Pestana Grand

A nice hotel, but nearer 4 stars than 5. Rooms are large and the hotel is generally spacious but starting to feel a bit 80s. Staff were all pleasant. Food was OK but nothing that special, although the buffet area is a bit congested. Was quite quiet for mid august. No problem with sunbeds. A short taxi ride into Funcal or Camara de Lobos. There is a shopping centre 2 mins walk away up the hill with a large supermarket. Would we stay here again? Probably not, for one single reason. The air conditioning is noisy - too noisy to leave on at night, which is not good in hot weather

Even though we went in mid August the hotel was really quiet which was quite nice. Always easy to find a sunbed and the pool was always quiet. The room was clean, water pressure in the shower was excellent and most the staff were nice. Unfortunately the food was not great which was a real let down. I was so grateful I didn't have to eat all my meals here because we would leave the buffet Hungry. Thankfully the customer service manager was really good and booked us for the a la carte restaurants for dinner for the rest of our stay. The Mediterranean and Moroccan restaurants were good but the Italian wasn't. Given how expensive the hotel was to book I really did expect more from the food. Another issue I didn't bother complaining about as there's not really anything they could do about it was how loud the AC was, which made it quite difficult to sleep. The atmosphere of the hotel feels a little corporate, it lacks warmth. You know sometimes you walk in a hotel and you just feel it's a luxurious 5* place? This isn't one of those. So overall it definitely feels more like a 4* hotel. The old town is only a 10min taxi away which costs about €8 or it's a straight bus ride so the location of the hotel was pretty good. It's also next to the sea, though it's rocky so take swim shoes.

The hotel has some positives, particularly the location and views. The pool areas were clean, and the room itself was fairly average — nothing particularly wrong with it, but nothing that stood out either. Unfortunately, there were several issues that made the overall experience disappointing. During our stay, my child became unwell with what appeared to be food poisoning.(Vomiting and diarrhea) I obviously cannot prove that it came from the hotel, as we did not have it medically confirmed, but the hotel was the only place we ate during the relevant period. The spaghetti bolognese that my child consumed looked questionable on the night in question which understandably raised concerns. I personally saw a member of staff using the same utensil for handling raw and cooked chicken. This is a serious food hygiene concern and, given that my child subsequently became ill, it made the situation particularly worrying. This was raised with management at the time. This happened on the third day of our seven day stay and so we cancelled the half board for the rest of the week. The attitude of some of the bar staff was also disappointing. A few appeared disinterested when serving customers and, on occasions, their manner came across as bordering on aggressive. This really detracted from the overall experience. Overall, the location and views are good, and the hotel has potential, but the food hygiene concerns and poor service from some staff are significant issues that need to be addressed. Based on our experience, I would struggle to recommend staying here at present.