| | Praia Formosa, Funchal, 9000-247, Portugal
diytravel.co.uk unbiased hotel reviews and unique Question & Answer system will help you to decide whether Pestana Bay is the right Funchal accommodation for your holidays. If you are happy with the hotel reviews, make an online hotel reservation. If you are undecided, read more Funchal hotel reviews.
|
Overall Community Rating: |   8.0 (based on 1 user reviews) |
 Pestana Bay: !! by Leo1 |
| Posted 02 October 2005 about a visit in August 2005 | Overall rating: 8.0 |
We had visited Madeira 11 years ago, and had been warned that a lot of building work and major roadways had been built, to the detriment of the Island, but on visiting again in September 2005, we were pleased to see that the “improvements” had not spoilt the island as much as we had anticipated – all the new hotels were “quality and tastefully designed”, and Madeira has certainly avoided the Spanish and Canary Island “tack” which we had anticipated.
We stayed at the Pestana Bay Hotel, which when we visited 11 years ago, would have been approximately 1 mile away from the furthest point of Funchal, the distance now having been fully built up with hotels such as Crowne Plaza Holiday Resort (previously a banana plantation), and many other hotels.
However, we had a very enjoyable week, and would give the Pestana Bay Hotel 9 out of 10.
Good points first:
1. Friendly and Helpful Staff – no-one could be faulted
2. Clean, comfortable room
3. All rooms have a sea view
4. We stayed bed and breakfast, – breakfast was slightly above average for a 4 star hotel – we have had better but have had worse – choice was the same each day. Some variation could have been made – but quality good.
5. Plenty of sunbeds round pool.
6. Room has a proper fridge- invaluable for chilled beer and wine from the supermarket! Quite unusual, even for a good guality hotel.
7. Unusually for Funchal, hotel has direct access to the sea through the swimming pool area, for sea swimming, although the "beach" is totally stones and pebbles. Madeira however is not known for beaches.
8. Vews of sunset in evening are spectacular from hotel balcony - obviously facing the right way!! (See photo from Room 612)
Bad points:
1. Hotel says that it is 4 miles from Funchal. They are not kidding! We went to Madeira on an independent “walking holiday”, and the only blisters and sore feet we had were walking from the hotel to Funchal concrete there and back. The levada and mountain walks we did, one of which was 18 km, when we wore walking boots, proved no problem!
2. Hotel provides a courtesy bus into Funchal. Fine…. Except it doesn`t run after 6.30 pm or on a Sunday!!
3. I understand that the Atlantic Bay Apartments next door are under the same ownership. They are definitely “down market”, but as they share the same amenities, their clients seem to take over the breakfast tables, reserving vacant tables for absent friends, and guests of Atlantic Bay Hotel who go for for breakfast after 8.30 am., find it difficult to obtain a free table as they seem to be all take by the guests of the next door Apartments.
4. This is the killer – (see photo) – next door but one (i.e. next door to Atlantic Bay Apartments), is the Shell Petrol/Diesel Depot. Very scenic.!! To be fair, when you are in the Hotel, you don`t see it, but it makes walking in that direction a no go area! Therefore, to walk, there is only one direction – towards Funchal – 4 miles away!
5. Evening meals in the hotel are expensive for what you get. Checked out evening meal before eating out - a basic salad. In the near vicinity there are 3 fish restaurants, all of which looked to be ok, but there is a very good Italian Pizza/Pasta Restaurant, where we ate each evening
6. There are no shops or bars in the vicinity - there is one
supermarket, which sells everything you need, but certainly no bars which are open during the day.
Don`t get me wrong, although my minus points exceed the plus points – you must appreciate that Madeira is very different from the Spanish/Canary Island/Balearic/Greece/ Turkey etc. hotspots. It is a quality destination, when for the majority of the visitors who know what to expect, my minus points mean nothing….. this Hotel I would recommend for value, situation, friendliness, and cleanliness – if you want night life, English bars, wide screen TV for football, or if you are one of those who go on holiday wearing a British Football shirt and want to eat burgers and chips, – forget Madeira, and forget this hotel – you don`t want them and they certainly won`t want you !!!
We will certainly visit Madeira again – but not this hotel – the only reason being that it is just to far out of Funchal to walk into for an Evening where we like to "people watch", and walk leisurely back to the hotel - there are other quality hotels nearer Funchal.
Incidentally, the courtesy Pestana bus calls in at the next Pestana Hotel which is nearer Funchal, (I believe the "Pestana "Grand". We were glad we were not staying there - considering it is a 5 star hotel and more expensive - heard of "building works next door"...... I will say no more!!
PS Anyone wanting to go on an independent walking holiday to Madeira (all the walks turned out to be easy compared to British standards), check out Madeira Explorers on line. They gave us 10% discount for booking on line, but paying in cash at their office in Funchal, which is in the Lido Shopping complex (can`t miss it). Walking boots are needed for the mountain walks, but trainers would be ok for the levada walks. They collected us from the hotel at 9 am, took us out on the walks, and then returned us to the hotel at approximately 5 pm. We had three great days with them.
Have a good holiday.
This review is the opinion of a diytravel.co.uk user and not of diytravel.co.uk. |
| 4 of 4 users found this review helpful. Did this review help you? |   |
|
 Pestana Bay Reservations |
|
|
Pestana Bay Questions | Have you got a question about Pestana Bay that you want answered before you book online? If our reviews do not contain the information that you need, ask a question and let other visitors tell you the real story!
|
|
