in Europe and further afield. The Hotel Porto Mare complex ranks close to the best hotels which we have visited. The hotel complex comprises three major components, Hotel Porto Mare, Eden Mar and Porto Mare Residence. While I believe that we may have been allocated the best room in the hotel (I'm not saying which room this is as I hope to book it again next year) I'm pretty sure that all of the rooms were of a high standard. The bedrooms and all of the public rooms were beautifully furnished, perfectly cleaned and well maintained.

The leisure facilities, pool areas (several outdoor and indoor pools); gardens and lounges were excellent. In fact the pools and gardens formed an oasis within the hotel complex. Personally, I don't think there is a better holiday environment anywhere else in Funchal.

While the hotel is a little way outside the centre of Funchal, it's a fairly easy walk into the town centre with beautiful public gardens along the way. It's also easy and inexpensive to take a bus into town. Usually I judge the desirability of a hotel by the quality of the food and the ambiance of its restaurant. My wife and I booked half board and we weren't disappointed by the food on offer either at breakfast or dinner.

Funchal is a very nice town, with much to see. We were particularly impressed by the way that Funchal has recovered from its recent flooding disaster. Tourists will not be inconvenienced in any way by this event. Well done the people of Funchal. Well done the Porto Mare Hotel and well done Thomson's.

Thanks for a wonderful wedding anniversary holiday. Incidentally, our first honeymoon was enjoyed in Majorca in 1965 on a Thomson Blue Sky's holiday package. Thanks again Thomson's. I'm sorry to tell you that we have no photographs as I forgot to take my camera with me.