Penha Longa

We had such an incredible stay at Penha Longa. The property is absolutely beautiful, the food is amazing, and the entire experience felt really special. What stood out most, though, was the staff. The customer service was truly above and beyond. Everyone was so kind, attentive, gracious, and genuinely helpful. We were traveling with two very young kids, and I was blown away by how accommodating and kid-friendly the resort was. They went out of their way to make things easier for us and made our whole family feel so welcome. It’s rare to stay somewhere that feels this luxurious while also being so warm and comfortable for families. Penha Longa really has it all. We loved our time here and are absolutely coming back!

Terrible Ritz Carlton experience! Avoid going there, everything was like a 1 star hotel; they are short of staff, food is nothing special, and service, it is like a 0 star hotel. Our stay was a nightmare, too much noise during the night, we couldn’t sleep at all. Everything took ages, they take several minutes to answer the phone and from there, 45 minutes or more to get what you requested for as simple as towels, bell boy service, and so on. Above all, PLEASE avoid this place if you are looking for a nice hotel and a real Ritz Carlton, they completely lost their reputation here about “ We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”. Definitely a terrible experience above all! So dissatisfied and dissatisfied!

We only were able to spend one evening here, but we enjoyed it tremendously. We stayed in a junior suite which had a lovely balcony overlooking the main pool area. It had stunning views at sunset and throughout the day. I didn’t realize how family focused Ritz Carlton is. That’s absolutely great, but for a couples retreat not exactly what we signed up for. The adults pool was pretty consistent but once the nearby bar closed there was no one to monitor kids coming over to that pool. And the indoor pool area was overrun so the small hot tub, the only one, had 5-6 kids filling it a lot of the time. This was just feet away from a water slide so you can see how peace may be tricky to find. We were greeted with a welcome champagne, although it was very flat. And after check in, we had been given a map and other information about the property but not told where our room was. So we had to walk back and ask. We had also requested a reservation via email, then asked at the desk after we confirmed over email and then got a phone call about making a reservation. It all seemed rather disjointed. The rest of our service experience was fairly mixed during our stay too. The pool attendant was very nice and checked back on us to make sure we had what we needed. Anton bumped into us before our dinner and was amazing. He made sure the restaurant was going to be open still since our reservation seemed late, and he also ended up being our server. He was very kind, explained everything and really was the reason we enjoyed our stay and our evening so much. There are stunning old buildings on the property. There’s also a golf course. But even the indoor bar area didn’t seem to restrict kids. We had an amazing dinner on property which was at AQUA. It seems like this is a summer thing, and I would highly recommend it. We’ll try to post that review there. Breakfast was included and it was a very impressive spread. You had meats, cheese, fruits, pastries, breads, eggs, bacon and sausage and fresh made eggs by someone in the kitchen if you wanted. There was an assortment of juices and coffees too. We went early which allowed us to have a great seat and view of the outside area. By the time we left at 9 there was a line waiting to be seated (although there were plenty of seats, it was just backed up). Our service at breakfast was a little rough. I had to order coffee twice, asked for a take away lid for my coffee and never saw her again and the daily juice she explained was orange and carrot, but it was actually carrot ginger. But given it was a buffet, these were fairly minor issues but not what you’d expect either. This is a stunning property and if you’re going to be there and not necessarily touring Sintra I would highly recommend it. It’s pretty remote, so not that convenient to sightsee.